Jeff Edison, chairman and CEO of Phillips Edison & Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: PECO), and James Corl, head of the private real estate group at Cohen & Steers, were guests on the latest episode of the Nareit REIT Report podcast.
PECO and Cohen & Steers Income Opportunities REIT, Inc. (CNSREIT) have formed a joint venture focused on acquiring open-air grocery-anchored shopping centers. The joint venture is 80% owned by CNSREIT and 20% by PECO and is targeting $300 million in equity. In the interview, Edison and Corl discuss the clear benefits they see from their partnership, their shared perspectives on what makes a strong investment in the sector, and the outlook for future growth.
The joint venture recently made its first acquisition, Des Peres Corners, a grocery-anchored shopping center in Des Peres, Missouri. “I think it’s a great fit,” Edison said.
Edison pointed to limited new construction in the grocery-anchored shopping center space, at the same time that retailers are looking to expand, “which gives us more pricing power than we’ve had historically.”
Meanwhile, Corl described what he sees as a “new equilibrium” in which there is a return to the centrality of the store in the value chain for getting goods and services to consumers.