NEW HYDE PARK, NY—Although it's planning at least $600 million in dispositions this year on top of the $1 billion in properties it sold in 2014, thus far in 2015 Kimco Realty Corp. has been a net buyer. The company said Monday afternoon that first-quarter transaction activity totaled $1.7 billion, highlighted by its taking full ownership of the $1.4-billion Kimstone portfolio as part of a trend toward simplifying its ownership structure.

In that $925-million deal, which closed in February, KIM acquired the remaining 66.7% interest in a 39-property portfolio it owned in a joint venture with a subsidiary of Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII. The portfolio's high-quality nature is evinced by its three-mile average household income level of $93,000 and an average base rent per square foot of $15.88, both of which exceed KIM's current portfolio averages, the shopping center REIT said Monday.

The portfolio totals 5.6 million square feet across 39 shopping centers in California, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington. It's about 97% occupied and is divided between grocery-anchored centers and regional power centers.

Largest of the assets is the 799,442-square-foot Dulles Town Crossing in the Washington, DC suburb of Sterling, VA. It's one of four signature assets in the portfolio; others include Metro Center in Colma, CA, spanning 228,000 square feet and considered the first dominant power center in the US; the 437,000-square-foot Airport Plaza in the high-income Long Island community of Farmingdale, NY; and Stafford Marketplace, a 331,000-square-foot, fully occupied grocery anchored shopping center in Stafford, VA.

Q1 also saw KIM acquire Copperfield Village, a 165,000-square-foot grocery-anchored center in Houston, for $39.5 million. The company also acquired four separate improved parcels adjacent to existing Kimco Tier 1 shopping centers, and purchased the remaining 50% interest in an additional Tier 1 property from an existing JV partner for a total purchase price of $33.7 million. The acquired parcels increased the company's gross leasable area at Dulles Town Square in Sterling, VA; Elmont Plaza in Elmont, NY; Flagler Park Plaza in Miami; Garden State Pavilions in Chery Hills, NJ; and Snowden Square S.C in Columbia, MD.

Among Kimco's $302 million in Q1 dispositions was an agreement with RioCan Investment Trust that closed just before the quarter ended. REI.UN bought KIM's 50% interest in two Canadian properties held in the RioKim JV: Brentwood Village in Calgary, Alberta and Grand Park in Mississauga, Ontario. The Canadian REIT also bought Leaside Centre in Toronto from KIM, with the purchase price totaling $190.7 million for all three assets.

The RioKim agreement also includes REI.UN's sale of the remaining 80% interest in Montgomery Village, a 465,000-square-foot shopping center within a mixed-use project in Fort Worth, TX, for $58.3 million. That sale to KIM is expected to close later this year. During Q1 KIM also sold ownership interests in six US properties for $54.1 million, as well as 37 net-leased restaurant properties for a gross sales price of $57.6 million.