Marcus & Millichap has arranged the sale of the ground-leased interest in Manassas Junction, a grocery-anchored shopping center in Virginia. The property traded for $10.22 million in a transaction described by the brokerage team as atypical due to its land-lease structure and the financing environment at the time of sale.
Executive managing director Dean Zang of Marcus & Millichap, based in Washington, D.C., led the assignment. According to Zang, the deal was notable because it involved a land-lease sale with limited visibility into the shopping center’s rent roll. He added that prevailing interest rates made traditional financing difficult, effectively necessitating an all-cash acquisition for the buyer.
Zang and colleague David Crotts, also with Marcus & Millichap, marketed Manassas Junction on behalf of the seller, identified as a local private individual. The team also sourced the purchaser, a 1031 exchange investor who completed the acquisition through three separate entities. The investor has prior familiarity with the asset, having acquired the outparcels leased to Taco Bell, Burger King and Suntrust Bank in 2018.
Manassas Junction was originally built in 1981 and comprises 67,022 square feet of retail space on a 9.2-acre site. The center is anchored by H Mart, which assumed the grocery space in 2015 following the closure of the previous grocer, Giant Foods, in 2012. The shopping center is located at 8805 Centreville Road within the Washington D.C. metro area, providing regional access and visibility for both the anchor and the inline tenants.
The transaction reflects ongoing investor interest in grocery-anchored retail centers, particularly those with established tenants and long operating histories. At the same time, the need for an all-cash structure in this instance underscores the impact of higher borrowing costs and limited lease transparency on how buyers approach risk and capital deployment in the current market.
