Former Ukrop’s grocery property in Fredericksburg area sells for $2. 2 million

A former Ukrop’s grocery store property that has been vacant for nearly eight years has sold for $2.2 million to a local private investor.

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, which announced the sale, said the 63,000-square-foot former store at 4250 Plank Road in Spotsylvania County has been vacant since Ukrop’s closed the store in 2010 after the company was sold.

W.T.F.H.I.D LLC purchased the six-acre site from Cedar-Fredericksburg UK LLC. , a subsidiary of Cedar Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust.

Thalhimer handled the sale negotiations on behalf of the seller and will represent the new owner on the leasing. According to James Ashby IV, a senior vice president at Thalhimer who heads the firm’s retail group, the property – close to Interstate 95, is drawing lots of interest. “There are not a lot of options along the Route 3 corridor in the 20,000 to 60,000-square-foot ranges,” he said.

Asked why the property remained vacant for so long, Ashby explains that Ukrop’s had a long-term lease obligation to fulfill and was paying rent to the previous owner. Now that the property has been sold and is under new ownership, “we are talking to several tenants interested in leasing the entire space as well as two users who are interested in leasing half of it.”

So far, Ashby says he has heard from two office suppliers, a couple of gyms, a pet store and a home goods retailer.  The building is 21 years old.