ATLANTA-In a move to get more hands on with its shopping centers in the Southeast, Westwood Financial Corp. has opened a new management office in Atlanta. The shopping center owner-operator plans to double its Georgia portfolio over the next five years.
Westwood has been active in the Southeast—and is getting more active. In 2010 the firm closed on The Lynnwood Collection an 86,662-square-foot shopping center anchored by Kroger Supermarket in Raleigh, as well as Main Street at Town Center, an 113,615-square-foot neighborhood shopping center in front of the Town Center at Cobb Mall outside of Atlanta. Westwood is preparing to close on three additional Atlanta-area retail properties.
“We’ve bought several properties in the Southeast over the last five years and we’ve outsourced most of the leasing and some of the management, making day-to-day decisions out of our Dallas,” Joe Dykstra, executive vice president at Westwood Financial, tells GlobeSt.com. “Boots on the ground within the same geographic area is the optimum way to maximize cash flow and to manage properties.”
Martha Stocks, a senior property manager at Westwood Financial, will head up the new office. Westwood will take up residence in the Main Street at Town Center complex, which the firm recently purchased. The office will launch with two agents. The firm plans to eventually expand to six as the portfolio grows.
The portfolio will undoubtedly grow. Over the past five years, the firm purchased 12 shopping centers totaling more than 1 million square feet in the Southeast, including in Georgia, Florida and the Carolinas, but has not had an office in the region. Westwood has offices in Scottsdale, Ariz., Dallas and Los Angeles.
“This is a natural progression,” Dykstra says. “We are very committed to hands-on management. With the economy and the state of our business being what it is, there’s no better way to do manage than to do it yourself—and do it with great energy and commitment.”
Westwood’s portfolio includes more than 100 shopping centers and retail properties in 24 metropolitan markets. The firm places its acquisitions focus on mature neighborhood shopping centers that are anchored by the number one or number two grocery stores in the respective properties’ MSA. Westwood also seeks out urban-anchored or unanchored retail properties in major cities.
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