ASHEVILLE – An East Asheville shopping center sold for $45 million in early August, placing a massive 120,000 square foot shopping mall along South Tunnel Road under new ownership. It is the largest real estate sale in Buncombe County in 2025 so far, according to county property records.
The shopping mall at 4 South Tunnel Road, known as Asheville Markets, includes a Whole Foods and Guitar Center. It sold for $45,700,000 on Aug. 8, transitioning the property from Asheville Marketplace Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of the medical malpractice insurance company The Doctor’s Company, to IVT Asheville Market LLC, a subsidiary of InvenTrust Properties.
The property was rezoned by Asheville City Council in 2021 to “Urban Place,” a form code developed to encourage high density, transit-oriented development in key areas in the city. While other property owners had sued the city, creating more options for their rezoned properties, the previous owners of Asheville Markets did not seek to sue the city and did not receive the same options offered by a 2024 settlement in that suit…