SILVER SPRING, MD-Regency Centers has acquired the Shoppes of Burnt Mills, a 31,316-square foot neighborhood center for $13.6 million. The Trader Joe's-anchored center traded in an off market deal.

Shoppes of Burnt Milles was built in 2004. Trader Joe's takes up 9,306-square feet of the center. Other tenants in the property include Starbucks, Chico's and AT&T.

"The infill location, strong demographics, synergistic merchandising with strong retailer sales and a vibrant anchor make Shoppes of Burnt Mills a great addition to our expanding portfolio in the D.C. market," says Devin Corini, vice president of investments for Regency Centers.

Regency purchased the property with a co-investment partner. Regency's share of the purchase price was $2.7 million.

Grocery-anchored centers are the darling of the retail real estate investment community in general, and in the DC area in particular, as stats from Delta Associates show.

The grocery-anchored center vacancy rate in the metro area declined to 4.9% at year-end 2012. There is less than 3 million square feet of grocery-anchored development underway, which Delta believes "is insufficient to keep pace with demand." It predicts vacancy rates for grocery-anchored shopping centers to remain low and asking rents to rise by approximately 2% to 3% during 2013.

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Erika Morphy

Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.