Kimco Pays $173M for NoVa Lifestyle Center

Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center is situated in a high barrier-to-entry location with strong demographics, commented Ross Cooper, President & CIO, Kimco Realty. Image courtesy of Kimco Realty

Kimco Realty has acquired Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center, a 504,000-square-foot, grocery-anchored lifestyle center in Woodbridge, Va., for $172.5 million.

The property is 96 percent occupied and is anchored by a 138,500-square-foot Wegmans, as well as by the only Apple store in the greater trade area. The shopping center’s tenants also include national brands REI, Ulta Beauty, Starbucks, Cava, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, in addition to a variety of local shops that encompass boutique fitness, personal services, restaurants and medical uses.

Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center is located at the intersections of I-95, Dale Boulevard, Route 1 and Opitz Boulevard. It was built in 2008, according to information from CommercialEdge, which also identified the previous owner of the 83-acre property as JBG Smith, which had purchased the center in December 2015 for $185.3 million.

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In a prepared statement, Ross Cooper, Kimco’s president & chief investment officer, characterized the center as being in “a high barrier-to-entry location with strong demographics.” It reportedly has an estimated population of more than 230,000 people and an average household income of $125,000 within a 5-mile radius.

Kimco added that the acquisition “presents a variety of growth prospects, including the potential to develop three outparcel retail buildings, increase density through mixed-use development, and enhance the existing merchandising mix through the recapture of below-market leases.”

Kimco noted that construction of a municipal park-and-ride garage adjacent to the center “demonstrates continued government investment in the area and is expected to drive additional traffic upon its completion in mid-2024.”

NoVa’s retail expansion

Growth in both employment and household formation in the outer northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., is driving retail expansions, and helping to cut retail space vacancy to 1.2 percent, the lowest it has been in decades, according to a second-quarter report from Marcus & Millichap.

Last October, First National Realty Partners LLC acquired two grocery-anchored retail centers, one in metro St. Louis and the other in Northern Virginia. The latter is the 287,000-square-foot Promenade at Manassas, which is anchored by a 107,000-square-foot Home Depot and a new 43,000-square-foot local international grocer, Oh! Market.