NORTHAMPTON — California-based real estate investment firm Realty Income Corp. has acquired eight Cumberland Farms locations in Hampshire County as part of a $1.5 billion sale-leaseback deal with the convenience store chain’s parent company, EG Group of Blackburn, England.

As part of its plan to buy 116 convenience store properties in Massachusetts, Realty Income began closing the property deals May 22, the Worcester Business Journal reported, laying out almost $35 million for Cumberland Farms businesses in Hampshire County alone. At the same time, the company spent $73 million for 14 properties in central Massachusetts, according to the journal.

In a sale-leaseback deal, the buyer generally acquires the property and leases it to the previous owner who is operating a business at the location. EG America, headquartered in Westborough, will continue to operate the 415 convenience stores under the Cumberland Farms, Fastrac, Tom Thumb and Sprint banners, according to trade news site CSP. As part of the transaction, it will pay an initial rent of $103 million per year with respect to these assets, CSP reported.

Realty Income, headquartered in San Diego, announced March 6 that it signed an agreement to acquire up to 415 single-tenant convenience store properties, 116 of them in Massachusetts.

“Our core investment philosophy is to partner with leading operators in industries that have demonstrated an ability to deliver favorable risk-adjusted returns over the long term,” Realty Income President & CEO Sumit Roy said in the press release. “We believe this portfolio includes brands that are among the most recognizable convenience store brands on the East Coast, and the convenience store industry has long been a well-performing staple in our real estate portfolio. We are pleased with the portfolio’s attractive real estate quality, store-level cash flow coverage, and average property size.”

EG Group acquired Cumberland Farms and its nearly 660 convenience stores in the Northeast and Florida in 2019 after establishing itself in the United States in 2018 as EG America by acquiring Kroger’s 762-site convenience store network, according to CSP.

Obsidian ML 6 LLC, an affiliate of Realty Income, recently acquired the following Hampshire County properties from affiliates of Cumberland Farms’ parent company, according to the Warren Group:

AMHERST: 35 Belchertown Road, $6,642,818

EASTHAMPTON: 231 Northampton St., $4,152,489

GRANBY: 74 W. State St., $3,947,266

NORTHAMPTON: 53 Main St., Florence, $3,663,447

SOUTH HADLEY: 507 Newton St., $1,876,116

SOUTHAMPTON: 130 College Highway, $1,969,267

WARE: 195 West St., $7,053,264

WILLIAMSBURG: 37 Main St., $5,574,495

Cumberland Farms spokeswoman Emily Pickering confirmed Friday several of these transactions were part of the sale-leaseback deal with Obsidian. She said Cumberland Farms sold the real estate to Obsidian and now leases the location.

The stores will continue to operate unchanged as Cumberland Farms with no staffing changes, she said.

Realty Income is a publicly-traded real estate investment trust, which owns more than 12,000 properties primarily under long-term net lease agreements with commercial clients, according to the press release.

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