Life Ends at 39 For Bradley Real Estate Inc.

BOSTON-The real estate investment trust last week celebrated its 40th birthday, but the nation’s oldest REIT will forever be 39 years old. That’s because Bradley Real Estate Inc. has been absorbed by Heritage Property Investment Trust, a private REIT that is owned largely by the New England Teamsters pension fund and the Prudential Insurance Co. The combined assets give Heritage 151 neighborhood and community shopping centers in 27 states, with a total portfolio of nearly 24 million sf.

As part of the agreement, Heritage Chairman Thomas Predergast has replaced Bradley CEO Thomas D’Arcy. Although its name will cease to exist, the remnants of Bradley will have a homecoming of sorts, given that the Illinois-based REIT was created in the Hub in 1961 and remained there until 1996 when D’Arcy decided it made sense to move to the mid-west to be near the bulk of its assets, which were primarily retail.