Brixmor Property Group, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) with a portfolio of 346 shopping centres and over 63 million square feet of space, has announced its partnership with Everview Partners. Together, they are acquiring Slate Grocery REIT for US$2.34 billion. Brixmor is one of the largest owners of shopping centres in the US, with US$9 billion in assets.
The Slate Grocery REIT portfolio comprises 115 open-air, grocery-anchored retail centres, totalling 15.7 million square feet. The transaction involves Brixmor directly acquiring 23 shopping centres in Florida, Georgia, and the two Carolinas for US$636 million. For the remaining 92 properties, an institutional joint venture will be formed with Everview Partners and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), which will acquire them for US$1.71 billion.
Strategic Motivation and Synergies
Brian Finnegan, CEO and President of Brixmor, stated that the decision to pursue the deal with Everview Partners was based on the increased inflow of institutional capital into the open-air, grocery-anchored retail segment, which underlines the attractiveness of this asset class. The acquisition of the 23 properties allows Brixmor to leverage its existing platform. The new locations are in markets that Brixmor knows well and offer significant growth potential, redevelopment opportunities, and chances for market-rate rent adjustments.
According to a press release, Brixmor plans to expand long-standing relationships with grocery retailers and realise various opportunities for merchandising repositioning, redevelopment, and external space utilisation. Finnegan noted that this transaction aligns with Brixmor's recent acquisitions. Approximately half of the company's acquisitions since its IPO in 2013 – around US$850 million – have occurred in the last two years and focused on properties in Florida, Texas, Southern California, and Colorado. The common theme of these deals is a focus on familiar markets with rent growth potential and redevelopment opportunities for value creation. This principle also applies to the current transaction, supplemented by the joint venture for further growth.
Brixmor will own 100 per cent of the 23 directly acquired shopping centres and hold a 20 per cent common equity interest in the larger joint venture with Everview and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. Concurrently, Brixmor will act as asset manager, property manager, and leasing representative for the entire portfolio. Finnegan pointed to a 70 per cent market overlap between this new portfolio and existing Brixmor assets, with new properties being added in Texas and the Northeast. Billy Rahm, Founder and CEO of Everview, described the portfolio as a high-quality collection of centres in attractive markets and highlighted the upside potential of below-market rents.
- —Brixmor's existing tenant portfolio includes companies such as Kroger, Publix, TJ Maxx, Burlington, Ross, Amazon, and Whole Foods.
- —The transaction has already been approved by the boards of directors of Brixmor and Slate.
- —The closing is expected in the first quarter of 2027.
