Navigating Net Lease Retail’s Opportunistic Landscape

Essential Properties Realty Trust’s strategy coming out of Covid has been to take advantage of opportunistic transactions. It hit the bullseye recently with the acquisition of a casual dining portfolio in the Northeast. The company struggled during the pandemic and shut down, according to Max Jenkins, Essential Properties Realty Trust’s SVP and head of Investments, but its pre-Covid performance had been great and the real estate fundamentals made sense. Jenkins, who was a participant in last week’s GlobeSt. NET LEASE Conference, took a look at the company’s real time data from 2021 and made a risk-adjusted decision to acquire the portfolio. “They are getting back to their pre-pandemic numbers and we decided to take advantage of the higher cap rates in the short term before the rest of the market picks up on it. The business was hurt during Covid but we believe in its longevity and we are a long term buy and hold investor.” 

Welcome to retail’s other story. While the larger industry narrative has focused on retail’s struggles during and after the pandemic, net lease investors have been focusing on these assets as good long term plays.