Town Lane’s first splash in the retail sector is more like a cannonball.

The real estate investment firm, founded in 2024 by former Blackstone executive Tyler Henritze, acquired retail operating platform ShopOne Centers and its portfolio of 27 grocery-anchored shopping centers, it announced on Tuesday.

Town Lane, alongside an undisclosed international institutional investor and ShopOne CEO Chris Reed, acquired ShopOne from London-based private investment firm Pantheon. The new ownership group plans to expand ShopOne's portfolio with more value-add retail assets and portfolios, according to a release.

“This investment highlights our team’s recent achievements and robust operating and investment capabilities,” Reed said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more excited to pursue new acquisition opportunities across the retail asset spectrum with Town Lane’s institutional expertise.”

Pantheon formed a joint venture partnered with New York-based ShopOne in March 2022, seeded with ShopOne's portfolio at the time, targeting the acquisition of more than $1B in grocery-anchored shopping centers across the U.S.

The venture’s first acquisition came in September 2022, a 40K SF neighborhood shopping center in Cary, North Carolina, Commercial Search reported.

The companies moved quickly after that. Last year, the partnership grabbed a Publix-anchored center near Atlanta and two suburban strip centers in Philadelphia. One of its more recent acquisitions was a 114K SF Kroger-anchored retail property in Southeast Houston.

“We are excited about the opportunities ahead with the ShopOne team led by CEO Chris Reed, who is also investing in the transaction,” Henritze said in a statement. “ShopOne’s differentiated capabilities position us well to continue investing across the retail landscape.”

Town Lane, which Henritze co-founded with his sister, former Sycamore Partners principal Parker Morse, closed in May 2024 on its $1.25B inaugural funding round — surpassing its $1B target — and embarked on a series of opportunistic investments.

Its first purchase was in August 2024, a majority stake in a struggling Atlanta office tower for 30% less than its prior sale price.

In December, Town Lane had closed or was under contract to close on six senior housing properties that total nearly $300M in gross asset value, according to a release. It launched a senior housing platform named Arcole, focused on pursuing value-add and opportunistic senior housing opportunities across the country.

The ShopOne deal appears to be Town Lane's first entry into retail. Morse declined to comment to Bisnow on the deal beyond the press release but confirmed it has closed.