PHILADELPHIA — Cedar Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: CDR) has acquired Quartermaster Plaza, a 456,000-square-foot retail property in Philadelphia, for $92.3 million, including the assumption of $53.4 million in fixed-rate debt. A publicly traded REIT, Cedar Realty will initially fund the purchase through the company’s credit facility, pending anticipated proceeds from asset sales.
Constructed in 2004, the shopping center was 98 percent leased at the time of the sale and anchored by BJ’s Wholesale Club. With this purchase, Cedar Realty owns five shopping centers in Philadelphia totaling more than 1.3 million square feet, as well as the largest share of open-air retail space within the city of any publicly traded REIT.
“We are excited about the acquisition of Quartermaster Plaza,” says Bruce Schanzer, president and CEO of Cedar Realty. “Our now dominant presence in the South Philadelphia submarket allows us to leverage our operating and leasing expertise to continue to serve the needs of this large and growing urban population.”
Quartermaster Plaza is located on more than 43 acres and has already been approved for expansion of up to 98,000 square feet. The property is adjacent to South Philadelphia Shopping Center, a 283,000-square-foot, grocery-anchored center also owned by Cedar Realty.
Other tenants at Quartermaster Plaza include Home Depot, Staples, Planet Fitness, PetSmart and Walgreens. Located at 2280 W. Oregon Ave., the site is in proximity to I-76 and I-95, in addition to the Philadelphia International Airport.
Headquartered in Port Washington, N.Y., Cedar Realty Trust owns and operates a portfolio of 66 properties totaling nearly 10 million square feet, primarily in grocery-anchored shopping centers in the Washington, D.C.-to-Boston corridor. The company’s stock price closed at $6.16 per share on March 25, up from $5.80 per share a year ago.
— John McCurdy