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

NEW YORK CITY-The Prescott Group, a locally based investment bank, has formed a division that will focus on the acquisition of outlet retail centers. Called Aerial Preferred Retail Group, the division last month acquired six centers across the country from Horizon Group Properties, for $110.4 million.

Aerial is looking to double or triple the number of centers in its portfolio over the next 18 to 24 months, Susan L. Stupin, managing director at Prescott, reports. The division would even be interested in purchasing some assets from the Mills Corp., which is looking for buyers.

Some other likely sellers are individual property owners or large developers looking to shed assets from sizable portfolios, Stupin says. "We think it has been under-focused in the institutional-investment community," she says of the outlet-center sector. "We think there's a real growth opportunity at attractive prices levels for us."