Cedar Digs Into $400M Development Pipeline

PORT WASHINGTON, NY-With Cedar Shopping Centers’ stabilized properties 96% leased, the shopping center REIT has shifted from acquisition to development mode. Its development pipeline of approximately a dozen properties is underway at an aggregate investment of between $300 million and $400 million.

Development has already begun at two large projects in Trexlertown and Harrisburg, PA among others, and their progress is “moving along very effectively,” said Leo Ullman, president, chairman and CEO, during a third-quarter conference call. He expects the locally based REIT to begin to realize benefits from pipeline openings in late 2008, extending into 2009 and beyond.

By Sept. 30, the company had completed or nearly completed its acquisitions for the year at a total cost of $290 million, including land to expand on next to the trusts’ Brickyard Plaza shopping center in Berlin, CT. The firm increased its penetration in the southern New England and Mid-Atlantic coastal markets. Stabilized properties were 96% leased at the end of third quarter.