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Regency (REG) Buys Whole Food-Anchored Roosevelt Square

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Regency Centers Corporation (REG - Free Report) announced that it has acquired Roosevelt Square — a multi-level shopping center — in Seattle, WA. The acquisition is in line with the retail real estate investment trust (REIT), which is seeking expansion in the market.

The shopping center, spanning across 150,000 square feet of space, is located in the premium trade area of the Roosevelt neighborhood, which displays solid demographics. In fact, the shopping center is fully leased and is anchored by Whole Food.

Per management, the acquisition is a strategic fit for the company as it is aimed at adding premium shopping centers in its urban portfolio on the back of acquisitions and developments. It anticipates that the property will draw decent footfall due to its proximity to the University of Washington and the neighboring communities.    

Notably, with this buyout, the company is fortifying its presence in the market where it currently offers 1.5 million square feet of community serving retail options. In fact, Roosevelt Square marks the company’s 11th property in the market. Other existing properties include Broadway Market, Grand Ridge Plaza, Klahanie Shopping Center and Sammamish Highlands.

Of late, mall traffic has been adversely affected due to the rapid shift in consumers’ shopping preferences toward online channels. With a number of retailers jumping on the dot-com bandwagon or reconsidering their footprint and opting for store closures, retail landlords, including The Macerich Company (MAC - Free Report) , Taubman Centers and Kimco Realty Corporation (KIM - Free Report) , have been facing challenging times.

Amid these, shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have underperformed the industry over the past year. While the company’s shares have declined 1.6%, the industry has gained 9.8% during the same time period.


 

Nonetheless, at such a time, Regency is focused on building a premium portfolio of grocery-anchored shopping centers through tenant-driven acquisitions. Such centers are usually necessity driven and drive a dependable traffic.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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