A real estate investment trust with a retail focus bought a sprawling Royal Palm Beach shopping plaza for $96.75 million in Florida's biggest retail deal in more than two years.

InvenTrust Properties Corp. through an affiliate bought the 346,200-square-foot Southern Palm Crossing mall on the north side of Southern Boulevard from an affiliate of ShopCore Properties, a Chicago-based retail owner-operator affiliated with the Blackstone Group LP.

The shopping center constructed in 2006 sits on 50 acres at 11001 Southern Blvd. Major tenants include Costco and a joint Marshalls-HomeGoods store. It also has a Stein Mart department store, which will be replaced next year by a 24 Hour Fitness. Smaller tenants include Starbucks, Panera Bread, Outback Steakhouse and BB&T.

InvenTrust Properties Corp., based in Downers Grove, Illinois, has a portfolio of 73 mainly shopping centers across the U.S. with a value of $3.5 billion, according to its website.

The purchase price, which breaks down to $279 per square foot, beats the previous statewide record for a single-asset retail property,a standard coincidentally set by InvenTrust in February 2017 when the REIT bought two adjacent Pembroke Pines shopping plazas on Pines Boulevard for a combined $163 million. But each sold for less than the $96.75 million Southern Palm Crossing price for a single-asset transaction.

“It is not often a premier property such as this is available with a Costco on a lease as well as such an exceptional and diversified tenant lineup,” Christopher Covey, InvenTrust senior vice president of transactions, said in a news release.

Working for the seller, the CBRE Inc. national retail partners team led by executive vice presidents Dennis Carson and Casey Rosen, both based in Miami, confirmed the transaction is the new record-holder.

InvenTrust's other South Florida assets are the PGA Plaza in Palm Beach Gardens and Boynton Commons in Boynton Beach.

This is at least the second disposition this year by Blackstone of a major South Florida retail asset. In June, ShopCore sold Doral Plaza in Doral for $70 million.

Related stories: