First National Realty Partners Acquires Grocery-Anchored Retail Centers

River City Marketplace. Image courtesy of First National Realty Partners LLC

In separate transactions, First National Realty Partners LLC has acquired two grocery-anchored shopping centers: The 287,000-square-foot Promenade at Manassas, in Manassas, Va., and the 158,000-square-foot River City Marketplace in O’Fallon, Mo. The prices and seller(s) were not disclosed.

Promenade at Manassas is co-anchored by an approximately 107,000-square-foot Home Depot, which has been a tenant at the center since it was completed in 1995, and by a new 43,000-square-foot local international grocer, Oh! Market. Promenade at Manassas’ tenants also include Ashley Home Furniture, Planet Fitness, The Tile Shop and Sherwin Williams. The center is 97.1 percent occupied.

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FNRP highlighted that the location, about 30 miles west of Washington, D.C., at Interstate 66 and Sudley Road, serves a population of nearly 179,000 people with a 5-mile radius, with average household incomes exceeding $122,000.

Ryan Sciullo of CBRE represented the seller of Promenade at Manassas.

Promenade at Manassas. Image courtesy of First National Realty Partners LLC

River City Marketplace is anchored by a 31,000-square-foot Fresh Thyme Market, with other tenants including Total Wine, Ross, Five Below, Kirkland’s and Kay Jewelers. The center is 92 percent occupied.

In a prepared statement, Stephen Joseph, FNRP’s director of acquisitions, noted that St. Charles County is one of Missouri’s wealthiest counties, and O’Fallon is one of state’s fastest-growing communities, having quadrupled in population since 1990.

Evan Halkias, David Matheis and Link Dierks of Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller.

Groceries to go

In a 2022 retail outlook, Kelly Evans, CBRE managing director for Retail Occupier Solutions, highlighted the trend of retailers becoming more-active players in the supply chain, for example by further expanding curbside pick-up that grocers pursued starting in the pandemic.

The CBRE outlook noted that grocery-anchored centers attracted $5 billion in investment activity in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2021, a near-record amount over the last decade.

CBRE predicts that “grocery-anchored centers will remain the gold standard of retail investment amid favorable supply-demand dynamics and attractive pricing on a risk-adjusted basis.”