Ian Ritter is national online editor for GlobeSt.com/RETAIL

CLEVELAND-Developers Diversified Realty has completed a $128 million joint venture deal with Prudential Real Estate Investors in which it is contributing 12 grocery-anchored centers in the South and New York state. DDR will retain a 10% interest in the properties, as well as continue their leasing and management duties.DDR purchased eight of the centers from Benderson Development earlier this year and four from JDN Realty last year. "The sale of these neighborhood grocery-anchored centers allows us to focus on our core asset type, the market dominant community center" says Scott A. Wolstein, DDR's chairman and CEO.DDR contributed four grocery-anchored centers to its joint venture with Macquarie Bank earlier this year. In the next few weeks DDR officials say they expect to close another joint venture, a seven-center deal with an investor group led by Kuwait Financial Centre – Markaz, valued when it was announced last year at $169 million.The centers in the Prudential deal range in size from 60,488 sf to 310,921 sf. Tops supermarkets anchor most of the properties. Other anchors include Kroger and Super Bo-Lo grocery stores.This is not the first deal between Prudential and DDR. The companies have ventured together in about $900 million of real estate assets. Locally based DDR owns 460 centers, totaling 102 million sf, in 44 states.