AEW Capital Buys Austin-Area Retail Center
AEW Capital Management has purchased Bar W Marketplace, a 189,507-square-foot community retail center anchored by an H-E-B grocery store, in Leander, Texas, a suburb of Austin. JLL Capital Markets arranged the sale.
JLL also secured the acquisition financing for AEW from Manulife Real Estate Finance, in the form of what the firm described as low-leverage, fixed-rate financing. The transaction’s dollar value was not disclosed.
The seller was a partnership led by Barshop & Oles Co., a privately owned, Austin-based development and management firm that specializes in grocery-anchored neighborhood and community shopping centers.
Bar W Marketplace is at 19348 Ronald Reagan Blvd., at the southeast corner of Ronald Reagan Boulevard and SH-29 in Williamson County. The location reportedly benefits from easy access to major thoroughfares and proximity to multiple residential communities and ongoing developments.
READ ALSO: How Dining Trends Are Reshaping Shopping Centers
The retail center was built between 2022 and 2024 and is fully leased. It features five ground-leased pads and a mix of tenants that includes Chase Bank, Wells Fargo, Whataburger, Chili’s, Torchy’s Tacos and 7Brew Coffee.
The JLL Capital Markets Investment and Sales Advisory team representing the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Barry Brown and Chris Gerard and Director Erin Lazarus. The JLL Debt Advisory team was led by Senior Managing Director Doug Opalka and Director Jackson Finch.
Shortage of retail space supply
The Austin retail space market is seeing “a significant slowdown in net absorption due to limited new space and a tight vacancy rate of 3.4 percent, despite healthy leasing demand,” according to a third-quarter report from local firm Partners Real Estate.
Of the 1.1 million square feet of net absorption so far this year, Burlington and The Picklr have been prominent tenants. The latter is a nationwide franchiser of pickleball clubs that currently has about 10 locations in Texas.
Partners Real Estate reports that both new deliveries and the development pipeline are slowing down, causing predictions of modest rent increases from tightening supply.
Just a few weeks ago, Partners Capital sold San Marcos Place, a 73,105-square-foot retail center in San Marcos, Texas, midway between Austin and San Antonio, to an undisclosed local buyer. SRS Real Estate Partners Senior VP Cathy Nabours and VP Kyle Shaffer represented the seller.
The post AEW Capital Buys Austin-Area Retail Center appeared first on Commercial Property Executive.
