Brixmor Property Group, Everview Partners Acquire Slate Grocery REIT for $2.34B

One of the largest owners of shopping centers in the U.S. just got bigger. 

Brixmor Property Group, a $9 billion publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT) and holder of a portfolio of 346 shopping centers spanning more than 63 million square feet, announced Monday that it has partnered with Everview Partners to acquire Slate Grocery REIT for $2.34 billion.

Slate Grocery REIT has a portfolio of 115 grocery-anchored, open-air retail centers that together comprise 15.7 million square feet of real estate. 

Under the terms of the deal, Brixmor will acquire 23 shopping centers in Florida, Georgia and the two Carolinas for $636 million, but will form an institutional joint venture with Everview Partners and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority that will acquire the remaining 92 assets from Slate Grocery REIT for $1.71 billion. 

Brian Finnegan, Brixmor’s CEO and president, told Commercial Observer on Monday that his firm was motivated to finalize the deal with Everview Partners after seeing a large amount of institutional capital enter the open-air, grocery-anchored retail space in recent years and “validate the asset class.” 

“This opportunity to get 23 assets that we’re purchasing ourselves, as part of a broader portfolio where we can leverage the platform, just made a lot of sense to bring in a partner like Everview,” he said. “[The new portfolio] is in markets we know really well with a lot of growth potential, redevelopment opportunities right out the gate, and significant mark-to-market rent opportunities, as well.

Brixmor plans to grow “long-standing grocer relationships” and capitalize on numerous “remerchandising, redevelopment, and outparcel opportunities,” according to a release.  

Finnegan added that the deal aligns with other transactions Brixmor has completed recently: roughly half the acquisition activity the firm has made since becoming a public company in 2013 — roughly $850 million of acquisitions — has been done in the last two years for assets in Florida, Texas, Southern California and Colorado.

“The common theme in those deals is these are markets that we know really well, there’s upside in rents, and there’s redevelopment for us to put our platform to work and create value,” said Finnegan. “We saw that very similarly with this transaction plus the opportunity with the joint venture to drive additional growth going forward.” 

Brixmor will own essentially 100 percent of the 23 shopping centers it is acquiring outright and will hold 20 percent common equity interest in the larger deal with Everview and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, while still serving as the portfolio’s asset manager, property manager and leasing representative.   

Finnegan told CO that there is a 70 percent market overlap between this new portfolio and Brixmor’s existing assets, with new assets entering into the fold across Texas and the Northeast. 

“There are a handful of markets we don’t have a presence in today, but feel with our operating platform and national retail relationships we will be able to cover those adequately,” he said.  

Billy Rahm, Everview’s founder and CEO, described the portfolio as “high-quality collection of centers in attractive markets,” and noted the assets contained upside embedded in the below-market rents.

Brixmor’s existing tenant base includes Kroger, Publix, TJ Maxx, Burlington, Ross, Amazon and Whole Foods. 

The transaction has already been approved by the boards of both Brixmor and Slate and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027. 

Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com.