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 at $169 million when it was announced last year.

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.