A&G Realty Partners announced the launch of a joint venture with Joe McKeska, a 25-year veteran of the grocery business who previously headed the real estate operations of Southeastern Grocers, LLC and Supervalu, Inc.

The new Oak Brook-based venture—Elkhorn Real Estate Partners--offers grocers, retailers of all types and investors an integrated, data-driven pathway toward maximizing the value of their real estate assets, said Andrew Graiser, Co-President of A&G Realty, a Melville, N.Y.-based real estate firm with offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

“Piecemeal approaches to real estate portfolios are simply not enough in today’s environment,” Graiser said. “Elkhorn brings together one of the leading strategic thinkers in the U.S. grocery sector with our nationally recognized capabilities in asset disposition, lease restructuring, valuations, acquisitions, strategic reinvestment, and retail property portfolio optimization. The end result is a truly holistic solution.”

Elkhorn will work to drive asset and portfolio value for retailers and investors in alignment with their broader business strategies via approaches such as:

• Repositioning assets and portfolios, including identifying opportunities for new or replacement stores, redevelopment of existing stores, and strategic consolidations;

• Recapitalizing assets in ways that leverage financial markets to increase capital availability;

• Reinvesting in retail operating and real estate assets to improve performance, including creation of co-investment partnerships between landlords and tenants; and

• Restructuring real estate assets in alignment with broader market and business plans through lease term, and/or ownership structure modifications and mitigation of surplus properties.

With his extensive background in business strategy, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate operations and development, Elkhorn President McKeska “is ideally suited to guide the strategic efforts of grocers and other retailers,” commented A&G Co-President Emilio Amendola. “Joe has led the real estate strategies of some of the biggest supermarket companies. But his approach is relevant across all categories. It hinges on helping executive teams see beyond individual locations to maximize the strategic value of their overall portfolios.”

The new joint venture will leverage advanced data and analysis, including unique, location-based modeling and geospatial data. “Working with the best data firms in the business, Elkhorn merges leading-edge research with Joe’s decades of experience in retail strategy and analysis to create unique deliverables for our clients,” Amendola said. “The end result is enormously useful. It connects the dots to ensure that real estate portfolios truly support operational success.”

Over the course of his 25-year career, the Oak Brook-based McKeska has successfully developed, acquired, disposed of and managed over 130 million square feet of real estate and acted as a key leader in mergers and acquisitions valued in excess of $12 billion. Prior to Elkhorn, he served as Senior Vice President of Real Estate for Southeastern Grocers, which operates 750 stores in seven states under the Winn Dixie, Bi-Lo and Harvey’s banners. During his 17-year career with Supervalu, Inc. and predecessor entities, McKeska held top real estate positions, including Group Vice President of Real Estate. During his tenure, the $35 billion company maintained operations in 42 states, with 1,500 company-operated stores, 940 licensed stores and 2,700 independent stores serviced by its wholesale business.

According to McKeska, the challenges in today’s marketplace are such that retailers need to be both proactive and strategic about their real estate. He cites the recent chainwide shutdowns at Limited Stores and Sports Authority, and multiple store closures at Sears/Kmart and Macy’s, to name a few. In the grocery sector, meanwhile, new entrants such as Amazon Fresh, Lidl and a raft of specialty chains continue to ramp up the already intense competition, McKeska added. “With respect to real estate, the founders of Elkhorn are of one mind,” he said. “We understand that in today’s environment a strong retail business starts with a healthy real estate portfolio.”