Although retail real estate investment sales declined nearly 19% in the first half of the year, analysts believe the market fundamentals are strong enough that a rebound may occur. One sign of that may be in the suburbs, where a Phillips Edison affiliate acquired a grocery-anchored shopping center.

Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT bought Hoffman Village, a 159K SF shopping center at 2503-2599 West Golf Road, from a joint venture of Walton Street Capital and NewQuest Properties for $34.5M, according to Cook County Records. The center is anchored by a Mariano's Fresh Market and includes other high credit national tenants, including AT&T, GNC, Hallmark, Subway, Dunkin' Donuts and Anytime Fitness.

The Walton Street-NewQuest JV acquired Hoffman Village from RMS Properties for $27.4M in 2014. Hoffman Village is Phillips Edison's second suburban shopping center acquisition in the past year. The firm purchased Oak Mill Plaza in Niles in October. CBRE's George Good and Christian Williams represented Walton Street and NewQuest.