H&R REIT Spends $55M on Five Grocery-Anchored Retail Centers

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JACKSONVILLE, FL—H&R REIT just snapped up a five-property grocery-anchored retail portfolio spanning 333,615 square feet in northern and central Florida. EDENS sold the grocery-anchored retail assets for $55.5 million.

The properties include Corridors at Ponte Vedra, a Fresh Market-anchored center in Jacksonville, FL; Mandarin Oaks, a Publix-anchored center also in Jacksonville; First Merritt Center, a Publix-anchored center in Merritt Island, FL; Publix at Holly Hill in Holly Hill, FL; and Publix at Summer Bay in Clermont, FL. All assets were are more than 90% occupied.

“This portfolio provided an excellent opportunity for H&R REIT to gain a significant foothold within the Florida retail market and is yet another great example of the strong demand we’re seeing for grocery-anchored retail product within the state,” HFF director Luis Castillo tells GlobeSt.com. Castillo worked with senior managing directors Danny Finkle and Brad Peterson on the deal. Within the past 90 days, HFF has capitalized more than $325 million of retail transactions in Florida.

EDENS develops, owns and operates neighborhood shopping centers in primary markets throughout the East Coast. The the company has built an institutional-quality portfolio of 130 retail centers, but has been selling some off recently. EDENs just sold Marietta Trade Center, a coveted retail asset on Cobb Parkway that includes a 316,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter, for $32.8 million, to Rothenberg-Rosenfield.

For its part, H&R REIT is an open-ended REIT that owns a North American portfolio of 41 office, 118 industrial, and 133 retail properties. H&R REIT's commercial real estate portfolio spans more than 44 million square feet and three development projects. Its assets have a fair value of about $9.7 billion.