Cole Acquires Retail Center in Brooklyn, NY, for $124M

By Gail Kalinoski, Contributing Editor

In one of its largest multi-tenant retail transactions of the year, Cole Real Estate Investments has acquired Canarsie Plaza, a 278,000-square-foot shopping center in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn for $124 million.

“This high-quality asset is attractively located in Brooklyn, a vibrant and densely populated borough of New York City,” said Thomas W. Roberts, executive VP and head of real estate investments for Cole, a Phoenix-based REIT. “Canarsie Plaza holds long-term leases with nationally recognized retailers who benefit from the positive retail traffic created by the location’s dense population and nearby public transportation.”

The seller was not released by Cole, but the property is still listed on the Acadia Realty Trust web site as one if its assets. Acadia, a White Plains, N.Y.-based retail REIT, and P/A Associates built the shopping center in two phases, completing it in 2011. It is 96 percent occupied and is anchored by BJ’s Wholesale Club, Planet Fitness and PetSmart. Other retailers include the Vitamin Shoppe Dunkin’ Donuts and T-Mobile.

Cole was represented by Thomas Falatko, vice president, acquisitions, multi-tenant retail, in the transaction. The seller was represented by Andrew G. Scandalios, senior managing director of HFF.

Founded in 1979, Cole primarily targets net-leased single-tenant and multi-tenant retail properties under long-term leases with creditworthy tenants, as well as single-tenant office and industrial properties. As of October, Cole entities owned and managed more than 1,950 assets in 47 states with approximately 70.6 million square feet of space. The combined acquisition cost was more than $11.8 billion.

Cole, which acquired about $2.5 billion in assets in 2011, has also been aggressively pursuing more properties this year. As of mid-October, the REIT had already spent $2 billion on acquisitions and was aiming for $3 billion by the end of this month.

The firm went on a big shopping spree earlier this fall. On Oct. 17, Cole announced it had acquired three retail power centers totaling nearly 875,000 square feet for about $130.9 million. The largest and most expensive of those was White Oak Village, a 433,500-square-foot property in Richmond, Va., that cost $68 million. Cole acquired the center from Laburnum Investment L.L.C., an entity of Forest City Enterprises, Inc., which developed the property four years ago. The other centers were: Hillside Town Center, a 165,000-square-foot center in Hillside, Ill., acquired for $27 million, and Barrow Crossing, a 276,000-square-foot center in Winder, Ga., purchased in a joint venture with Faison, the original developer, for $35.9 million.

A week earlier in October, Cole said it had completed six office and industrial property acquisitions. The purchase price of a 94,000-square-foot regional headquarters for HCA Inc., in Irving Texas, was not released. Of those that were disclosed, the most expensive was a two-building, 328,000-square-foot office/R&D complex in Bedford, Mass., that was purchased for $93.5 million. It is leased by RSA Security, a division of EMC Corp. Cole also acquired a 163,000-square-foot office property in Lincolnshire, Ill, that is a North and South American headquarters for Sysmex American, for $49.7 million. Another sizable purchase in that group was the $32.6 million acquisition of the Newton Engineering Center, a 168,000-square-foot property in Centennial, Colo. that is home to United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin.

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