PITTSBURGH, PA-The Waterfront, one of the largest, open-air shopping centers in the Northeast, has a new owner with plans to revitalize its retail operations. BIG Shopping Centers USA and M&J Wilkow, Ltd. formed a joint venture that has purchased 765,000 square feet at The Waterfront, a 1.4 million-square-foot mixed-use center in suburban Pittsburgh. The terms were not disclosed.
“We make this an investment with an eye to hold the shopping center for a significant period of time,” Stan McElroy, president, BIG USA tells GlobeSt.com. “We are going to invest substantial dollars into the shopping center to reinvigorate it.”
The Waterfront, situated on 265 acres along the Monongahela River, is the region’s second-largest shopping center. It occupies the former site of US Steel’s Homestead Steel Works, once the largest steel mill in the world.
BIG USA, an investment firm headquartered in Beverly Hills, Ca. and M&J Wilkow, a full-service real estate company headquartered in Chicago, closed the purchase deal on October 1.
Martin J. Sweeney, vice president for acquisitions, M&K Wilkow, tells GlobeSt.com that the partners searched a long time before deciding to make a first acquisition in the Pittsburgh area, due to its healthy economy.
“Retail is very strong, the unemployment rate is well below national average and the area is benefiting from growth in the area of financial services and also energy,” Sweeney says. “There is a tremendous energy potential in the region’s natural gas fields.”
Both Sweeney and McElroy spoke of the excellent “synergy” of their companies’ investment and growth plans.
The Waterfront is located seven miles from downtown Pittsburgh, and stretches across the boroughs of Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall. The retail acquisition includes the power center and lifestyle parts of a center that also includes a section of office buildings. Several big-box stores were not included in the sale.
“The Waterfront was once a national showcase of Pittsburgh’s post-steel industry economic revival,” says Sweeney. “We plan to recapture that spirit and bring this wonderful retail destination to a much higher level.”
He noted that over 80% of the tenants are original to the 2001 grand opening and that last year AMC Loews attracted more than a million customers.
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