Grocery-anchored shopping centers continue to be the “golden child” of retail, said David Nix, managing director of acquisitions at Stockbridge.

Nix’s company recently acquired a 766,000-square-foot portfolio of six grocery-anchored retail properties from Branch Properties, including two properties anchored by Publix in metro Atlanta’s suburbs. The seller, Branch Properties, will maintain a minority ownership of the portfolio and continue to handle the management and leasing of the properties.

The metro Atlanta properties are located at 3370 Sugarloaf Parkway in Lawrenceville and 4045 Five Forks Trickum Road SW in Lilburn. Nix declined to share the cost of the transaction. Stockbridge plans to pick up an additional six properties over the next year, including a few more in metro Atlanta.

“Within grocery-anchored developments, service tenants seem to be, for the most part, immune to competition from e-commerce growth, which has hurt so many indoor mall tenants,” said Nix in an email.

Well-established grocery stores have leaned into pick-up and delivery services, Nix said, helping them weather the pandemic. Grocery-anchored retail often sees high foot traffic during peak and non-peak hours and offers relatively stable revenue flow.

Over the next year, Stockbridge plans to acquire an additional six properties, bringing the total portfolio to 1.25 million square feet.