JANAF shopping center courtesy Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust.
Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust Inc., a company with a primary focus on grocery-anchored centers, said Monday that WHLR-JANAF LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm, has purchased JANAF Shopping Yard shopping center in Norfolk for $85.6 million.
At 887,917-square-feet, JANAF is the largest open-air shopping center in the region. According to CBRE broker Ryan Sciullo who, along with Bill Kent handled the sale, the transaction represents the largest non-mall retail sale in Hampton Roads in the past five years.
When it opened in 1959, JANAF Shopping Yard was one of the first large suburban shopping centers in the U.S. The property’s original investment group was composed of retired and active-duty military personnel who named the center JANAF, an acronym for Joint Army Navy Air Force.
