ORLANDO-Chicago-based Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust is on a shopping spree. The company has been combing the Florida landscape for shopping centers and has a particular taste for Publix-anchored properties.

In July, Inland Real Estate Acquisitions, which purchases properties on behalf of Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust, purchased two Publix-anchored shopping centers in the Sunshine State—the 78,820-square foot Publix Shopping Center in St. Cloud near Orlando, and the 66,510-square-foot Lake City Commons in Lake City approximately 60 miles west of Jacksonville--for a total of about $20 million.

Because Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust is in the middle of a $5 billion public offering, there is little that the company can say in the press, says Joel Cunningham, media relations associate at Inland’s headquarters in suburban Oakbrook, Illinois.

According to a supplement that Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust filed with the SEC, the company purchased the Publix Shopping Center in St. Cloud for $9.4 million on July 30, 2010. The property, which has a 9.25% cap rate, has an annualized base rent of $1,016,380, an average annualized base rent per square foot of $12.89 and is 100% occupied. The seller was an unaffiliated, and unidentified, third party, St. Cloud-192, LLC. The acquisition was funded with about $1.9 million from the company’s public offering. At closing, Inland  Diversified St. Cloud 13^th, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary formed for the purpose of buying the St. Cloud property,  assumed a loan for $7.3 million secured by a first mortgage on the property.  There was no information on the identity of the lender for the acquisition.

On July 15, Inland purchased the Lake City Commons property at the intersection of Interstate-10 and Interstate-75 for $10.6 million. The property has a cap rate of 7.87%, its annualized base rent is $914,737 and its average annualized base rent per square foot is $13.75. The property is 100% occupied.

In Florida, Inland Diversified Real Estate Trust has also acquired Publix-anchored centers in Kissimmee, near Orlando, and Port St. Lucie, north of Palm Beach County. It now owns and manages 700,000 square feet in the state.

Inland Real Estate Acquisitions, Inc., the purchasing arm for various entities which are part of The Inland Real Estate Group of Companies, is one of the largest shopping center owners in North America and one of the top managers of retail property in the US. Inland-sponsored companies own and manage over 120 million square feet of commercial real estate in 47 states.