How a Real Estate Bargain Slipped Right Under the Nose of a Highland Park Resident

Imagine for a minute that you live on Aldama Street, which winds its way through some of the leafiest residential hills and flats of Highland Park and shares its name with one of the neighborhood's most prominent elementary schools.

Now imagine that you're an investor in commercial real estate and an eye-catching beer and wine market, replete with a liquor license, is for sale on Aldama for just $220,000, about four blocks south of York Boulevard.

Finally, imagine that you rush to buy the residential-area market, only to discover that it's in escrow—and you feel like kicking yourself for not having known earlier that this bargain of a property had been listed.

That, in a nutshell, is how Aldama Street resident Katrina Alexy has been feeling lately after the liquor license-equipped Paola Market, located on 5661 Aldama St., went on the market, stayed there for around two weeks and then slipped into escrow, somehow all unbeknownst to her.

The listing was first reported on the Eastsider L.A., where Alexy read about it.

"I wanted to buy this place," she told Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch while driving up Aldama on Friday. "It's not easy to get a business with a liquor license."

According to Max Lee, a real estate agent with Masters Realty Group Inc., the 1,281-square-foot Paola Market listing on LoopNet received a $300,000 bid in cash about two weeks ago and is currently in escrow. Lee wouldn't say who the buyer is, but did confirm that it's someone local who lives in Highland Park.

We're not sure if that's any consolation to Alexy, but we do wish her better luck next time in spotting lucrative commercial deals.