JACKSONVILLE-The North American Development Group, a Toronto-based company with its US headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, purchased two retail properties in Florida. The first was a 42,448-square-foot, Publix-anchored shopping center in Jacksonville, for which it paid $8.7 million. The sale was not an arms-length transaction, according to the Duval County property records. The second purchase was an 18.5-acre-parcel in Vero Beach, for an undisclosed sum. The developer is planning to build a Publix shopping center at this site as well.

The North American Development Group, which was founded in 1977, focuses exclusively on shopping centers. It has acquired 12 existing centers and super market development sites over the past eight months with a total gross leasable area of over one million square feet.

The Jacksonville property North American Development just purchased, known as Riverside Market Square, is located in the historic Riverside neighborhood just south of downtown. The seller was Greenboro, North Carolina-based Bell Partners. The eight-year-old property is a stable, mature shopping center with a 28,000-square-foot Publix, says Jeff Preston, vice president for acquisitions and development for the North American Development Group, who is based in Palm Beach Gardens.

There are only two vacant bays at Riverside, which represent about 5% of the space, says Preston. “Since we closed on the center, and even before that, we’ve had very strong tenant interest,” he says. Riverside Market Square has a number of small shop tenants, including a Starbucks on one end and Sushi Caf