KANSAS CITY—As reported in GlobeSt.com last month, BIG Shopping Centers USA just made its first acquisition in Kansas City. And Stanley L. McElroy, Jr., president of the Beverly Hills, CA-based subsidiary of BIG Shopping Centers, now tells GlobeSt.com that in addition to Kansas City, the company also plans to expand even further into the Midwest, and has set its sights on centers in Omaha and Minneapolis.

“We're not a value-add investor,” he says, looking to do renovations and make quick sales. “We place our equity in places where we intend to stay for a long period of time,” and that means the company “wants to focus on areas where we think there is the long-term potential for job growth.”

Currently, most of the company's investments have been near coastal markets and in cities like Atlanta and Dallas. “But we don't have to invest there, or in a DC, Boston, Los Angeles or New York,” McElroy says. For example, the company began making big investments in Pittsburgh once the depressed steel town began diversifying its economy into banking, medicine, higher education and other sectors. “The city did a complete 180.”