Equity One chairman Chaim Katzman says the acquisition makes the North Miami Beach, FL-based REIT "the largest owner of shopping center properties in Florida." The REIT owns 85 shopping centers totaling 9.3 million sf of rentable space in the state.

Equity One funded the purchase price from its unsecured line of credit. The property is unencumbered. The seller was North Arrowhead-Beach Boulevard LLC.

The company's complete portfolio totals 21 million sf at 191 properties. The assets comprise 126 supermarket-anchored centers, 11 drug store-anchored centers, 46 other retail-anchored centers, a self-storage facility, an industrial property and four retail developments.

In Jacksonville, the newly acquired asset is anchored by a 56,999-sf Publix supermarket, one of the largest in Florida, and the 61,000-sf Memorial Health Care Group. The 20.8-acre property is at the intersection of San Pablo Road and Beach Boulevard, a major thoroughfare connecting Jacksonville Beach with the Arlington/Southside areas of Jacksonville.

Katzman is confident his firm's new acquisition will be a profitable asset, largely because of the submarket's demographics. The three-mile trade area has 63,294 residents with a median household income of $76,262.