REITs Eye Passive Investor Role in Retail Project

WASHINGTON, DC-When Bruce Levin, executive director with MAC Realty Advisors, was shopping around a Glover Park mixed use project to capital sources, he noticed there were a number of institutional investors, including in REITs, that were very interested in the retail component of the project–either as co-developer or as a passive investor. In general there has been a lot of interest in urban retail, Levin tells GlobeSt.com. “It is a defensive and high barrier-to-entry play.”

This level of interest, though, was something more. The REITs looking at investing in the transaction were willing to buy into the entire project to end up with the retail component, Levin says. “They were willing to invest in the whole project to end up with the retail component.”