Phillips Edison acquires retail complex in Nebraska

The US real estate investment firm – expected to close on its $500m retail fund later this year – has picked up the Deerfield Plaza complex in Omaha, Nebraska.

Phillips Edison has purchased the 129,914-square-foot Deerfield Plaza in Omaha, Nebraska. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The property is anchored by retail outlets Baker’s Supermarket and Walgreens.

According to Phillips Edison acquisitions officer Lyn Harper in a statement today, the deal represents the second grocery-anchored acquisition in Omaha for the firm. “While the submarket has recently seen increased new development, we believe there continues to be a place for the community anchored center,” said Lyn, who added that it likes the “fundamentals of the healthy markets of the central states” and hopes to “purchase more centers similar in quality and location to Deerfield.

Cincinnati-based Phillips Edison is expected to close on its $500 million (€323 million) fund, Phillips Edison Fund IV, towards the end of the year.

The firm focuses on distressed neighborhood shopping centers across the US. “The stores we deal with are about necessity-based goods. People may be cutting back on some areas but we all still need food and groceries,” Sigrid Campbell, vice president of Phillips Edison Capital, told PERE last month.