The Carbon Plaza Mall in Lehighton has been sold to a New Jersey developer for $18 million.

Colliers International team members Colliers team Jeff Algatt and Scott Horner recently completed the investment sale of the 210,000-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center at 1241 Blakeslee Blvd. Drive E on behalf of their Delaware-based private capital Seller.

Derek Zerfass, senior vice president, Colliers International, said Friday afternoon that he represents the buyer, who does business as Larken Associates, a private equity investor and developer based in central New Jersey.

“They’re basically buying it as an opportunity to purchase an asset. They love retail and they love (buying) properties when they feel like they could kind of take them to the next level,” Zerfass said. “Their plan is to take the center for what it is and improve on it; I don’t know that the exact improvements are known yet.”

Zerfass added, “It’s always going to stay a retail center; that’s always going to stay there.

“Their goal is to make this a strong retail property; part of their process in evaluating the new property is to look at it and see what they can do to make it a stronger retail center and mall, and what that is, it could be a lot of different things. I don’t know if they even know at this time.”

Zerfass said Larken Associates spent some time getting to know the area beforehand.

“Larken Associates felt it was a great place for a growing community, and a place they wanted to invest in and kind of be a part of,” he said. “The businesses do very well there; it’s a healthy center there, and there’s a lot of exciting things going on there in Lehighton.

“Basically, they’re going to eventually do their own due diligence, but what they can do to make it even stronger.”

The Colliers leasing team led by Horner will continue as leasing agent for the buyer.

The 34-acre property is 95% leased to a solid roster of national, regional and local tenants led by a 74,000-square-foot Giant supermarket (Ahold Delhaize USA), McDonald’s, Rite Aid, Arby’s, Taco Bell, Big Lots, First Commonwealth Federal Credit Union, Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke’s University Health Network.

“Our team and platform enabled us to quickly generate multiple buyers looking at this opportunity, and ultimately, we selected a seasoned investor offering an $18 million all cash, no financing purchase with an aggressive due diligence and closing schedule,” Algatt said. “This allowed us to meet our seller’s objectives of both a top of the market price and a closing before the end of 2021.”