Nuveen Secures $320M to Buy Grocery-Anchored Retail Centers in the U.S.

Nuveen Real Estate has secured a hefty investment to deploy capital into the surging U.S. retail market. 

The global real estate investment manager announced Thursday that it has raised $320 million in new capital from institutional investors for its U.S. Cities Retail Fund, an open-ended vehicle that serves as the firm’s investment vehicle for retail properties. 

The fund launched in 2018 and has targeted grocery-anchored retail properties with plans for expansion across different U.S. markets, typically those where consumers both live and work. 

Katie Grissom, head of retail and mixed-use at Nuveen, said the current retail market is in “a great vintage moment for the sector,” and that makes it an opportune time for investor capital to flock into the firm’s retail-specific fund. 

“Our team has a unique, multi-dimensional view into consumer behavior, market dynamics, and policy trends, allowing us to be more thoughtful and strategic in how we underwrite retail, especially at the neighborhood level where local nuance matters most,” Grissom said in a statement. 

Nuveen’s retail platform has $8 billion in total assets under management, which carry a gross value of $16 billion across a national portfolio. 

Retail has rebounded in recent quarters. Last month, the National Retail Federation forecasted retail sales in 2025 will grow between 2.7 percent and 3.7 percent more than their 2024 totals to reach nearly $5.5 trillion in sales. 

However, the Trump administration’s tariffs could impact the retail market with stores expected to see higher prices and emptier shelves. The trade war has left some lenders wary about providing loans to retail assets and tenants holding of on leasing new space.

Still, Brian Wallick, senior director and portfolio manager at Nuveen, said in a statement that his firm has seen “an abundance of lender appetite” in the necessity-based retail space, and that institutional capital has followed those same trends by recognizing the resiliency of retail having come out of a full cycle. 

He emphasized that Nuveen mainly focuses on retail in quality locations, holding essential tenants that serve high-income customers. 

“With our geographically dispersed, vertically-integrated team, we’re well-positioned to unlock value and drive performance across the portfolio,” he said. 

Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com