Progressive Real Estate Partners has arranged the sale of a former Rite Aid store in Barstow, where a local public college has acquired a freestanding retail building near its main campus. The 17,272-square-foot property is located at 1380 Barstow Rd. and traded for $2.95 million. The seller was described as a Southern California real estate developer, and the single-tenant building was previously occupied by Rite Aid before the transaction.
The property sits at a prominent Barstow location at the intersection of Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. According to information provided with the sale, these two freeways are traveled by approximately 19 million vehicles each year, underscoring the site’s exposure to regional and long-distance traffic. The marketing materials also highlighted that more than 60 million people stop, shop and dine in Barstow annually, positioning the asset within a heavily trafficked corridor.
SVP Paul Galmarini of Progressive Real Estate Partners represented the Southern California developer in the disposition. On the buy side, the local public college was represented by George Okita and Sophia Heimall of California Commercial Real Estate Services. The brokerage teams facilitated the transaction between the private real estate seller and the institutional educational buyer.
Galmarini noted that Progressive Real Estate Partners implemented what he described as a comprehensive, out-of-the-box marketing program to position the property to prospective buyers. He also cited the college’s specific vision for the site as an important factor in moving the deal to closing. According to Galmarini, the college was attracted to the building’s proximity to its main campus, which it viewed as supportive of organic facilities growth.
The transaction converts a former single-tenant drugstore building into a property controlled by a public educational institution, aligning a vacant or former retail asset with an institutional user that values the freeway-adjacent location and connection to an existing campus footprint. While additional details on the college’s specific plans for the building were not disclosed, the change in ownership reflects ongoing interest from non-traditional retail users in well-located, accessible freestanding buildings in regional traffic hubs such as Barstow.
