BOSTON-Galileo Shopping America Trust acquired 11 Northeast shopping centers from Sea Properties LLC for $202 million. Sea Properties is a joint venture of Samuels & Associates of Boston and the Columbia, SC-based Edens and Avant. In a related deal, Edens and Avant will purchase Samuel's interest in three additional Northeast shopping centers. The complicated transaction's value for all 14 properties is $252 million. Ten of the shopping centers are located in Connecticut, two in Massachusetts, and one each in Maine and upstate New York.

The centers being sold to Galileo represent 1.7 million sf of space and are approximately 90% leased. Under the terms of the transaction with Galileo, Samuels will continue to manage the portfolio and provide leasing and management services for three years after the close of the sale.

Samuels & Associates, a leasing development and management company, and Edens and Avant, a private retail real estate firm, joint ventured to purchase the properties from Farmington, CT-based Konover Associates as part of a 36-center portfolio in last year for $262 million. After redeveloping the properties, they then flipped them over to Galileo.

"Our goal in purchasing these shopping centers was to invest in the real estate, revitalize the centers, and improve their long term value," says Joel Sklar, principal at Samuels Jodie W. McLean, president and chief investment officer at Edens and Avant adds, "The redevelopment joint venture was executed on plan, generating substantial returns to the partnership."