Sterling Organization, a vertically integrated private equity real estate investment firm, has announced the acquisition of Mill Pond Village, a grocery-anchored property located in Sewell, NJ, an affluent suburb approximately 14 miles from downtown Philadelphia. The property was purchased on behalf of Sterling Organization’s institutional Fund, Sterling United Properties II, LP (“SUP II”), from EDENS. Jim Galbally, Chris Munley and Colin Behr of JLL brokered the transaction.
Mill Pond Village is a 94,550-square-foot, 95% occupied shopping center anchored by a highly productive ShopRite grocery store, including a ShopRite Liquors. ShopRite, the dominant grocer in Southern New Jersey, has called Mill Pond Village its home for over 13 years. The property is located in an affluent southeastern Philadelphia suburb that is home to a population base of over 60,000 people earning an average annual household income exceeding $120,000 within a 3-mile radius of the property.
“The investment thesis for our SUP series of Funds has always been that investing in and operating defensive assets anchored by market leading grocers will generate consistent and predictable cash flow. Never has this sentiment proven truer than during the devastating and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This category of essential use shopping centers has demonstrated tremendous resiliency in the most difficult of times,” said Brian Kosoy, Managing Principal, President and CEO of Sterling Organization. “With a high performing grocer as the property’s cornerstone, Mill Pond Village should fit squarely in and be a great addition to the SUP II portfolio. We feel confident that this asset will produce the risk-adjusted returns sought by our investment partners.”
“This transaction would not have come to fruition without the great folks at EDENS and JLL. We thank them both and look forward to executing on more transactions with each again soon,” added Jordan Fried, Senior Managing Director of Investments of Sterling Organization.
With the addition of Mill Pond Village, the West Palm Beach, FL-based firm, along with its principals and investment partners, currently own 68 properties from coast to coast, comprising more than 12 million square feet of primarily retail real estate exceeding $2 billion in value.
In 2020, Sterling Organization partnered with the National Forest Foundation (“NFF”) making a commitment to better the environment for future generations. The partnership states that for every acre of land acquired by Sterling Organization upon which its shopping centers sit, we will donate the funds to execute the reforestation of the matching number of acres in our national forests. Sterling’s acquisition of Mill Pond Village Center has enabled the NFF to plant 5,262 trees on 17.54 acres of land in 2021.