JLL Facilitates Sale of Lakeland Town Center as Intercontinental Real Estate Makes First Seattle-Area Retail Acquisition
AUBURN, Wash. — JLL has brokered the sale of Lakeland Town Center, a 125,233-square-foot grocery-anchored neighborhood retail center in Auburn, Washington, the firm announced July 23, 2026. EDENS was the seller, and Intercontinental Real Estate was the buyer. The deal marks Intercontinental's first retail acquisition in the Seattle metropolitan statistical area. Sale price was not disclosed.
The property is located at 1406 Lake Tapps Parkway E, serving as the primary retail hub for the master-planned Lakeland Hills community and drawing from the Lake Tapps recreational area, which attracts more than 2.3 million annual visitors.
Property Profile: Fully Leased, Long-Tenured Anchor
Built in 2002 and recently renovated, Lakeland Town Center is 100% leased at the time of sale. The center is anchored by a 67,200-square-foot Haggen Northwest Fresh store, wholly owned by Safeway. Additional tenants include McDonald's, Wells Fargo, UPS Store, Orangetheory Fitness, Club Pilates and Great Clips, with the tenant mix oriented around daily needs, food and beverage, and service retail.
More than 60% of the currently leased space has been occupied by the same tenants for over a decade. Average household income within one mile of the property exceeds $173,000, and the center ranks among the top neighborhood retail properties in the Seattle MSA by traffic and performance metrics.
JLL Capital Markets Team
JLL Capital Markets' Sales and Advisory team on the transaction was led by Senior Managing Directors Geoff Tranchina and Gleb Lvovich and Managing Director Daniel Tyner.
"Lakeland Town Center attracted exceptional buyer interest as a core retail asset with institutional-quality fundamentals," Lvovich said in a statement. "This marks Intercontinental's first retail acquisition in the Seattle MSA, underscoring both the strength of this irreplaceable property and JLL's ability to introduce new retail capital to key West Coast markets. The transaction is a clear signal of sustained demand for well-positioned, grocery-anchored centers in high-growth submarkets."
"The property represented exactly what investors are targeting in retail and offered a dominant, 100% leased grocery-anchored center with proven long-term tenancy in an irreplaceable Pacific Northwest location," Tyner said. "The depth and competitive sale process is a clear reflection of where core capital is focused on heading into the second half of 2026."
Strategic Context: Institutional Capital and Grocery-Anchored Retail
The transaction reflects broader institutional interest in grocery-anchored neighborhood centers, a property type that has drawn renewed attention from core and core-plus investors. Vacancy rates at grocery-anchored centers have remained near historic lows in many U.S. metros, and limited new construction in suburban markets has reinforced the scarcity value of well-located, stabilized assets.
Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation, an SEC-registered investment adviser founded in 1959, manages a real estate portfolio of approximately $12.25 billion as of June 30, 2026. The firm's investment strategies target core, core-plus, value-add, and development opportunities. The Lakeland Town Center acquisition is consistent with the firm's core strategy, given the property's full occupancy, long-tenured tenancy, and high-income trade area.
Suburban nodes in South King County, including Auburn and the Lake Tapps area, have benefited from population growth in master-planned communities, while new neighborhood retail construction has remained constrained by elevated construction costs and permitting requirements. Those dynamics have supported steady rent growth and low turnover at established centers in the submarket.
About the Parties
EDENS, founded in 1966, owns, develops and manages a portfolio of more than 100 open-air retail and mixed-use properties in high-growth markets across the United States. The company's stated focus is on creating community-oriented destinations through design, curation and programming.
JLL is a global commercial real estate services and investment management firm with annual revenue of $26.1 billion and operations in over 80 countries. JLL Capital Markets operates with more than 3,000 specialists in nearly 50 countries, offering investment sales and advisory, debt advisory, equity and fund placement, and related services.
Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation and its affiliates have managed, developed or owned collectively over $18.62 billion in real estate property since the firm's founding.