CHICAGO—In the first quarter of 2015, Inland Real Estate Income Trust, Inc. acquired 11 multi-tenant, necessity-based retail centers with a total purchase price of $217.5 million, according to company officials. The acquisitions were primarily located in secondary and tertiary markets in nine states and encompass about 1.27 million square feet of commercial retail space.

“Inland has a long history and, as a result, a great deal of comfort acquiring and managing properties in secondary and strong tertiary markets, where we believe we can generate relatively higher risk adjusted returns,” Mitchell Sabshon, chief executive officer of Inland Real Estate Income Trust, Inc., tells GlobeSt.com.

The Oak Brook, IL-based REIT has been a very active buyer throughout the past year. The company's assets at the end of the first quarter totaled $784 million, up from $134 million just one year earlier, according to documents it filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

As reported in GlobeSt.com, late last summer the company signed an agreement to purchase a 15-property portfolio of retail centers located across eight states, totaling approximately two million square feet, from Kite Realty Group Trust. At an estimated purchase price of $318 million, it was the largest portfolio purchase that Inland Income Trust had made.

The properties that were purchased in this year's first quarter include:

• Eastside Junction, Athens, AL: 79,700 square feet

• Prattville Town Center, Prattville, AL: 168,842 square feet

• Fairgrounds Crossing, Hot Springs, AR: 155,127 square feet

• Regal Court, Shreveport, LA: 363,174 square feet

• Shops at Hawk Ridge, St. Louis, MO: 75,951 square feet

• Whispering Ridge, Omaha, NE: 69,676 square feet

• Walgreens Plaza, Jacksonville, NC: 42,219 square feet

• Frisco Marketplace, Frisco, TX: 107,543 square feet

• Green Tree Center, Katy, TX: 147,658 square feet

• Shoppes at Lake Park, West Valley City, UT: 52,997 square feet

• Plaza at Prairie Ridge, Pleasant Prairie, WI: 9,035 square feet

Although Inland did not disclose the properties' individual costs, according to SEC documents the prices ranged from the $3.4 million paid for Plaza at Prairie Ridge to the $50.3 million paid for Regal Court.

“We continue to execute on Inland Income Trust's strategy of acquiring high quality multi-tenant, necessity-based retail centers across the country,” said JoAnn McGuinness, president and chief operating officer of the trust. “At the end of the first quarter, the company's properties included more than 400 tenants.”

As of March 31, 2015, Inland Income Trust's portfolio consisted of 42 retail properties, substantially all of which supply everyday needs, totaling about 3.8 million square feet and located in 16 states. The properties have an average economic occupancy of 96.2% and an aggregate purchase price of more than $663 million.