Sovereign Wealth Funds Double Down on Grocery-Anchored Retail Real Estate
Norges Bank Investment Management and Asana Partners announced a $500 million joint venture targeting U.S. retail properties, with an initial focus on grocery-anchored shopping centers. The fund, Asana Partners Strategic Partners I, launched with a 50 percent stake in a portfolio of retail centers and plans to expand into unanchored centers, street retail and mixed-use assets. Norges, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund with $2.2 trillion in assets, takes the 50 percent stake while Charlotte-based Asana will manage the portfolio.
Asana oversees more than $9 billion in assets and a real estate portfolio spanning 10 million square feet across 25 cities. In February, the firm acquired Seacliff Village retail plaza in Huntington Beach for $151 million from Barings. Norges has increased its U.S. real estate activity in recent months, including a $571 million Midtown Manhattan office acquisition with Beacon Capital Partners in September and participation in TPG’s $2 billion acquisition of Echo Realty last month.
Echo Realty’s portfolio of more than 230 retail centers, primarily in the Midwest and Southeast, anchored by grocers including Giant Eagle, Publix and Whole Foods, underscores institutional appetite for necessity-based retail. Norges announced plans in December to invest up to 7 percent of its capital in global real estate assets. Grocery-anchored retail has attracted institutional capital as investors seek properties with stable cash flows and essential tenant categories that proved recession-resistant during recent economic cycles.
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