Weingarten Realty Investors and Fidelis Swap Texas Retail Properties

JLL’s capital markets team arranged a property swap between Weingarten Realty Investors, (WRI) and Fidelis. The properties included the Village Plaza at Bunker Hill in Houston (an existing joint venture between WRI and Fidelis) and Overton Park Plaza in Fort Worth. Fidelis sold their ownership interest in the Village Plaza at Bunker Hill to WRI and simultaneously purchased WRI’s Overton Park Plaza. Constructed in 2008, Village Plaza at Bunker Hill is a 491,686-square-foot grocery-anchored shopping center located along Interstate 10 at Bunker Hill Road in Houston. The property is anchored by a 128,000-square-foot H-E-B, PetSmart, Ross, Academy and Burlington. Overton Park Plaza was built in 1990 and is a 354,600-square-foot power center located in Fort Worth anchored by Sprouts Farmers Market, T.J.Maxx, Buy Buy Baby, PetSmart and HomeGoods. The JLL retail capital markets investment sales advisory team was led by senior managing directors Ryan West and Chris Gerard and analysts Katherine Miller and Adam Roossien. Additionally, senior managing director Colby Mueck and director Clint Coe arranged acquisition financing for Overton Park Plaza on behalf of Fidelis. “These were two of the largest retail trades of 2020 in the U.S.,” Gerard said. “Despite all of the challenges the pandemic presented, this ‘swap’ demonstrates the continued investor interest for high-performing, well-located, grocery-anchored retail.” “The nature of this transaction, the parties involved and the environment in which it took place speaks volumes to the strong appetite that still exists for retail investments in Texas markets,” West said.