BOONTON, NJ-Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. acquired two grocery-anchored shopping centers in New Jersey, the Boonton A&P Center here and the Bloomfield A&P Center in Bloomfield.

Willing Biddle, CEO of Urstadt Biddle, said the company is continuing an expansion in the New Jersey suburbs, as part of its push to invest in grocery-anchored shopping centers in suburbs surrounding New York City.

It also recently acquired the Village Shopping Center in New Providence and the Chestnut Ridge Shopping Center in Montvale. “Central and northern New Jersey are proving to be high performance markets for us,” Biddle said.

The 63,000-square-foot center in Boonton was purchased for $18.35 million, with Biddle assuming an existing $7.8 million mortgage with a fixed interest rate of 4.2% that matures in September 2022.

The Boonton Center, built in 1999, is located just off of Route 287 on Myrtle Avenue, in one of the wealthiest counties in the United States. It has a 49,463-square-foot A&P; other tenants include Dunkin' Donuts, Chase Bank, Subway, Supercuts and Sprint.

The Bloomfield A&P Center totaling 56,000 square feet was acquired for $11,005,000, subject to an existing $7.7 million mortgage that carries a fixed rate of 6.43%. The mortgage matures in August 2016.

The Bloomfield Center is anchored by a 30,750-square-foot A&P and a 8,950-square-foot Walgreen's Drugstore. Other tenants include Dunkin' Donuts, Supercuts, a pizzeria, a liquor store and a stationery store. Built in 1977 and renovated in 1999, the center on Belleville Avenue is situated about a half mile east of the Garden State Parkway in a densely populated market. The shopping center has very high traffic counts.

James Aries, Urstadt Biddle's director of acquisitions, said of the acquisitions: “We believe that the Bloomfield Center has strong leasing upside and Boonton is a solid, 100% leased, grocery-anchored shopping center in our core marketplace that we were able to acquire at a reasonable price.”

Urstadt Biddle is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust, which owns or has equity interests in 66 properties containing approximately 4.8 million square feet of space.

Instant Insights /

Urstadt Biddle Buys Two Shopping Centers

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