Urstadt Biddle Properties Pays $21.65M for Somers Commons

Willing Biddle, president and COO of Urstadt Biddle Properties commented on the deal by saying, "The completion of this transaction puts to work over half of the net proceeds of the company's $40 million preferred stock sale completed on May 29 of this year."

The major tenants at Somers Commons include Home Goods, which occupies 30,000 sf; Futurama Furniture, which has a 26,000-sf store; Chili's Restaurant, which has 5,500 sf of space and Radio Shack, which leases 2,500 sf. Another 18 smaller tenants also lease space at Somers Commons. The center, which was formerly the Baldwin Place Shopping Center, has been completely redeveloped over the past decade.

Not part of the transaction is a Super Stop & Shop, which opened a 79,000-sf store last year on property at the Somers Commons site, Biddle notes.

Urstadt Biddle Properties is a dominant player in the Somers retail market. The firm also owns Heritage 202 Center, a 22,000-sf retail property that houses Putnam County Bank and an Imperial Wok restaurant. The company also owns Somers Town Center, an 80,000-sf property that features a Gristede's Supermarket, a US Post Office and the Bank of New York as tenants.

Biddle also informs GlobeSt.com that at the company's Westchester Pavilion property in White Plains, NY, it is currently working on the design of a 55,000-sf addition to the 185,000-sf shopping center. The company acquired the power center in downtown White Plains in late 2002 for $39.9 million. He notes that the company has to also work on how to design the additional parking that would be required to support the 55,000-sf expansion as well as the 15,000 sf of currently unused retail space on the second floor of the complex.

"Our goal is to design it, find a new tenant and then go to the city (of White Plains) and see if they will approve it," Biddle says.

In terms of future retail acquisitions, Biddle relates that his firm is currently in negotiations on other possible shopping center purchases in the New York metro region, but would not divulge the properties the company is interested in acquiring.