The 44-year-old property, totally renovated from 1998 to 2001, is 100 miles north of Downtown Miami and about 130 miles south of Downtown Orlando. The acquisition is DLC's 33rd shopping center and its first in South Florida. Gourmet grocer Stuart Fine Foods anchors the mall with a 38,100-sf store.

DLC bought the property for long-term ownership. "The center has both stability and upside (potential)," DLC senior vice president Daniel Taub says in a prepared statement.

He says the anchor tenants are on long-term net leases, "but the right to add a restaurant pad site, plus leasing up presently vacant space, gives us room to grow the net operating income of the asset." Average asking rents are $17 per sf.

DLC operates retail centers in 17 states with a portfolio of 6.4 million sf. The company plans to open an Atlanta office shortly. DLC's long-standing strategy is acquiring under-performing and distressed retail assets with redevelopment and turnaround opportunities.

"Since we are private and well-capitalized, we have the flexibility to acquire assets that make sense to us and not just fit into some pre-set formula," DLC chairman Stephen Ifshin says in the same statement.

Gary Saykaly, formerly of CB Richard Ellis Inc.'s retail investment advisors division in Atlanta, brokered the Ocean East Mall transaction.

Simon Ziff and Russ Schildkraut of the Ackman-Ziff Real Estate Group LLC in New York arranged a non-recourse, fixed-rate mortgage of $9.24 million for DLC through New York-based J.P. Morgan Mortgage Capital Inc. for the acquisition.

Instant Insights /

New York's DLC Management Enters South Florida Retail Market

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