SJC Establishes $1B East Coast Retail Venture

SJC Ventures sees a lucrative opportunity to build grocery-anchored retail hubs up and down the East Coast, recruiting a mystery company to partner on a $1 billion bet.

Atlanta-based SJC is partnering with a global life insurance company to construct retail complexes along the East Coast, the Commercial Observer reported. The insurance firm is serving as a “programmatic joint venture equity partner” in the endeavor, according to a release.

Projects are expected to include “organic grocer-anchored retail centers and adjacent luxury multifamily developments.”

The joint venture received a $300 million equity tranche. There are multiple sites in pre-development with anchor tenants in place and three seed developments the partnership has closed on, spanning two shopping centers and one multifamily property.

In Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, the venture is developing a 121,000-square-foot retail center — anchored by Whole Foods — and an adjacent 341-unit luxury multifamily building. Truist provided a $69 million construction loan for the residential portion and a $44 million floating-rate loan for the retail portion.

And in Wesley Chapel, Florida, the venture is working on a 76,000-square-foot, Whole Foods-anchored retail center, pulling in a $30 million floating-rate construction loan from Seacoast Bank.

Other development deals are pending in Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s John Alascio, who said the developments would largely “target affluent markets with strong tenant appeal and economic resilience.”

A team from Cushman & Wakefield, including Alascio, Alex Hernandez and Aaron Graves, arranged the joint venture.

SJC is led by principals Jeff Garrison, Jeff DeHart and Fain Hicks. The company is active in nine states and has completed more than 60 projects, developing more than 4.5 million square feet of leasable area in the retail sector.

At the start of the year, the firm sold a Whole Foods-anchored shopping center in Boynton Beach, Florida, for $49.2 million to a Russian investor.

— Holden Walter-Warner