Sterling Buys Atlanta-Area Shopping Center
Whole Foods Market anchors the property.
Sterling Organization has acquired Merchants Walk, a 271,992-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Ga., for $93.2 million. EDENS sold the retail power center, which is anchored by Whole Foods Market.
Sterling purchased the asset through its $600 million equity institutional value-add fund, Sterling Value Add Partners IV. It’s the fund’s 10th investment and the second in the Atlanta metro area.
Merchants Walk, located on roughly 30 acres at the intersection of Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road, was completed in 1986. EDENS acquired Merchants Walk for $23.2 million in February 2020, according to Yardi Matrix. Renovations at the property were completed in 2011, the same year Whole Foods Market opened.
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The asset is 90 percent leased, with 26,000 square feet available for lease. Other co-anchors include Marshalls, PetSmart, Old Navy, DSW, Ulta Beauty, Office Depot and Georgia Theater Company Stadium Cinemas. Kohl’s owns a 90,170-square-foot store on the site that was not part of the sale.
The two heavily trafficked roads carry more than 82,100 vehicles per day, according to Sterling, and the center draws more than 3.1 million visitors annually.
Sterling plans to complete the lease-up of the vacant space, noting additional upside exists as below-market rents expire.
CBRE Senior Vice Presidents Kevin Hurley and Matt Karempelis and the firm’s National Retail Partners team assisted Sterling throughout the transaction.
More Sterling deals
In March, Sterling sold a seven-property, 956,865-square-foot retail portfolio to Nuveen for $298 million. The assets were sold on behalf of Sterling Value Add Partners II and Sterling Value Add Partners III funds. The properties were 96 percent leased at the time of closing and are in several metros, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas, Minneapolis and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Six of the seven properties were grocery-anchored retail centers.
And in January, Sterling acquired Bristol Plaza, a 263,000-square-foot shopping center in Bristol, Conn., anchored by a Stop & Shop supermarket, for $44 million from Federal Realty Investment Trust. The transaction was made through SVAP IV. National tenants include T.J. Maxx, Burlington, Five Below, Dollar Tree, GameStop and Jersey Mike’s.
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