Benderson Completes Sale-Leaseback of 4.5M-SF Fred Meyer Portfolio

The sale-leaseback of a 4.5-million-square-foot 28-property portfolio of absolute net-leased Fred Meyer superstores on 380 acres across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska was recently completed by Florida-based Benderson Development. The property provides new ownership with a stable income stream secured by Kroger’s corporate guarantee and enhanced by contractual rent increases of 5 percent every five years, say brokers associated with the sale.

Benderson Development stood out on price and terms against a competitive field of more than 20 qualified bidders. Benderson has been aggressively growing its portfolio during the last few years. The Fred Meyer portfolio represents the company’s sixth major acquisition in the past 18 months, with such purchases exceeding $1.5 billion.

“The Pacific Northwest has always been one of our top areas of interest to grow our national footprint,” said Randy Benderson of Benderson Development.

Institutional Property Advisors (IPA), a division of Marcus & Millichap, was the exclusive adviser to Cincinnati-based The Kroger Co. and Portland-based Fred Meyer Stores Inc.

“This was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to acquire a portfolio of dominant essential retail stores,” says Patrick Toomey, IPA executive director. “Kroger will execute brand new 25-year absolute net leases for each property with an initial portfolio-wide base rent totaling $25 million per year.”

Tom Lagos, Toomey, Jose Carrazana, Jessica Baram and Ryan Garcia represented Fred Meyer Stores Inc.