Joe’s Crab Shack Completes Sale Leaseback of 29 Restaurants

Memphis Daily News - April 12, 2007

A local Joe’s Crab Shack site is among 29 that have been bought by Princeton, N.J.-based Sovereign Investment Co.

The private principal equity investment firm, working under the name Sovereign JCS II LLC, paid $2.5 million for the Joe’s real estate at 7990 Horizon Blvd. in The Commons at Wolfchase shopping center. In conjunction, a $2.8 million loan was filed through BMO Capital Markets Corp. The seller was J.H. Whitney Capital Partners Inc. under an entity named Joe’s Crab Shack Real Estate Holding Inc.

The restaurant was among 120 Joe’s affected by a 2006 sell-off by Joe’s parent company Landry’s Restaurants Inc. Of the 120, the 29 in the Sovereign portfolio include all the locations for which Joe’s parent company owned the sites, said Sovereign’s vice president of acquisitions Barry Bain, emphasizing the purchase included only the real estate on which the restaurants are located. “The others were already leased stores (and) these were the only remaining 29 which the real estate was owned, so we purchased the real estate and leased it back to them on a long-term basis,” Bain said.

“We’re going to be selling some of the locations to retail investors, 1031 exchange buyers. ... (The Memphis) one will be sold as well eventually, probably within the next 12 months,” he said. Sphere: Related Content