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Shopping Centers Today -> December 2001
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ACADIA REALTY FORMS VENTURE TO BUY COMMUNITY CENTERS
Acadia Realty Trust, Port Washington, N.Y., a shopping center REIT, has formed a joint venture with four of its key institutional investors to purchase up to $300 million worth of real estate assets. Under the terms of the agreement, which was announced in October, Acadia and the investors will contribute $20 million and $70 million respectively, to purchase neighborhood and community centers. Acadia will earn a prorated return on its invested equity, plus construction, leasing and management fees.The joint venture allows Acadia’s shareholders to invest even more with the company, said John Grisham, Acadia’s spokesman.
Grisham declined to name the four institutional investors involved in the deal, but Kenneth F. Bernstein, Acadia’s president and CEO, said they are all significant shareholders in Acadia. According to the company’s Web site, Morgan Stanley, of New York City, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, of Chevy Chase, Md. and Yale University, New Haven, Conn., are among major shareholders of the REIT.CAPPELLI BRINGING MIXED-USE COMPLEX TO DOWNTOWN WHITE PLAINS
White Plains, N.Y., is getting a boost: Cappelli Enterprises, a Valhalla, N.Y.-based commercial property developer, is planning a $300 million mixed-use development there. News of the project, called White Plains City Center, has been warmly received in the area, which has seen earlier plans for a mixed-use development project fall through and the departure of Macy’s.The downtown had been declining for about 20 years, hastened by the development of two regional centers: The 883,000-square-foot Galleria of White Plains is about one block away from the site, and The Westchester, 820,000 square feet, is about three blocks away. The old 300,000-square-foot Macy’s closed in 1998 and reopened in Galleria Mall. When commercial real estate developer Tishman Speyer, New York City, made plans to create a mixed-use project there, including a Sony-Loews cinema, it seemed that the downtown would spring back. But its plans were undermined by Loews’ financial problems. Tishman then scrapped plans for that project and sold the site to Cappelli Enterprises for $17 million.
White Plains City Center will include 540,000 square feet of quality retail stores, a movie theater, restaurants and entertainment.
National Amusements will operate a 15-screen, 3,600 seat theater there, said Geoff Thompson, a spokesman for Cappelli Enterprises. He said the entertainment area will also include a live community theater.
Thompson said that Cappelli demolished the old Macy’s store and broke ground on the new City Center in early November. The project is scheduled to be completed in time for fall 2003, before that shopping season gets under way.
The mixed-use project will also include two, 34-story luxury apartment towers and a new 2,370-space parking garage. Both will be linked to the shopping portion by a pedestrian bridge. Cappelli Enterprises had a little help with those components: The City of White Plains contributed $23 million toward the development of the $37 million parking garage. The developer partnered with Avalon Bay Cos., of Alexandria, Va., a housing developer, to manage and market the apartment buildings.RIDGE PLAZA SEEKS TENANTS FOR AFFLUENT NEW JERSEY SPOT
Strategic Resources Corp. (SRC), a New York City-based investment management firm, is sending out calls for tenants in a neighborhood center located in an affluent portion of Northern New Jersey.When completed, Ridge Plaza will comprise 120,000 square feet of retail space, including a 60,000-square-foot A&P supermarket anchor. Company officials hope to complement that anchor with small stores offering everyday merchandise. The site is at the intersection of Berkshire Valley and Chamberlain Roads in Jefferson Township, N.J., where it is surrounded by affluent residential neighborhoods.
Neighborhoods near the center’s site are becoming more affluent, said Barton Schack, an asset manager for SRC. The number of households in the Ridge Plaza trade area should increase by about 6.5 percent over the next five years.
The project is scheduled for a spring 2002 opening.
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