Atlanta’s neighborhood shopping scene just got a quiet but very expensive confidence boost. Medipower has shelled out $115 million for a seven-property, grocery-anchored portfolio that includes four suburban Atlanta centers: Hickory Flat Village in Canton, Flat Shoals Crossing in Decatur, Deshon Plaza in Stone Mountain and Cascade Corners in southwest Atlanta. The deal adds roughly 558,000 square feet of day-to-day retail to Medipower’s U.S. holdings and highlights how investors are still lining up for necessity-based shopping centers.
According to Connect CRE, the package price for the seven-center portfolio landed at $115 million and includes the four Atlanta-area properties. The broader portfolio totals approximately 558,000 square feet across seven grocery-anchored centers that are nearly fully leased and focused on everyday retail traffic.
JLL represented the seller in the transaction and arranged acquisition financing for Medipower. In its deal release, JLL noted that the portfolio is anchored by Publix, Kroger and Stop & Shop, with aggregate occupancy of 99.6% and average grocer sales topping $700 per square foot, a performance level that typically gets institutional investors’ attention.
Broker perspective
“The East Coast Grocery Anchored Portfolio generated significant investor interest,” Jim Hamilton said in JLL, pointing to the appeal of stable cash flow and long-term value from grocery-anchored assets. Brokers say centers like these, anchored by necessity tenants and nearly fully leased, remain among the most hotly pursued retail properties for institutional buyers in Sunbelt markets such as metro Atlanta.
Where the assets came from
Before the Medipower acquisition, the four Atlanta centers were part of larger institutional portfolios. Public investor materials for SITE Centers list Cascade Corners, Hickory Flat Village, Flat Shoals Crossing and Deshon Plaza in prior retail pools managed or co-owned by the REIT, according to those filings.
Deal team and what comes next
Connect CRE reports that a JLL investment sales team, working alongside a debt advisory group, handled both the disposition and the financing assignment, with a full bench of brokers and capital markets pros attached to the mandate. With the centers grocery-anchored and almost fully leased, Medipower appears to have bought steady, cash-flowing retail that is expected to be operated for income rather than targeted for immediate redevelopment, according to that coverage.
