Brixmor Property Group and the private investment firm Everview Partners have agreed to buy Slate Grocery REIT in a transaction valued at $2.34 billion, breaking the Toronto-listed trust’s 115 U.S. shopping centers into two pieces and handing Brixmor the operating contract for nearly all of them.
The companies announced the agreement on Sept. 28, 2026. Under the terms, Brixmor takes direct ownership of 23 grocery-anchored centers totaling roughly three million square feet for $636 million. A newly formed joint venture between Brixmor and funds affiliated with Everview buys the remaining 92 properties β about 12 million square feet β for $1.71 billion. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is investing alongside Everview as a strategic partner.
Slate unitholders will receive $13.00 per unit in cash, according to the Form 8-K Brixmor filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The consideration carries a ticking fee of $0.002482 per unit for each day after Jan. 20, 2027 that the deal has not closed β roughly $150,000 a day across the unit count Brixmor expects at closing.
A capital-light structure for a big retail portfolio
The split is the point. Brixmor is buying outright only the assets that sit inside territory it already covers: the 23-center portfolio is about 96% leased and located predominantly across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, with Publix, Harris Teeter and Kroger among the anchors. Every one of the 23 is grocery-anchored.
On the other 92 centers, Brixmor is putting up far less equity than an outright purchase would require. It takes a 20% common interest in the joint venture, with Everview holding 80%, contributes roughly $112 million of the cash purchase price, and adds a preferred equity investment of about $174 million that carries a 9% annual dividend. Brixmor serves as managing member and as asset manager, property manager and leasing representative for the venture, drawing fees for that work.
“This immediately accretive transaction is directly aligned with our growth strategy, adding 23 grocery-anchored centers in markets we know well, with long-standing grocer relationships we plan to grow, while further leveraging our operating platform in a capital efficient joint venture with Everview,” Brian T. Finnegan, Brixmor’s chief executive and president, said in the announcement.
Brixmor said in-place rents across the portfolios run about 32% below those in its current portfolio, and that it has identified roughly $100 million of redevelopment and outparcel opportunities within the 23-center piece, including several potential Publix projects. The company expects the acquired assets to deliver long-term net operating income growth in line with its stated 4% target, and the deal to be immediately accretive to Nareit funds from operations per share. Those are the company’s projections, not results.
Billy Rahm, Everview’s founder and chief executive, said the firm expects grocery-anchored, open-air retail to “continue to benefit from limited new supply and durable tenant demand.” Everview was founded in 2024.
What has to happen next
The arrangement agreement was signed Sept. 27 and approved unanimously by Slate’s board of trustees, with interested trustees abstaining, on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of independent trustees. Brixmor’s board approved it as well.
Slate unitholders still have to vote. The deal needs two-thirds of votes cast at a special meeting, plus a separate majority of votes cast excluding certain specified holders β the majority-of-the-minority test common to Canadian related-party transactions. Closing is expected in the first quarter of 2027 and is not subject to any financing condition; the outside date is March 27, 2027.
The break fees are asymmetric. Slate owes the buyer $31,428,225 if it terminates to accept a superior proposal, while the buyer owes Slate $62,856,450 β twice as much β if it breaches the agreement or fails to fund the purchase price once conditions are met. Slate’s external manager will see its management agreement terminated at closing in exchange for a fixed $50 million payment, and has agreed to support the deal and provide transition services afterward.
RBC Capital Markets is lead financial advisor and Wells Fargo Securities is also advising Brixmor and the joint venture, with Cushman & Wakefield acting as real estate advisor. Royal Bank of Canada provided Brixmor a bridge commitment covering its capital for both portfolios.
Capital is still finding open-air retail
The transaction lands on a day when a second large pool of money moved toward the same asset class. EDENS, the privately held national retail owner and developer, said on Sept. 28 that it had completed $850 million in equity commitments from existing institutional investors, earmarked for acquisitions and redevelopment across a 93-property portfolio it values at roughly $7.4 billion.
Grocery-anchored centers have been among the most sought-after property types in U.S. commercial real estate for several years, on the argument that supermarket traffic is hard to move online and that almost no new open-air retail is being built. It is the argument investors have used to keep bidding for these centers while office values and parts of the multifamily market repriced downward.
The deal also puts another Canadian-listed real estate trust on the path to disappearing into private and strategic hands, after H&R REIT agreed in August to break itself apart in a $6.7 billion transaction. Brixmor owns and operates 346 centers totaling about 63 million square feet today. The Slate portfolio would add 115 more to what it manages, though it will hold only a 20% common interest in 92 of them. More commercial real estate coverage is on RealtyWire.
