Sample — representative deal
Dollar Stores — NNN Properties for Sale
Dollar stores are the yield engine of the net lease market: investment-grade credit at cap rates that start where QSR pricing stops. Nearly every 1031 buyer sees a Dollar General in their identification window, and the sector's 35,000+ combined U.S. locations mean inventory is never scarce. The skill is separating durable stores from boxes the chains will walk away from.
Dollar Stores Tenants
Current Listings — Representative Deals
Sample — representative deal
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Sector economics
The model is simple retail arithmetic: cheap rural or secondary-market land, a $1.2–1.5M build cost, and rents of $8–12 per square foot that no other national credit will pay in those markets. Dollar General's average store rings roughly $1.6M a year in sales; Dollar Tree skews suburban with its $1.25–$7 price points; Family Dollar targets urban and rural low-income trade areas. Margins are thin, so the chains manage real estate ruthlessly — they will close a store over a rent bump that looks trivial to a landlord, which is exactly the discipline you're underwriting when you buy one.
Lease norms
The standard new-build package is a 15-year absolute-net base term (Dollar General moved to this prototype lease around 2012; Dollar Tree and Family Dollar run 10–15) with five-year options and flat base rent — escalations usually live in the option periods at 10% steps. Flat primary-term rent is the sector's quiet drawback: your real return depends on the tenant staying through options. Older deals carry NN structures with landlord roof-and-structure duties; on a metal building entering year 12, that obligation is not theoretical.
The tenant roster
Dollar General (S&P BBB, 20,000+ stores) is the volume leader and the cleanest paper. Dollar Tree brings the strongest same-store economics of the three banners but shorter typical terms. Family Dollar, under new private ownership since 2025, is the value play — wider caps, more variance, and store-level numbers that matter more than ever.
Risk notes
Three screens before you offer. Market position: map every dollar store and the nearest Walmart within 15 minutes; a town of 4,000 with three dollar banners is over-stored and someone's lease won't be renewed. Building vintage: post-2015 prototypes (9,100 square feet for DG) with absolute-net leases are the institutional standard; 1990s conversions are not. Rent basis: sale-leasebacks and developer flips sometimes carry rent 20% above what the market would re-let at — divide asking rent by local per-foot comps, because at these price points ($1.1–1.8M typical) a mispriced lease is most of your equity.
Dollar Stores FAQs
Why are dollar store cap rates higher than fast food cap rates?
Real estate, not credit — Dollar General carries an investment-grade rating that most QSR franchisees can't match. But the buildings are commodity metal-and-brick boxes in small markets, often the only national retailer in town. If the tenant leaves, backfill options are thin and rents drop. Buyers price that re-lease risk at 150–250 basis points over a comparable-credit QSR pad on a metro corner.
Is a 15-year Dollar General lease really passive?
The newer 'DG Standard' leases are genuinely absolute net — tenant handles roof, structure, parking, everything — and those are the ones worth paying up for. Plenty of older paper makes the landlord responsible for roof and structure on a building that costs $85–110 per square foot to re-skin. The difference shows up as roughly a half-point of cap rate and it is worth every basis point.
What makes a good dollar store location if the town has 3,000 people?
The store's trade area, not the town line. A strong rural Dollar General pulls from a 10–15 mile radius where it's the closest general retailer — check the distance to the nearest Walmart Supercenter, because 15+ minutes of drive time is the moat. Store-level sales above the $1.6M chain average, a hard-corner site on the through-highway, and a post-2015 prototype building are the quality tells.
How did the 2024–25 Family Dollar sale change the underwriting?
Dollar Tree sold Family Dollar to private-equity buyers in 2025 for roughly $1B, ending the combined-company guarantee story. Existing leases keep their original guarantor language, so read which entity actually signed yours. Hundreds of underperforming Family Dollar stores closed during the same period — making store-level sales disclosure and market position more decisive than the brand name.
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