Sentinel Net Lease is proud to announce the acquisition of two Schnucks Fresh Food Grocery Stores for $18.3MM in Illinois. The first property, located in Loves Park and acquired for $11.7MM, is 142,357 sq ft and sits on 15 acres of land. The second, located in Normal and acquired for $6.6MM, is 57,000 sq ft and sits on 6 acres. These stores align directly with Sentinel’s strategy of executing opportunistic acquisitions of pandemic-resistant, mission critical real estate that has the potential to generate passive income for investors even in adverse macroeconomic scenarios.
The St. Louis-based Schnucks supermarket chain has over 14,500 employees in 123 stores across 5 states, making it one of the largest privately held chains in the US. With revenue of $3.1B in 2019, Schnucks has maintained consistent expansion and growth. With the addition of these properties and three more acquisitions scheduled before the end of the year, Sentinel is on pace to acquire more than $78,000,000 in real estate assets by year-end; a testament to Sentinel’s success in their first full year of operations.
Dennis Cisterna, Sentinel’s Chief Investment Officer, highlighted the benefits of the acquisitions by noting, “Schnucks Fresh Food Grocery Stores represent a primary essential service where demand and revenue have remained strong during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, Schnucks is a tech forward business that participates in online ordering and delivery, which has been the fastest growing revenue sector in retail over the past year. “
The Normal, IL property is in a prime location benefitting from residential growth in the Bloomington-Normal Metropolitan Statistical Area (Pop. 173,231), with no immediate competition from other grocery chains. The area was voted ‘Top 25 Best Small Places for Business & Careers’ by Forbes and ‘Digital Capital of Illinois’ by Google. Normal is also home to a 2.6MM square foot manufacturing plant operated by electric-truck maker, Rivian. The Loves Park location is situated along the Rock River and part of the Rockford, IL Statistical Area (pop. 336,000), an area that has had low local unemployment rates, a highly educated workforce and home to several universities.
Sentinel sets itself apart in the real estate industry by capitalizing on unique conditions and market positioning in the NNN lease space. These triple net lease investments offer strong diversification opportunities decoupled from traditional equity and fixed income markets. Fred Lewis, Sentinel CEO, opined on the current market opportunity, “As long-term investors, we’ve been able to capitalize on short-term volatility to make strategic investments at what we believe to be incredible risk-adjusted returns. We think we have a good runway to continue this type of investing as there is less competition for stable, middle market commercial real estate assets than normal.”
Sentinel conducts proactive analysis and investment based on rapidly shifting demographic and economic trends. The firm’s principals have decades of experience in commercial real estate investing across multiple asset types and classes.
Contact our team if you are interested in learning more or if you have any questions about investing in commercial real estate.
