Dominant grocery-anchored retail center in Pennsylvania sells

PHILADELPHIA, April 18, 2022 – JLL Capital Markets announced today that it has closed the sale of Exeter Commons, a 361,095-square-foot, dominant, grocery-anchored shopping center anchored by a high-performing Giant Food and Lowe’s Home Improvement in Reading, Pennsylvania.

JLL represented the undisclosed seller. Wharton Realty Group, Incorporated acquired the asset.

Completed in 2009, the 99.5-percent-leased Exeter Commons is also home to a dynamic mix of necessity and contemporary retail tenants, including Giant Food, Lowe’s, Ross, PA Wine & Spirits, Five Below, Petco, Staples, Famous Footwear, America’s Best Contacts, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Red Robin, Supercuts and Mattress Firm. The center is also shadow anchored by high-volume Target, which drives significant regional traffic to the property

The JLL Retail Capital Markets team representing the seller was led by Senior Managing Directors Christopher Munley and James Galbally and Senior Director Colin Behr.

“Market-dominant, grocery-anchored centers of scale such as Exeter Commons rarely become available to market,” Munley said. “With demand for assets of this nature never being greater, we fully anticipate trades of like-kind product to price to a premium for the foreseeable future.”

“It was a pleasure to work with Wharton Realty on their most recent acquisition,” Galbally said. “Exeter Commons is a great addition to their existing grocery-anchored shopping center portfolio in the Philadelphia market.”

“We have experienced a tremendous influx of new capital looking to acquire grocery-anchored assets within the suburban Philadelphia MSA, and Exeter Commons is exactly the type of assets that investors are and will be targeting,” added Behr.

JLL Capital Markets is a full-service global provider of capital solutions for real estate investors and occupiers. The firm's in-depth local market and global investor knowledge delivers the best-in-class solutions for clients — whether investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, equity advisory or a recapitalization. The firm has more than 3,000 Capital Markets specialists worldwide with offices in nearly 50 countries.

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Wharton Realty Group is a privately held fully integrated real estate firm based in New Jersey. They currently own 30 shopping centers in 10 states with over 7 million square feet. To learn more about WRG, click wrgusa.com.