Under the venture, National Retail Properties will be the managing partner and own a 15% equity interest and Crow Holdings will own an 85% equity interest. The venture plans to use up to $120 million of unsecured debt to fund property acquisitions. National Retail Properties CFO Kevin Habicht tells GlobeSt.com that the company has past experience with this property type. "We've done a fair amount of these types of deals and we've found that they have better risk returns and yields," Habicht says.

National Retail Properties invests primarily in retail properties subject generally to long-term, net leases. As of June 30, the company owned 859 properties in 43 states with a gross leasable area of about 10 million sf.

Habicht adds that the venture will target properties across the country in areas where the retail sector has been strong, such as Florida, Texas and North Carolina. No acquisitions have yet been made under the joint venture. "We tend to acquire assets in fairly dense areas, such as urban or secondary markets," he says.

Crow Holdings makes investments on behalf of the Trammell Crow family and its investment partners. It currently oversees a portfolio of more than eight million sf of retail, office and industrial properties, with approximately 5,000 multifamily units, more than 700 hotel rooms and approximately 10,000 acres of lot development.

"We believe that the convenience store asset class will offer us an excellent opportunity to provide our partners with strong equity returns," says Crow Holdings head of real estate Robert McClain, in a prepared statement.