DLC, Meadow Partners Snag Maryland Open-Air Retail Plaza for $69M
By Nick Trombola August 8, 2024 1:00 pm
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Grocery-anchored shopping centers remain a popular investment these days — certainly in the DMV, at least.
New York-based DLC Management, together with Meadow Partners, has acquired a 378,205-square-foot retail plaza in Forestville, Md., about 14 miles southeast of downtown Washington, D.C., for $68.5 million. The Multi-Employer Property Trust (MEPT) was a former owner, according to property records, but it wasn’t immediately clear if MEPT was the seller in this deal.
Alternative asset management firm Apollo Global Management (APO) (which merged with its competitor Athene in 2022) provided financing for the purchase of Penn Mar Shopping Center at 2950 Donnell Drive, though the exact amount of debt was not disclosed.
The plaza is 91.5 percent leased. Tenants include Shoppers Food Warehouse, Burlington, Ross Dress for Less, Dollar Tree, Petco and Footlocker.
As one of the largest private owners and operators of open-air retail centers in the country, DLC is no stranger to properties like Penn Mar. The latest acquisition adds to its existing portfolio of three other retail assets within an 8-mile radius of each other in southeastern Maryland, which together total over 658,000 square feet.
DLC Founder and CEO Adam Ifshin said that his firm has over $1.5 billion in capital ready for immediate deployment toward open-air retail assets. The firm is funded by a growth capital commitment from Temerity Strategic Partners, which launched a joint venture with DLC late last year endowing DLC enough capital to double its portfolio size by 2025.
“We are leaning into the best buying opportunities even as many are sitting on the sidelines, and this off-market transaction is DLC’s 14th acquisition since 2022, totaling over $600 million,” Ifshin said in a statement.
“The acquisition of Penn Mar is consistent with Meadow’s high conviction theme of acquiring long-dated credit income which is trading at historically wide yields,” added Jeffrey Kaplan, founder and managing partner of Meadow Partners.
A separate joint venture meanwhile between DLC and DRA Advisors purchased a four-property shopping center portfolio totaling nearly 765,000 square feet and spread across Ohio, New Jersey, Colorado, and Arizona, for $100 million.
Other open-air retail sales in the DMV lately include Aggregate Real Estate Investors’ $28 million purchase of the Montrose Shopping Center in Rockville, Md., in July, as well as Finmarc Management’s $30 million purchase of Riverview Plaza in Frederick, Md.
Nick Trombola can be reached at NTrombola@commercialobserver.com.
