Asana Partners Acquires Grocery-Anchored Hills Village Center in Bedminster, NJ in JLL-Brokered Deal

Asana Partners has acquired The Hills Village Center, a 110,000-square-foot grocery-anchored retail property at 550 Hills Drive in Bedminster, New Jersey, from Lena Centers, a Longpoint Partners subsidiary. JLL Capital Markets represented the seller in the transaction, the firm announced Sept. 30, 2026.

Property and Location Details

The Hills Village Center sits on approximately 12.7 to 13 acres at the intersection of Hills Drive and Routes 202/206, one of Somerset County's busiest retail corridors. The property is fully leased and anchored by Kings Food Markets and CVS, with a tenant mix that also includes Starbucks, PNC Bank, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, Cold Stone Creamery, Great Clips, Orangetheory Fitness, and a range of dining and service-oriented retailers. Kings Food Market draws more than 380,000 visits annually, providing a consistent traffic base for co-tenants.

The center was originally built in 1988. Traffic counts along the surrounding road network include more than 19,000 vehicles per day on Hills Drive and more than 75,000 vehicles per day on Route 202. Interstate 287 is accessible within minutes of the site, reinforcing the property's regional connectivity.

Affluent Trade Area Underpins Investor Appeal

The Hills Village Center draws from one of New Jersey's more affluent suburban trade areas. Within a five-mile radius, the property serves a population of nearly 60,000 residents with an average household income exceeding $230,000 and a median home value above $711,000. More than 67% of residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher. The trade area also includes more than 83,000 daytime employees within five miles, providing a substantial weekday customer base for the center's grocery, dining, banking, and service tenants.

Those demographic characteristics, combined with limited competing grocery-anchored supply in the submarket, reflect conditions that have drawn sustained investor interest to necessity-based retail in affluent suburban markets. Grocery-anchored centers have remained among the more actively traded retail property types in 2026, with market benchmarks placing core grocery-anchored cap rates broadly in the range of 5.25% to 6.8% depending on asset quality, geography, and lease term.

Seller's Repositioning Sets Up the Disposition

Longpoint Partners acquired the center in 2024 and operated it through its Lena Centers platform. At the time of that earlier transaction, the property was approximately 89% occupied with a weighted average lease term of 4.7 years. Lena Centers subsequently executed a leasing campaign that included more than 10,620 square feet of new leases announced in March 2026, bringing the center to full occupancy ahead of the disposition to Asana Partners.

"Lena Centers has cultivated a thriving retail destination that serves as the commercial hub for The Hills community and surrounding areas," said Jose Cruz, senior managing director at JLL Capital Markets. "The successful disposition to Asana Partners reflects both the quality of the asset and the strength of the Somerset County retail market, where strong demographics and limited competition continue to drive investor interest."

JLL Team and Buyer Profile

The JLL Capital Markets team that led the assignment included Senior Managing Directors Jose Cruz and Kevin O’Hearn, Senior Director J.B. Bruno, and Senior Associate Cole Doyon.

Asana Partners is a retail real estate investment firm with more than $9 billion of neighborhood assets under management. The firm is active in growth markets across the United States and maintains offices in Charlotte, Atlanta, Boston, Columbia, Denver, Los Angeles, and New York. The Hills Village Center acquisition expands the firm's presence in northern New Jersey, a market characterized by high household incomes, strong daily-needs retail demand, and constrained supply of grocery-anchored product.

Lena Centers, headquartered in Boston, operates with regional offices across 10 markets in the United States. The platform focuses on grocery-anchored neighborhood centers and is a subsidiary of Longpoint Partners.

Market Context

The transaction reflects broader momentum in the grocery-anchored retail investment market, where necessity-based centers anchored by high-performing grocers have attracted consistent capital. Northern New Jersey's retail vacancy for strip and neighborhood centers has been reported below 5%, reinforcing the appeal of well-located, fully leased assets in the region. The Hills Village Center combines a high-traffic location, a proven grocery anchor, a pharmacy co-anchor, and an affluent surrounding consumer base — characteristics that align with the profile investors have most actively pursued in 2026.