ATLANTA-Things are heating up on the retail front across the Southeast. Beyond several major deals in Florida this year, HFF has just closed two significant sales in Atlanta and Raleigh.

“There’s a significant uptick in terms of demand for good quality grocery-anchored product, particularly in the Southeast,” Richard Reid, a director at HFF, tells GlobeSt.com. “I think you’ll start to see continued increase in the number of trades that will occur over the course of 2011.”

Wakefield Commons, a 160,949-square-foot, grocery-anchored shopping center in North Raleigh, NC, traded for $24.7 million. Village Shoppes of Flowerly Branch, a 92,985-square-foot, grocery-anchored shopping center in north Atlanta, sold for $13.7 million. The HFF team representing the seller in both transactions was led by directors Reid and Jim Hamilton.