Fayetteville’s Banks Crossing Shopping Center has a new owner, who has some big plans for the pre-Pavilion retail area.

Retail center turnaround specialist Lamar Companies has paid $23.15 million for the center, anchored by Kroger, JCPenney and Guitar Center, according to Crefeed.com, the Internet component of Commercial Real Estate Deal News.

Lamar Cos. focuses on mid-sized shopping centers of at least 100,000 square feet throughout the U.S., according to its website.

“We go in and take what used to be an eyesore and turn it around,” President Mark Kalkus said on the company’s website. “We bring troubled shopping centers back to life, and it’s a niche that a lot of our competition cannot fill.”

The 35-year-old company owns and manages more than $250 million worth of assets, and has rehabilitated more than 95 commercial properties, the website says.

Three of Lamar’s recent projects include Tilghman Square in Allentown, Pa., Washington Park Plaza in Dayton, Ohio, and Scotland Crossing in Laurinburg, N.C.

(Part of the information on the company’s website was quoted from an article in “Construction Today,” April 2007.)

In its own brochure, Lamar Cos. says it “acquires retail shopping centers capable of realizing significant income growth through the aggressive implementation of a redeveloping, re-tenanting, re-merchandising and refinancing plan in conjunction with the immediate demographic and retail marketplace, preferring those with an existing positive cash flow.”

Lamar described itself as “a cash buyer,” and said it typically acquires and retains a property for three to five years, adds “significant value,” and then resells it.

The company is number 75 on a list of the top 100 owners and managers of retail real estate in the U.S., with 23 properties totaling 3.4 million square feet.

Lamar said the company usually locates a management and leasing office onsite.

The company’s website lists the Banks Crossing center — with 256,930 square feet of retail space — as containing JCPenney, Kroger, Guitar Center, Farmer’s Furniture and Monkey Joe’s, with a 1,200-square-foot former restaurant space available for rent.

The previous owners, AIG Baker, noted the center had recently undergone “a complete ‘facelift’ of the façade [as] part of the overall redevelopment. This renovation includes new and repositioned pylon signage, upgraded parking lot, striping and lighting, and a new landscaping plan to maximize site lines and storefront visibility.”

The deal was brokered by Joe Montgomery and Tony D'Ambrosio of Colliers Spectrum Cauble, headquartered in Boston, Mass.

Banks Crossing was one of the first large retail centers built in Fayetteville several years before the mega-development at the Pavilion a mile north.

The center once was anchored by a Belk, which moved to the Pavilion, and by Kmart, which closed. The old Kmart space is now occupied by retailer JCPenney.