MARIETTA, Ga. — Sterling Organization, a private equity real estate investment firm based in West Palm Beach, Fla., announced it had bought Merchants Walk, a 271,992-square-foot, Whole Foods Market-anchored shopping center in Marietta on Wednesday.
The firm purchased the property for $93.2 million on behalf of its Sterling Value Add Partners IV fund.
The company said the investment was the 10th for Sterling’s $600 million equity institutional value-add fund, Sterling Value Add Partners IV, and its second purchase in the metro Atlanta area.
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The fund was also used to buy the 264,271-square-foot Kroger-anchored Presidential Commons in September 2024 for $42.5 million from EDENS, an owner, developer and operator of open-air retail and mixed-use properties.
Right now, Merchants Walk is currently 90% leased and features a Whole Foods Market, which has operated at the property since 2011, according to Sterling.
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Other businesses co-anchoring the center include Marshalls, PetSmart, Old Navy, DSW, Ulta Beauty, Office Depot and Georgia Theater Company Stadium Cinemas. Kohl’s shadow-anchors the property.
The shopping center features 26,000 square feet of vacant space and spans roughly 30 acres at the intersection of Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road. Both of those roads are heavily trafficked non-highway corridors in the metro area that carry more than 82,100 vehicles per day.
The center draws more than 3.1 million visitors annually and ranks No. 2 among 61 shopping centers within a five-mile radius by total visits.
The shopping center is in East Cobb, a submarket of Atlanta where 35,000 people live in the three-mile trade area. The residents living there have an average household income of approximately $230,000.
“Merchants Walk is exactly the type of asset we are targeting on behalf of our SVAP IV fund,” Jordan Fried, Principal at Sterling Organization, said in a statement. “The property is well-located, attracts an affluent customer base and maintains a deep roster of high-performing national tenants with long operating histories at the center.”
Fried also thanked EDENS for their professionalism and collaborative approach and acknowledged Kevin Hurley, Matt Karempelis and their team at CBRE’s National Retail Partners for their assistance in the purchase.
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