More Than 5M SF in Retail Deals, a $615M Mall Refi, a $4.8B Mixed-Use District for D.C. and More

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More Than 2M SF of Retail Space Trades Hands
Town Lane Acquires ShopOne and its 27-Property Grocery-Anchored Portfolio
Simon and TIAA Secure $615M Refi for The Florida Mall in Orlando
$3.2B D.C. Stadium To Anchor $4.8B Mixed-Use District
Brick-and-Mortar Footprints Shift for Goodwill, Natural Grocers and Eddie Bauer
Cushman & Wakefield Names Bryan Doyle COO of Americas Capital Markets
Cafaro Promotes Esther Buschau to CMO

Investment capital continues to target necessity-based and high-performing neighborhood retail, underscoring confidence in the sector’s fundamentals. Blackstone is using a CMBS loan to finance its purchase of a grocery-anchored Texas portfolio, while Asana Partners is expanding its footprint through acquisitions in California and Texas.

Blackstone Affiliate Uses $331M CMBS Loan for $432M Grocery-Anchored Portfolio Purchase in Texas

An affiliate of alternative asset manager Blackstone is taking out a CMBS loan to help finance its $432.3 million purchase of a 16-property grocery-anchored portfolio in Texas. Commercial real estate firm Global Fund Investments sold the portfolio in December. Proceeds from Blackstone’s $331.2 million floating-rate, interest-only loan, which is expected to close on March 4, will be coupled with $110.3 million in equity to cover the purchase price plus $9.2 million in closing costs, according to Fitch Ratings. The nearly 1.9 million-square-foot portfolio comprises 11 grocery-anchored centers in the Houston metro, four in Dallas-Fort Worth and one in the San Antonio metro, according to Commercial Search. Grocery anchors include H-E-B and Kroger, Bloomberg reported.

MORE FROM C+CT: A Grocery-Anchored Hotspot

Asana Partners Buys Over 540K SF of Neighborhood Retail in California and Texas

We’re less than two months into the new year, and retail real estate investment firm Asana Partners has already gone on a shopping spree. Asana recently purchased three retail centers totaling more than 540,000 square feet in California and Texas. The first of the three acquisitions was the 79,108-square-foot Gateway Center in Mission Viejo, California, which Asana bought from DJM Capital for $51 million.

Asana also acquired the 253,234-square-foot Seacliff Village grocery-anchored center in Huntington Beach, California, for $151 million from Barings. Lastly, the company bought the 210,197-square-foot Arboretum open-air center in Austin, Texas, from WPG, the Austin Business Journal reported, for an undisclosed purchase price.

In a statement provided to the Austin Business Journal, Asana managing director of investments Brad Kantrowitz said the firm’s acquisition strategy focuses on owning “some of the best neighborhood retail in the country.” According to Asana’s website, the firm’s portfolio comprises 10.3 million square feet of leasable retail space.

Investment manager Town Lane is emerging as a major player in grocery-anchored retail. Founded just two years ago with a $1.25 billion investment fund, Town Lane has acquired ShopOne Centers and its 27 grocery-dominated retail portfolio from private markets firm Pantheon. The purchase price for ShopOne and its more than 2.6 million-square-foot portfolio wasn’t disclosed.

The portfolio spans 14 states, with the largest concentrations in Florida and Georgia at five centers each, followed by North Carolina with four, Pennsylvania with three and Virginia with two. Anchors include Aldi, Food Lion, Giant, Kroger, Lidl, Publix, Raley’s and Walmart, with property sizes ranging from the 218,407-square-foot Publix-anchored Midway Plaza in Tamarac, Florida, to the 34,589-square-foot Goodnoe’s Corner in Newtown, Pennsylvania. The Town Lane deal comes four years after ShopOne formed a joint venture with Pantheon targeting more than $1 billion in grocery-anchored acquisitions.

Simon and TIAA Secure $615M Refi for The Florida Mall in Orlando

Retail REIT Simon and financial services giant TIAA have secured a $615 million refinancing loan for The Florida Mall in Orlando, according to Fitch Ratings. Proceeds from the two-year, floating-rate, interest-only loan are going primarily toward refinancing $600 million in CMBS debt. A Simon-TIAA joint venture owns the 1.8 million-square-foot super-regional mall, one of the country’s largest retail centers.

$3.2B D.C. Stadium Will Anchor $4.8B Mixed-Use District

The National Capital Planning Commission, a federal agency that signs off on major projects in the U.S. capital, gave generally positive reviews on Feb. 6 of the initial design concept for a $3.2 billion roofed stadium in Washington, D.C., that’ll be surrounded by a $4.8 billion mixed-use district. The Washington Business Journal reported that commissioners praised the preliminary neoclassical design plan but pushed for more Greek- and Roman-inspired architectural elements.

According to an economic and fiscal impact analysis released in 2025 by advisory and planning firm CSL International, preliminary plans call for the stadium’s mixed-use district to feature nearly 6,500 multifamily units, over 375,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, almost 520,000 square feet of office space and 800 hotel rooms. The buildout of the mixed-use district will take roughly seven years. It’s estimated that construction of the HKS-designed, 70,000-capacity stadium — which will host home games of the NFL’s Washington Commanders and more than 200 other events each year — will start in 2027 and be completed in 2030.

The venue will rise on the site of the former RFK Stadium, a 65-year-old structure that hosted its final NFL game in 1996, held its last event in 2017, closed in 2019 and is now nearly demolished.

MORE FROM C+CT: Where Fans, Food and Foot Traffic Meet: Stadium Districts’ Retail Appeal

Goodwill is growing its network of thrift stores and Natural Grocers is adding more locations, while outdoors retailer Eddie Bauer is shedding stores following its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Goodwill Plans 50 to 100 New Thrift Stores in 2026

Buoyed by record-high revenue of more than $7 billion in 2025 amid greater demand for low-price merchandise, the Goodwill thrift store chain plans to add 50 to 100 new stores in North America this year, The New York Times reported. In a Modern Retail interview, Goodwill Industries International COO David Eagles put the projected number of new stores in 2026 at 100, with many of them adopting large formats. Goodwill, a nonprofit, operates more than 3,400 stores in North America.

MORE FROM C+CT: Surprise! Unanchored Strip Centers Are Popular With Investors

Natural Grocers Targets Steady Store Expansion of 4% to 5% Per Year

Natural Grocers, a natural and organic retailer, aims to grow its new-store count by 4% to 5% annually “for the foreseeable future,” co-president Kemper Isely said during the chain’s earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which ended on Dec. 31. In the current fiscal year, Natural Grocers plans to open six to eight new stores, including its first location in Wisconsin. Natural Grocers operates 168 stores in 21 states.

Outdoor apparel retailer Eddie Bauer’s U.S. and Canadian brick-and-mortar operating company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday and has started closing its 175 full-line and outlet stores as it seeks a buyer for all or part of the business. Eddie Bauer said in court documents that closings will continue for stores that don’t end up being sold to a new owner. Catalyst Brands, whose portfolio includes JCPenney, manages Eddie Bauer’s North American operations, while Authentic Brands Group licenses Eddie Bauer’s North American brick-and-mortar rights to Catalyst.

Among the reasons Eddie Bauer cited for the bankruptcy filing were debt struggles, declining sales, shifting consumer preferences and tariff implications.

MORE FROM C+CT: JCPenney Merges With the Operator of Brooks Brothers and Eddie Bauer

Cushman & Wakefield Names Bryan Doyle COO of Americas Capital Markets

Commercial real estate services provider Cushman & Wakefield has hired Bryan Doyle as COO of capital markets in the Americas. He most recently was managing director of capital markets and head of the private client program at CBRE, where he founded and grew a capital markets team that generates business leads through tech-enabled efforts.

Shopping center developer Cafaro has promoted Esther Buschau to CMO. Buschau joined Cafaro in 2000 as a regional marketing director and was elevated to director of corporate marketing in 2003.