Westwood Financial LLC, a leading retail real estate investment firm, in separate transactions has acquired two Sprouts-anchored neighborhood centers in Phoenix, AZ and Atlanta, GA for a total of $66.2 million.

Boardwalk at Andersen Springs in Chandler (Phoenix), AZ and is the home of the original Sprouts Farmers Market, which opened in 2005. The center is 97 percent occupied and features a variety of national and regional retailers, many of which have been operating for over two decades. Sprouts is currently undergoing a $1M renovation and recently executed a 10-year renewal. The center benefits from a dense population of over 138,000 people in a three-mile radius combined with a strong daytime population of 132,000. The acquisition was sourced off market and was financed by a senior loan from Nationwide Life Insurance Company, one of Westwood’s top life insurance lenders, and the debt financing was arranged by HFF LP.

Decatur Crossing is an 81,900 square-foot Sprouts-anchored shopping center that was developed in 2017 and is currently 100 percent occupied. The center is in the dense, affluent community of Decatur, GA, just east of Midtown Atlanta, and boasts a 3-mile average household income of $93,000 and a population of 113,000. The center is adjacent to two large multifamily developments with over 1,000 units either delivered or under construction. Daily traffic counts at the intersection of Scott Blvd. and North Decatur Road are over 65,000. The acquisition was financed by a senior loan from Unum Group, which was arranged by HFF LP.

Additionally, Westwood Financial is under contract to acquire three separate urban retail properties in the Chicago trade area with an aggregate value of over $27.0 million. Westwood Financial CEO Joe Dykstra commented, “Our recent transactional activity highlights our commitment to the main pillars of our investment thesis. First, we seek to align Westwood with best-of-breed operators that are gaining market share, such as Sprouts Farmers Market. Second, we target locations with high-quality underlying real estate that will appreciate over the long term – both the Decatur and Chandler locations have tremendous demographics and support this thesis. Our pending Chicago acquisitions further support our transactional strategy of owning high-quality underlying real estate with strong demographic profiles.”