The McKinley Companies sells JANAF Shopping Yard in Norfolk, Virginia to Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc.

The McKinley Companies announced today that it has sold JANAF Shopping Yard to Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. (NASDAQ:WHLR), for $85.65 million. McKinley has owned JANAF Shopping Yard (“JANAF”), an 887,917-rentable square foot shopping center located in Norfolk, Virginia, since 1990; and it was the single largest retail asset in the McKinley portfolio. This sale marks a critical milestone in McKinley’s strategic effort to exit the retail real estate business. McKinley has sold over 15 retail real estate assets over the past 36 months, and it is expected to finalize its exit from retail real estate by Q2 2018.

JANAF was originally built in 1959, and it has undergone extensive expansion and redevelopment since McKinley acquired the asset. McKinley partnered with Walmart as they expanded their contiguous Supercenter and created a shared parking plate making Walmart a core shadow anchor. McKinley built a new ground up development on-site, and totally repositioned the main retail center. McKinley also repurposed the former Montgomery Ward property into successful retail shops via a complex adaptive re-use effort, and most recently delivered the new Wawa at the main entrance. JANAF was 94% occupied at closing, and anchored by prominent retailers including BJ’s Wholesale Club and Fuel Center (151,345 square feet in total); T.J. Maxx (37,383 square feet); Petco (17,000 square feet); Wawa (7,240 square feet); and Big Lots (42,500 square feet). Service and necessity providers such as the United States Postal Service, SunTrust Bank and others are also tenants of JANAF and serve the surrounding community. JANAF encompasses approximately 92 acres and includes 850,683 square feet of retail space in multiple buildings and 37,234 square feet of office space in one building.

“We congratulate Jon Wheeler and his team on this most important acquisition, and we are confident that they will do great things with JANAF which is located in their home town,” offered Albert M. Berriz, Managing Member, Chief Executive Officer, Board Member and Co-Owner of McKinley. “As we have shown, our exit from retail real estate has been carried out flawlessly and with enormous precision. My thanks to the McKinley team that has worked tirelessly to make this most complex disposition happen. We are very excited that this milestone event will be transformative for our enterprise,” further added Berriz.