First National Realty Buys Connecticut Mall for $76M – What is a Ground Lease?

By Dec5,2022

Bishops-Corner. Image via Google Street View

First National Realty Partners has acquired Bishops Corner, a 259,104-square-foot, grocery-anchored retail center in West Hartford, Conn.

Newmark’s Director Paul Penman brokered the transaction on behalf of EDENS, identified by CommercialEdge as the seller. The brokerage firm also procured the buyer, which paid $76 million for the asset, according to Hartford Business.

The same news outlet reveals that Bishops Corner was built in 1970 and renovated in 2011. The retail center is anchored by a 59,000-square-foot Target store, which has been operating at the location since 2019. Other tenants include Marshalls & HomeGoods, The Paper Store, Bank of America, Noodles & Co., GNC and Massage Envy, among others. The retail center still has 14,000 square feet of space available for lease.

According to a third quarter 2022 retail report from Marcus & Millichap, the national retail vacancy returned to levels recorded before the onset of the pandemic, with operations in this sector being supported by the labor market recovery.

A growing grocery-anchored portfolio

Bishops Corner is the top-ranked convenience center in Connecticut, according to retail traffic data firm, Placer.ai, serving approximately 216,000 people living within a 5-mile radius. The retail center is located at 333 North Main St., roughly 5 miles from downtown Las Vegas. The property is adjacent to Route 44, in an area where car traffic reaches more than 40,000 vehicles per day.

With a growing grocery-anchored portfolio, First National Realty Partners continues to invest in the open-air retail property sector. Earlier this year, the company added the following assets to its retail inventory: Tropicana Centre, a 586,000-square-foot retail center in Las Vegas; Southern Plaza, a 268,000-square-foot shopping center in Indianapolis; and two retail properties in Manassas, Va., And O’Fallon, Mo.