Newport Capital Partners Eyeing Neighborhood Retail Plaza Deals in Carolinas, Texas and Florida 

Chicago-based Newport Capital Partners, longtime niche specialists in neighborhood retail plazas, having just bought Elston Logan Plaza in Chicago’s trendy Bucktown neighborhood for $29.25 million, is eyeing expansion outside its usual Midwest stomping ground, Newport principal Ben Andrews told Connect CRE in an interview this week.

“We have raised $150 million of a $300 million target in our third fund,” Andrews said. “We are spreading our wings outside of our usual Midwest base and are looking at deals in fast-growing locales like Florida, Texas and the Carolinas.”

Andrews said Newport’s latest deal has been in North Carolina, where the company has just recently put a property under contract.

“We have always had a niche in the neighborhood shopping plaza that is anchored by a quality tenant like HomeGoods in the Elston Logan Plaza we just bought,” says Andrews, adding that the convenience factor of the location in good neighborhoods has insulated Newport from some of the problems that investors in retail have had in “High Street type retail locales.”

Andrews says that Newport has been active in cities all over the Midwest, places like St. Louis, Minneapolis and Kansas City, as well as, of course, Chicago.  

Newport’s niche strategy appears to have paid off. Recently, Andrews said, the partnership sold Edens Plaza in the tony north Chicago suburb of Wilmette for $110 million, having earlier paid just $86 million for the property.