PREIT sells Whole Foods Market at Plymouth Meeting Mall

PREIT continues on its roll of divestitures aimed at reducing debt and improving its balance sheet.

The Philadelphia-based mall REIT has sold the 65,155-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market at its Plymouth Meeting Mall in the Philly metro to an institutional investment company in a transaction handled by JLL.

The buyer, which was not identified, paid $27 million for the single-tenant building.

Whole Foods has eight years left on a lease it signed in 2009 at the site, which has served nearly one million customers over the last 12 months, according to JLL. The store features a Blue Route Taco truck and rooftop patio, a Cold Point Pub, and both interior and exterior dining areas.

Plymouth Meeting Mall is situated on Germantown Pike near the confluence of Interstates 276 and 476 outside Philadelphia. Nearly 300,000 vehicles traverse the three arteries each day, making it one of the busiest intersections in the state.

Its other tenants include the Legoland Discovery Center, an AMC theater, and Dave & Busters.

“Despite the evolving capital markets environment, there continues to be strong investor demand for freestanding grocers and grocery-anchored shopping centers,” said Jim Gallbally, a senior managing director of JLL’s capital markets advisory team.

The JLL team also noted that it has experienced pricing levels for grocery retail at or near valuations from the same time last year.

“We remain focused on the execution of our capital strategy,” said PREIT CEO Joseph Coradino. “This transaction is another example of how we are able to extract value from our portfolio.”