A national retail heavyweight has bought a marquee open-air shopping center in Long Beach, one of the biggest cities in greater Los Angeles, as investors take advantage of a pricing reset to snap up high-quality properties.
Washington, D.C.-based Edens, a private real estate investment trust, acquired the 247,600-square-foot Long Beach Exchange shopping center from DJM Capital Partners and PGIM Real Estate for $134.5 million, or about $543 per square foot, according to CoStar data.
The seven-building complex — built in 2018 with a construction cost of about $100 million — is anchored by national retailers including Nordstrom Rack, T.J. Maxx, Old Navy, Whole Foods and Ulta Beauty. The property last traded in 2021, when DJM and PGIM paid $158.2 million, or nearly $639 per square foot.
The sale closes amid a national retail resurgence. Retail property transaction volume jumped 10% in the past year with a record number of new retail-focused investment funds chasing open-air properties, according to CoStar data.
In Los Angeles, retail transaction volume is up 30% year over year, with new construction down 30% and vacancy hovering near 6%, creating fierce competition for high-quality centers, according to CoStar research. The average sale price is now $410 per square foot, just 3% below the 2022 peak of $421.
“Buyers are stepping in now because pricing has finally reset to levels that make sense,” said Catherine Yeh, CoStar director of market analytics for Los Angeles. “You’re seeing institutional groups take advantage of that window before competition really heats up again."
Long Beach has seen strong sales activity in the past year, with retail deals including last fall’s $143 million sale of Long Beach Towne Center and July’s $27 million sale of a fully leased Vons supermarket, signaling continued investor confidence despite inflation and tariff concerns.
Retail buying spree
Buyer Edens has been reshaping its portfolio over the past two years, emerging as a net seller while selectively buying in markets it views as undervalued, according to CoStar analysis.
In December, the REIT sold the grocery-anchored Hunters Wood Village Center in Reston, Virginia, for $30.46 million after owning the property for more than a decade. It followed up in March by selling Westgate North Shopping Center in Tacoma, Washington, for $37 million.
But Edens has stayed active on the buy side, picking up Fairfax Court in Virginia for $52 million in June and Weston Road Shopping Center in Florida for $51 million in May.
The Long Beach Exchange deal adds to Edens' Los Angeles-area retail portfolio, which it launched in 2002 with the purchase of an 8,000-square-foot community center in Southeast Los Angeles and a 100,000-square-foot center in the San Gabriel Valley.
Seller DJM Capital, meanwhile, has also been recycling assets, unloading properties in Torrance and Fountain Valley as part of a broader capital-recycling strategy, according to CoStar data.
In 2025 alone, 28 retail-focused investment funds launched, raising at least $4.5 billion, the largest total since before the Great Recession. At the same time, years of limited construction have created a supply crunch.
As of late 2025, only 767 shopping centers larger than 50,000 square feet were listed for sale nationwide, barely half the number of centers that traded in 2024, according to CoStar data.