Although the company would not disclose the acquisition price, sources tell GlobeSt.com the Houston-based real estate investment trust paid between $130 per sf to $150 per sf for the 12.5-acre site on the southwest corner of Lyons and Glades Roads.

With this acquisition, says Drew Alexander, Weingarten president and chief executive officer, the REIT now owns five retail properties in Florida comprising one million sf. The company also owns the 316,000-sf Pembroke Commons neighborhood retail center in the Broward County community of Pembroke Pines.

"WRI plans to continue searching for appropriate acquisitions in the state," Alexander says in a prepared statement.

The REIT identified the seller as Connecticut General Life Insurance Co., a holding of New York-based Cigna Corp., though New York-based TimesSquare Capital Management Inc. managed the Boca Raton asset.

Cigna established TimesSquare Capital Management Inc. earlier this year as an asset-management subsidiary. Through its affiliates, TimesSquare managed about $2.7 billion in Cigna real estate assets as of the year ended 2000.

In a first-quarter performance report, Cigna Retirement and Investment Services identified Boca Lyons as one of the Charter Open-End Real Estate Fund investment properties.

Although local officials would not comment about the sale, the South Florida offices of Trammell Crow Co. represented the seller in the all-cash, as-is transaction.

Constructed in 1981, the retail center underwent $2.5 million in renovation work last year. It is about 93.5% occupied. Major tenants include Ross/Dress for Less, which leased about 33,000 sf following the renovation work.

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