Selling 4 Retail Condos for KB Home in Castro Valley, CA: An Intro to a Case Study_Tim Vi Tran_Season 1, Episode 31

What do you do when a national homebuilder entitles a mixed-use project… but gets stuck with four small commercial condos that hardly anybody seems to know how to sell?

KB Home, a publicly traded residential developer, had completed an 80-unit mixed-use project  in Castro Valley, California. As part of the city’s requirement, the development included four ground-floor retail condos. But these were cold-shell units: bare-bones spaces without finished interiors, HVAC, connected water meters, or lighting buildout.

To read it as a 1-min intro

To watch it as a 2-min video

For many brokers, that kind of product looked difficult. Too niche. Too complicated. Too hard to price. Too long to sell. And the deal size was small: All four units together totaled only about $1.8 million.

But The Ivy Group saw something else. Instead of discounting the units just because they were part of a mixed-use requirement, they saw the scarcity of new small-format retail condos, and recognized that the right buyers would see real value.

 

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The Ivy Group priced it more aggressively, and marketed the units with a “buy one, or buy all four” approach.

Within weeks, multiple offers for all four units came in. Four buyers were secured. Three deals moved forward normally.

But the fourth deal became far more complicated than expected: There were multiple buyer reassignments, immigration issues that disqualified a routine SBA loan, federal government shutdown delays, and a looming rule change that could have derailed the deal.

The Ivy Group secured an all cash backup buyer, coordinated with the buyer, the lender, and KB Home. They pivoted the loan strategy, and secured the loan just before the effective date of the new rule.

In the end, all four retail condos sold. The pricing was held. Both the seller and the buyers were protected.

KB Home saw firsthand what happens when commercial real estate is handled with strategy, persistence, expertise, and real solutions to problems. They were so pleased with the result that they referred more deals to The Ivy Group.

That is how The Ivy Group builds long-term relationships: delivering above-and-beyond results, regardless of the deal size.

About The Ivy Group

The Ivy Group specializes in commercial sales, leasing, and investment advisory across Fremont, Silicon Valley, and the Greater Bay Area. With over 100 years of combined experience, expertise and designations including SIOR and CCIM, The Ivy Group provides strategic guidance for complex transactions in commercial real estate.
When you need to sell, buy, or lease, The Ivy Group is ready to help you reach your goals. 

Contact us at TheIvyGroup.com for your CRE needs.

Disclaimer:

All information shared here in this article, and in all blogs, case studies, and courses offered by The Ivy Group are for general education only, not as tax, legal, or investment advice. Please seek professional advice from tax, accounting, legal, and other professionals.

Copyright © 2026 by Tim Vi Tran, SIOR, CCIM. All rights reserved.