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5 Major Grocery-Anchored Retail Moves Represent $4.5B
CTO Closes Revised $1B Credit Package To Aid Portfolio Expansion
Federal Buys 870K-SF Alabama Center for $508M
Some Buyers Aren’t Backing Off Small Retail Properties Despite Fed Hike, Says Marcus & Millichap’s Hessam Nadji
Family Dollar Sells 47 Stores in $74.7M Sale-Leaseback
Joann Tops List of Former Tenants at Spirit Halloween Stores
5 Major Grocery-Anchored Retail Moves Represent $4.5B
Placer.ai research director Elizabeth Lafontaine told C+CT the pending $2.3 billion acquisition of Slate Grocery REIT by Brixmor and Everview Partners, announced on Monday, highlights the grocery sector’s standing as a “pillar of strength across retail.” Data bears that out: As of mid-2026, grocery-anchored shopping centers had posted their strongest valuations in decades, according to HB Capital.
Recent capital activity underscores that strength. Hyperion and GCM Grosvenor plan to assemble a $1 billion portfolio of primarily grocery-anchored neighborhood, strip and community centers; Northwestern Mutual will help Phillips Edison monetize a $377.5 million portion of its grocery-anchored portfolio; and Edens has raised $850 million for acquisitions, development and redevelopment.
Brixmor and Everview Will Divide Ownership of Slate Grocery
C+CT reported the details of the Slate Grocery deal on Monday. In short, Brixmor will buy 3 million square feet of grocery-anchored centers in the U.S. — primarily in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas — while the REIT and affiliates of Everview Partners will purchase Slate Grocery’s remaining 12 million square feet. Those assets will add to Brixmor’s owned and operated portfolio of nearly 350 open-air centers.
Matthews senior vice president Pierce Mayson said the deal is a “great fit” for Brixmor, adding high-quality grocery-anchored properties to its portfolio in key Southeast markets. The acquisition “is a testament to the strength of the grocery-anchored sector and speaks to how competitive it is in the marketplace,” said Mayson. “Investors continue to struggle to compete for grocery-anchored assets in the Sun Belt on a one-off basis and are resorting to pursuing larger portfolios off-market to limit the competition and deploy larger slugs of equity in a less-competitive bidding forum.”
Due to the high cost of ground-up development, the market continues to lack new supply despite greater demand from retailers, Mayson said. That scarcity lifts the value of well-located retail centers, enabling landlords to raise rents over time and boost net operating income, he said. Amid that scarcity, Lafontaine expects no letup in grocery-anchored transactions. “The grocery-anchored footprint is likely to grow as retailers become hyperfocused on localization and selecting new markets for expansion,” she said. “These centers align with changes in consumer behavior and shopping preferences, bringing a variety of retail types closer to consumers.”
SIMILAR-SCALE DEAL IN JUNE: TPG-Led Investors Acquire ECHO Realty in $2B Grocery-Anchored Retail Acquisition
Hyperion, GCM Grosvenor Target $1B of Middle-Market Grocery-Anchored Centers
Shortly before the Slate acquisition was announced, investment manager Hyperion and asset manager GCM Grosvenor formed a partnership to assemble a $1 billion portfolio of neighborhood, strip and community centers. The platform will launch with an investment of as much as $100 million from GCM Grosvenor, on behalf of its investment funds, into a new closed-end vehicle targeting $200 million of equity.
Hyperion Grocery Retail Partners III will focus on value-add, grocery-anchored centers in the West, targeting middle-market properties that traditionally have drawn less competition from institutional investors. The fund will bring aboard other investors to build the portfolio, the founding partners said. Hyperion owns and operates 10 shopping centers along the West Coast. GCM Grosvenor has about $97 billion in assets under management, including real estate.
Northwestern Mutual Will Help Phillips Edison Monetize $377.5M of Grocery-Anchored Centers
An expansion of a JV between Phillips Edison & Co. and Northwestern Mutual will buy a $377.5 million portfolio of 13 grocery-anchored centers currently owned and operated by PECO. Northwestern will retain an 86% stake in the JV, named Grocery Retail Partners I LLC, and PECO will own the remaining 14%. Once the JV expansion wraps up, Phillips Edison’s unconsolidated JV portfolio is expected to include more than 40 shopping centers collectively valued at roughly $1.2 billion. More property transfers are on track to be carried out by early 2027, Phillips Edison said. As of June 30, the REIT managed 330 shopping centers, including 302 wholly owned properties and 28 JV-owned properties.
Edens Wraps Up $850M Equity Raise From Institutional Investors
Edens, which owns, operates and develops retail properties, just completed an $850 million equity raise from institutional investors. The money will go toward acquisitions, development and redevelopment. While Edens raise is not exclusively a grocery player, grocery remains central to the company’s portfolio, with 87% of its 93 open-air and mixed-use centers grocery-anchored, a spokesperson told C+CT.
Edens owns 93 open-air and mixed-use properties in the U.S., including the Whole Foods-anchored Gateway Shopping Center in Austin, Texas. Photo above and at top courtesy of Edens
Edens owns and operates 93 open-air and mixed-use properties in the U.S. with a gross value of roughly $7.4 billion, including the recently acquired 179,376-square-foot Village at Camp Bowie in Fort Worth, anchored by Sprouts Farmers Market, and the 263,000-square-foot Forum in Carlsbad, California, anchored by specialty grocer Jimbo’s. Edens also is redeveloping an Atlanta mall into a 2.5 million-square-foot mixed-use property with 320,000 square feet of retail, anchored by Publix, and 1,800 residential units.
CTO Closes Revised $1B Credit Package To Aid Portfolio Expansion
CTO Realty Growth, which owns and operates open-air shopping centers, has closed a $1 billion revised, unsecured loan package that will help grow its portfolio. The credit facility adds two $150 million loans, increases two loans from $125 million to $150 million each and includes $400 million in revolving credit. Some of the proceeds were used to pay off a $300 million revolving credit facility and two $100 million loans. CTO senior vice president and CFO Philip Mays said the updated credit facility extends debt maturities and boosts total commitments by $250 million. He said that will help finance expansion of CTO’s portfolio, which spans 5.8 million square feet across 22 properties. CTO’s tenants include Dick’s, Best Buy, Burlington, TJX Cos. and Barnes & Noble. The REIT generated revenue of nearly $150 million in fiscal year 2025, which ended Dec. 31.
Federal Buys 870K-SF Alabama Center for $508M
Federal acquired a roughly 870,000-square-foot mixed-use center in the Birmingham, Alabama, market from the original developer for $508 million. The Summit, a 100-acre development built over more than 30 years, is the most-visited retail destination in Alabama, according to Placer.ai data cited by Federal, and draws nearly 9 million visitors per year from a trade area that stretches 100 miles in each direction. The Summit’s more than 110 tenants include Apple, Trader Joe’s, RH, Nordstrom Rack, Alo Yoga, Sephora and North Italia. The center, opened by Bayer Properties in 1997, is 92% occupied. With the acquisition, Federal’s portfolio, including open-air and mixed-use centers, now includes 103 properties totaling 28.8 million square feet.
Some Buyers Aren’t Backing Off Small Retail Properties Despite Fed Hike, Says Marcus & Millichap’s Hessam Nadji
The Federal Reserve’s recent interest-rate hike may keep some real estate buyers on the sidelines, but Marcus & Millichap CEO Hessam Nadji said that’s not deterring certain acquirers of small retail properties. Entrepreneurial buyers and capital-armed landlords are among those fueling purchases of single-tenant net lease properties, strip centers, small neighborhood centers and similar properties, Nadji said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. Some all-cash buyers are targeting assets priced 20% to 30% below their peak values, with the size of the discount varying by property type, he said. Those buyers may find more willing sellers as impatient property owners who spent three years waiting for a “Fed miracle,” are listing their properties now.
Family Dollar Sells 47 Stores in $74.7M Sale-Leaseback
An institutional real estate investor acquired 47 Family Dollar stores in a $74.7 million sale-leaseback deal. The seller was FD Retail Properties, a real estate arm of discount retailer Family Dollar. The stores span nearly 388,000 square feet across 19 states. Earlier this year, FD Retail Properties sold 46 Family Dollar stores to an institutional investor in a $75 million sale-leaseback. Family Dollar operates more than 7,000 stores nationwide.
A Family Dollar location in St. Petersburg, Florida. Family Dollar has sold 93 stores this year in sale-leaseback deals valued at nearly $150 million. Photo credit: Del Harper - stock.adobe.com
FROM THE C+CT ARCHIVE: Dollar Tree Is Selling Family Dollar for $1B
Joann Tops List of Former Tenants at Spirit Halloween Stores
Slimmed-down or bankrupt retailers represent the 10 most common former tenants of stores temporarily occupied this season by Spirit Halloween. An Axios analysis of this year’s roughly 1,500 Spirit Halloween locations found 595, or 40%, are in such stores. Axios based its analysis on data from Spirit Halloween’s online store-locator tool.
By John Egan
Contributor, Commerce + Communities Today