Tucker Development Corp. acquired an 11-acre site in Newark, N.J. for the development of a 200,000-square-foot shopping center. The forthcoming Springfield Avenue Marketplace will likely be anchored by a general merchandise and/or grocery store, notes Richard Tucker, president and CEO of Tucker Development, and will serve approximately 520,000 people, including Newark residents, office workers and college students. Tucker would not disclose how much the company paid for the site. The developer is currently in negotiations with potential lenders for construction financing.
“Newark is a very much under-served retail market and we believe this project will substantially serve that need,” Tucker says. “Obviously the financing market now is difficult, but people understand the demand for what we are going to be creating and there is interest.”
The company plans to break ground for Springfield Avenue Marketplace this year with a tentative opening planned for the 2010 holiday season. This will be Tucker’s second commercial project in Newark—the company also has plans to build Liberty Plaza, a $150 million mixed-use complex.
Other Notable Deals
Equity One, Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire approximately 2 million common shares of DIM Vastgoed N.V., a Dutch real estate investment company, from Homburg Invest Inc. Under the agreement, Equity One will issue 866,373 shares of its common stock in exchange for 1,237,676 shares of DIM Vastgoed stock or share equivalents. The deal was scheduled to close Jan. 14. The REIT will also obtain voting rights with respect to another 766,573 DIM shares that Homburg Invest has the right to acquire on Oct. 1, 2010. Subject to certain conditions, Equity One will be able to acquire these shares or share equivalents from Homburg at the same 0.7 exchange ratio as DIM’s common stock.
As a result, at the initial closing, Equity One will have voting control over 73.3 percent of DIM’s common shares, including 4,000,000 shares it already owns. DIM Vastgoed invests in neighborhood shopping centers and power centers in the southeastern U.S., including Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Maryland. At Thursday’s close, Equity One stock was trading at $14.70 per share, about 45 percent below its 52-week high of $26.69… J.S. Rosenfield & Co. acquired Larkspur Landing Shopping Center, a 173,000-square-foot retail property in Marin County, Calif., from Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, Inc. for $65 million… Cohen and Co., Inc. Real Estate negotiated the sale of Shop City Shopping Center, a 240,000-square-foot community center in Syracuse, N.Y., in a 1031-exchange transaction for $30 million. The seller was a privately-held company based in southeastern United States… JRFCo LLC purchased Palm Valley Village Center, a 30,560-square-foot shopping center in Goodyear, Ariz., from SunCor Development Co., a subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corp., for $10 million. The center is approximately 93 percent occupied… Capehart Square, LLC purchased two retail centers totaling 48,000 square feet in Bellevue, Neb. for approximately $3.3 million. The centers included the 25th Place Shopping Center and the Capehart Square Shopping Center. Both properties are 80 percent occupied… West Valley Properties purchased a 4,800-square-foot retail building in Gilbert, Ariz., from Red Development for $1.65 million, in an all-cash 1031-exchange transaction… Caldwell County Economic Development Commission, Caldwell County and the town of Granite Falls finalized the purchase of a 66.5-acre retail/industrial site in Granite Falls, N.C. The site is located near MDI, a major food services wholesaler.