LEXINGTON — It’s complicated—but Leonard H. Bierbrier insists he prefers life thusly at the age of 71 and marking his retail-centric real estate company’s 40th season by launching Bierbrier Development Co.’s fifth decade staring down an imposing lineup of institu- tional competitors to snag a freshly minted center across from the South Shore Mall in Braintree at a consideration of $41.5 million—the 45,000-sf South Shore Place addi- tion to a portfolio reaching Haverhill but concentrated inside Route 128.

“It was intense, but we were deter- mined and we never gave up and in the end, we came out on top,” Bierbrier tells Real Reporter regarding the hard-fought acquisition of an HFF-list- ed asset which is 100 percent leased to ten- ants ranging from Legal Seafoods, Starbucks and TGIFridays on the dining menu complementing a retail roster featur- ing AT&T and Jos. A. Bank Clothiers. Nine of the 10 finalists were institutions or REITs, and if some did dismiss his firm’s capacity to get the deal done, that is fine with the winning bidder. “We just saw more value in it than they did,” says Bierbrier, whose optimism was shared by Wells Fargo Bank in funding the pact with a $29.6 mil- lion loan, an infusion detailed in a Real Reporter article unveiling the exchange that was posted in early February.

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