Secure Net Lease Surpasses $2 Billion C-Store Transactions

Recent convenience-store sales activity has pushed Secure Net Lease past $2 billion in C-store sales. The nationally-recognized brokerage that specializes in investment real estate throughout the United States, has closed escrow on 440 convenience-stores in 23 states encompassing the top retailers in the nation including Wawa, 7-Eleven, Sheetz, Nouria, QuikTrip, Circle K, GPM, Chevron, Shell, ARCO, Food City, Holiday Station, Kum & Go, Murphy USA, Mountain Express, Marathon, Thorntons, Speedway, Allsup’s, Yesway, Valero, and EG Group America.

The Dallas-based firm completed the sale of two newly constructed 7-Eleven stores, one in Lumberton, NC and another in Stafford, VA. Secure Net Lease’s Matt Scow represented the seller in the transactions. These deals reflect the long-standing partnership Secure Net Lease has built with the developer, which has resulted in 174 net lease property sales transactions totaling $590 million, including 95 convenience-stores.

“These latest sales involve new construction 7-Elevens with 15-year corporate leases. The East Coast buyer was seeking solid C-Store assets to fulfil their 1031 exchange and take advantage of bonus depreciation,” said Scow. “Secure Net Lease worked successfully with all the parties including buyer’s agent, lender and tenant to facilitate an on time and same day closing for both properties in two different states.”

Secure Net Lease C-Store Niche

Secure Net lease has researched roughly one-third of the estimated 150,000 C-stores in the U.S., which includes over 237 concepts and 22,000 unique convenience-store landlords the firm regularly contacts. “Our database is amazing. Many of the buyers I’ve procured over the years have come from it. Anytime I get a new C-store listing, I’ll spend the first few weeks calling through landlords of the same tenant or who own other stores in the area,” says Ed Benton who joined the Secure Net Lease team in 2017. Once a competitor of Secure Net Lease, Benton is now one of its top producing agents.

Industry Trends

Banks and drug stores once held the position as the darling of the net lease sales industry. But online shopping and mobile banking has changed the retail landscape. Convenience-stores have filled that void. C-store leases are often guaranteed by multi-billion-dollar corporations, they tend to perform well in a down economy, and have been largely unaffected by e-commerce.

“There has also been an overflow of new store growth and M&A activity in the C-store space during the last several years, which leads to more real estate sales,” says John Beckman, who recently joined Secure Net Lease, acclaimed for his specialized advisory services in the convenience and gas station space, with a focus on M&A and sale-leasebacks.

“Convenience and gas station properties benefit from bonus depreciation,” says Bob Moorhead, Secure Net Lease Managing Partner, who has built close relationships with 7-Eleven corporate level real estate executives based in the Dallas Fort Worth area. “In addition to keeping up with the latest 7-Eleven expansion plans,” says Moorhead, “these relationships have been instrumental in getting the crucial sales-reporting language added to leases for bonus depreciation buyers.”

Other Notable Secure Net Lease Transactions

• Secure Net Lease facilitated one of Texas’ largest convenience-store transactions on record between Yesway and Allsup’s. The firm completed a $237-million sale leaseback involving 76 Allsup’s convenience-store locations in multiple states. The Allsup’s Portfolio sale leaseback was an integral component of a larger nearly $1-billion acquisition transaction between Yesway and Allsup’s Convenience Stores. Press Release: https://securenetlease.com/secure-net-lease-closes-record-237-million-multi-state-c-store-portfolio/
• Secure Net Lease’s Joe Caputo and Anthony Pucciarello have listed and sold 31 QuikTrip sale-leaseback locations, totaling $153 million, throughout the Midwest and Southeast. “Initially this business was split between several other brokerage firms, but we earned our way in to being their go-to team for sale-leaseback listings,” says Caputo.

About Secure Net Lease

Secure Net Lease is a nationally recognized brokerage firm with offices in Dallas, TX and Los Angeles, CA that specializes in the acquisition and disposition of investment real estate. With over 100 years of collective experience, over $7.4B in sales, and transaction history in 48 states, Secure Net Lease consistently ranks among the top 10 of all brokerage firms nationally within their niche. Secure Net Lease works with developers, tenants, private and institutional owners to achieve market-setting cap rates for single- and multi-tenant net lease investments across the nation. Historically, 88% of Secure Net Lease offerings are new construction leased to nationally known tenants with 10+ years remaining on the primary term.

There has also been an overflow of new store growth and M&A activity in the C-store space during the last several years, which leads to more real estate sales.