Wheeler REIT Launches $15.8M IPO

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA-A local REIT has launched that will be investing largely in income-producing retail real estate. Called Wheeler REIT, the company debuted on the NASDAQ exchange, trading under the symbol WHLR this week. It issued approximately three million shares that were priced at $5.25 per unit, CEO Jon Wheeler tells GlobeSt.com, securing some $15.8 million in proceeds for the company.

Some 75% of Wheeler REIT’s business will be in retail real estate, Wheeler says, and 75% of that business will be invested in grocery-anchored properties. The company has a strong footprint in the Mid-Atlantic and plans to expand deeper in the southeast and southwest and, eventually, northeast in the coming months and years. “We focus primarily on secondary and tertiary markets,” Wheeler says. “We are more likely to be in Culpepper, VA, rather than Washington, DC, for example.”