Winstanley Enterprises LLC of Concord, Mass. and New York-headquartered Surrey Equities LLC have closed on a portfolio of 23 triple-net-leased supermarkets to Ahold Lease USA Inc. for $150 million.
Ahold Lease USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Netherlands-headquartered supermarket giant Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV. The company owns several U.S. supermarket brands including Stop & Shop, Giant and Peapod.
The acquired properties in the New England market are home to three Stop & Shop-branded supermarkets in Connecticut — Seymour, Cromwell and Willimantic — as well as eight in Massachusetts and three in Rhode Island.
In addition to the 14 New England properties, the deal includes sites in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia. Total square footage of the acquisition is 1.4 million .
“We felt that this portfolio was a unique investment into a series of prime locations throughout New England and into the South,” said Adam Winstanley, a principal of Winstanley Enterprises.
Winstanley and Surrey acquired the portfolio as part of a long-term strategy to invest in well located urban infill supermarkets in hard-to-replicate locations, according to the companies. The locations will continue to operate as supermarkets, with the Winstanley/Surrey team becoming the new landlord.
Brokers in the transaction were Ben Cooper and Jim Jordan of Cushman & Wakefield and the seller was Philip Morris Capital Corp.
Led by Adam Winstanley, his father David and brother Carter, Winstanley Enterprises is one of the larger regional owners of commercial real estate in New England, with 12.5 million square feet — the majority of that in Connecticut.
In greater New Haven, Winstanley formerly owned the 400,000-square-foot building at 350 Knotter Drive in Cheshire that once was home to Alexion Pharmaceuticals. It also manages the office/research complex at 100 College St. in New Haven, where part of Alexion’s business currently is based.
November housing permit data released
In November, 104 Connecticut cities and towns awarded permits for the construction of 444 new housing units, according to the state’s Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD) using data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
That figure was down 58.6 percent from the 1,073 permits approved in October.
However, it also represented a 74-percent increase of the number of permits (255) authorized in November 2018.
The year-to-date statewide housing permit figure through November 2019 was 4,662 — a 35-percent increase over the same YTD figure through November 2018.
The most active municipality in the south-central region for November was New Haven, which in the wake of approval of a new rental-housing project approved 223 new units for construction in November.
Also, Milford approved 19 new housing units for the month, and Danbury 15 residential units.
TRANSACTIONS
Thriveworks Administrative Services LLC has leased 1,230 square feet of office space at 70 Cherry Street, Milford. The company’s business unit, Thriveworks Counseling & Life Coaching, has some 100 locations worldwide. Carl G. Russell, CCIM, SIOR of H. Pearce Commercial in Milford, represented both Thriveworks and landlord 70 Cherry Street Associates LLC in the transaction.
