CINCINNATI—Phillips Edison & Co. said Thursday it plans to spin off its strategic investment and net lease investment businesses into a standalone company. To be known as PECO Real Estate Partners, or PREP, the newly created company will acquire single-tenant retail, power and lifestyle centers, enclosed malls and mixed-use retail projects. The parent company, PECO, will stick to its knitting, with a focus on building its grocery-anchored shopping center portfolio, currently at more than 270 properties coast to coast.

"We founded the company in 1991 with a focus on grocery-anchored shopping centers,” says Jeff Edison, principal and CEO of Cincinnati-based PECO. “This strategic decision is something we have contemplated for some time as a way to streamline PECO's business by returning to an exclusive focus on our core competency: investing in grocery-anchored shopping centers.”

Edison will remain in both capacities, while Mike Phillips, PECO's principal and president, will take the reins of PREP as CEO, while Barry McGowan will assume the role of the new company's president. Phillips will remain involved with PECO as a partner and investor.

As Phillips moves over to PREP, Edison will continue to be supported by a management team that includes COO Bob Myers, CFO Devin Murphy, CIO Hal Scudder, SVP and general counsel Tanya Brady and chief accounting officer Jennifer Robison. Along with McGowan, who's joining the new company from Lend Lease Real Estate Investments and its affiliate GLL Real Estate Partners, PREP's senior management team also includes COO Sara Brennan and Jim Shipman, who will serve as SVP, net lease investments. David Birdsall, who has led PECO's Strategic Investment Funds for the past eight years, will continue to lead that strategy at PREP while also taking on the role of CIO.