EASTCHESTER, NY-Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc., a Greenwich, CT-based equity REIT, has acquired the 23,000-square-foot Eastchester Plaza shopping center in Westchester County from seller Willchester Holding LLC. The purchase price was undisclosed due to a confidentiality agreement between the buyer and seller.
The center, located 375 White Plains Rd., was built in 1963, renovated in 2006 and is anchored by a 13,500-square-foot CVS Pharmacy on Eastchester’s Route 22 retail corridor. In connection with the purchase, the company assumed a $4 million first mortgage, which matures in April 2012. The remaining equity needed to complete the acquisition was funded with available cash.
James Aries, Urstadt’s SVP and director of acquisitions, tells GlobeSt.com that the deal closely aligns with the company’s strategy of acquiring grocery- and drugstore-anchored retail in suburbs of New York City. The REIT is currently focusing on lower New York, southern Connecticut and Northern New Jersey.
“There’s a lot of retail viability here,” Aries says, noting that the company also owns the A&P center at 777 White Plains Rd. in Scarsdale up the road. “It’s a very, very attractive retail corridor. The property is well-positioned and anchored by one of the top performing CVS stores in lower Westchester.”
The shopping center contains a 4,000-square-foot vacant Blockbuster video store and a former dance studio that has generated “expressions of interest,” which Aries expects to be leased up by the first quarter of 2012. “We are very confident about the leaseability of the two spaces.”
The purchase follows the company’s November acquisition of another CVS-anchored shopping center at Fairfield Centre Shopping Center in Fairfield, CT for $17 million. In total, the REIT owns or has equity interests in 53 properties in the area, totaling 4.8 million square feet.
The company anticipates more acquisitions like Eastchester Plaza in the new year. “Retail seems to be less susceptible to some of the weak market conditions we’ve been seeing globally,” Aries says.
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