Cohen & Steers Income Opportunities REIT, Inc. announced today its acquisition of Oak Grove Shoppes, a grocery-anchored shopping center in Orlando, Florida, with Phillips Edison & Company (NASDAQ: PECO), a publicly-traded owner and operator of grocery-anchored shopping centers in the U.S. This is the second acquisition in a programmatic joint venture targeting $300 million in equity and owned 80% by CNSREIT and 20% by PECO. The joint venture is focused on acquiring open-air, grocery-anchored shopping centers and leverages PECO’s deep sector expertise.
Oak Grove Shoppes is a 142,000 square foot grocery-anchored, open-air shopping center that was redeveloped in 2023. Located in the Altamonte Springs submarket, the property is nine miles from downtown Orlando and proximate to the Interstate 4 interchange. The center is 91% leased and is anchored by a 48,000 square foot Publix grocery store that opened in 2023 and a recently-opened Marshalls along with an array of tenants in the food, healthcare and childcare industries.
The property benefits from the high-growth Orlando market, which ranks in the top 10 U.S. cities for five-year population and job growth and has outperformed U.S. averages by 3.6x and 2.2x respectively1. The city has approximately 2.8 million residents, making it the 22nd largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S., and attracts 74 million visitors annually2. As a result, the Altamonte Springs submarket boasts strong fundamentals, including a 94% retail occupancy rate and 7.5% year-over-year retail rent growth3.
James S. Corl, Chief Executive Officer of CNSREIT and Head of the Private Real Estate Group at Cohen & Steers, said:
“We believe Oak Grove Shoppes is well-positioned to continue benefiting from its best-in-class infill location in a high-growth market, anchor tenant and the surging demand for retail space with access to the necessity-driven traffic that a strong grocer generates. We look forward to growing our partnership with Phillips Edison & Company, one of the most-skilled operators of grocery-anchored shopping centers.”
Jeff Edison, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Phillips Edison & Company, added:
“We are pleased to partner with CNSREIT on this second acquisition of our joint venture. This joint venture allows PECO to access incremental growth capital, expand our acquisition opportunity set and leverage our integrated operating platform.”
CNSREIT is acquiring high quality properties that generate attractive income potential alongside best-in-class operators and has an initial focus on well-anchored, necessity-driven shopping centers. Open-air shopping centers are at their highest occupancy level of the past 16 years at 95.7%, according to real estate analytics provider CoStar Group.
About CNSREIT. Cohen & Steers Income Opportunities REIT, Inc. is a perpetual-life, non-listed REIT formed to invest primarily in high quality, income-focused, stabilized properties within the United States. CNSREIT is externally managed by Cohen & Steers Capital Management, Inc., a subsidiary of Cohen & Steers, Inc. Further information can be found at www.cnsreit.com.
About Cohen & Steers. Cohen & Steers is a leading global investment manager specializing in real assets and alternative income, including listed and private real estate, preferred securities, infrastructure, resource equities, commodities, as well as multi-strategy solutions. Founded in 1986, the firm is headquartered in New York City, with offices in London, Dublin, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.
About Phillips Edison & Company
Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (“PECO”) is one of the nation’s largest owners and operators of high-quality, grocery-anchored neighborhood shopping centers. Founded in 1991, PECO has generated strong results through its vertically-integrated operating platform and national footprint of well-occupied shopping centers. PECO’s centers feature a mix of national and regional retailers providing necessity-based goods and services in fundamentally strong markets throughout the United States. PECO’s top grocery anchors include Kroger, Publix, Albertsons and Ahold Delhaize. As of September 30, 2024, PECO managed 311 shopping centers, including 290 wholly-owned centers comprising 32.9 million square feet across 31 states and 21 shopping centers owned in two institutional joint ventures. PECO is focused on creating great omni-channel, grocery-anchored shopping experiences and improving communities, one neighborhood shopping center at a time. Learn more at www.phillipsedison.com.