Cohen & Steers REIT Acquires Dallas Shopping Center

Cohen & Steers Income Opportunities REIT Inc. has acquired nearly half of the Marketplace at Highland Village, an approximately 451,000-square-foot open-air community shopping center in Dallas.

The acquisition was made through a programmatic joint venture with Sterling Organization, a real estate investment firm with extensive expertise in shopping centers in the U.S.. This is the first investment for CNSREIT and is said to highlight the investment vehicle’s initial focus on well-anchored, necessity-driven shopping centers.

The portion acquired by CNSREIT totals almost 207,000 square feet and includes such major tenants as TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, LA Fitness, DSW and Petco. It’s about 93 percent occupied.

The Marketplace at Highland Village was built in 2006 and reportedly benefits from both being in a rapidly growing high-income submarket and the presence of the submarket’s only Walmart Supercenter.

In a prepared statement, CNSREIT CEO James Corl, who is also head of the Private Real Estate Group at Cohen & Steers, said, “Dallas Fort-Worth is expected to be the fastest growing U.S. metro over the next five years, making it an ideal example of a growing Sun Belt city that has benefited greatly from supportive economic policy leading to increased corporate and population growth.”

Corl also referenced Cohen & Steers’ long history of working with Sterling on shopping center investments.

Metroplex retail market holding steady

The Dallas–Fort Worth metro saw a surge of retail deal flow in the second half of last year.

•  CBRE Investment Management purchased MacArthur Park, a 425,612-square-foot grocery-anchored center in Irving, Texas, on behalf of a client through a joint venture with EDENS. The neighborhood center is anchored by Target, Kroger, Office Depot, TJ Maxx, Michaels, Ross and Ulta.

•  Westwood Financial acquired Northview Plaza, a 120,000-square-foot grocery-anchored retail center in Dallas from Stockbridge Capital Group, in an off-market transaction. The center was 89 percent occupied at the time of the deal and anchored by Kroger.

•  ShopCore Properties sold Eastchase Market, a 261,730-square-foot retail center in Fort Worth, to Leeton Real Estate. The center is anchored by AMC Theatres, Ross, Spec’s, Big Lots, Harbor Freight Tools and Marshalls and shadow-anchored by Target and Aldi.

The retail sector in the Metroplex has recorded spotty net absorption over the past five quarters, ranging from a negative 36,000 square feet to a positive 728,000, according to a fourth-quarter report from Cushman & Wakefield. Meanwhile, overall vacancy hovered between 6.3 and 6.6 percent.