"We want good locations, well-located centers our tenants want to be at," Louis M. Forbes, Primaris senior vice president and chief financial officer, told GSR. "We have an established network of resources, and a good reputation. People want to work with us."

The centers to be acquired are: the 310,000-sf enclosed Heritage Place in Owen Sound, Ontario; Garden City Square, with 160,000 sf in north central Winnipeg, Manitoba; Westbank Shopping Centre, with 74,000 sf in Westbank, British Columbia; and Northland Village Shoppes, with 7,000 square feet in Calgary, Alberta. Northland Village Shoppes is adjacent to Northland Village Shopping Centre, also owned by Primaris. In addition, the closing date for the previously announced C$186 million acquisition of Place D'Orleans, a 733,000-sf enclosed mall in Ottawa, Ontario, has been set for June 27.

Primaris was founded in July 2003 with six properties acquired from the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System. It acquires all retail formats, with the goal of owning Canadian mid-market retail centers or cities and dominant shopping malls in secondary cities. The company has no set goals for annual purchases, but typically spends about $200 million each year in acquisitions and C$25 million to C$75 million on redevelopments, Forbes said. That does not mean, however, that the expenditures thus far this year will preclude more deals later.