"We achieved many milestones in the second quarter of 2003, including the substantial completion of the integration of IRT Property Co. into Equity One, the sale of three million shares of our common stock raising approximately $49 million, and meaningful progress on our acquisition, disposition and development programs," Chaim Katzman, chairman and CEO of Equity One, says in a statement.

"We have made significant headway in leasing a number of the vacancies we absorbed during the second quarter and have begun to see a significant increase in leasing activity over the past few months," he adds.Equity One's Feb. 12 statutory merger with IRT Property Co. has been recorded as a purchase and Equity One's results include IRT's activity from that date through the end of the quarter.

Equity One owns, develops and operates community and neighborhood shopping centers mainly in high-growth markets in the southern US. It owns 180 properties in 12 states. They include: 124 supermarket-anchored centers, nine drug store-anchored centers, 40 other shopping centers, one industrial property, five retail developments, one self-storage facility and non-controlling interests in three unconsolidated joint ventures. At mid-year, the 168 shopping centers in the REIT's core stabilized portfolio were 88.7% leased.