North American Sells Cruse MarketPlace

Although Saul paid top dollar for the asset, the Maryland REIT considered the area's demographics in making the acquisition. In a prepared statement from Saul principal Scott V. Schneider, the company estimates over 12,800 homes with annual household incomes averaging more than $83,000 are located within a three-mile radius of Cruse MarketPlace. A 44,000-sf Public Supermarket anchors the shopping center at GA 20 and Samples Road.

Saul Centers operates and manages a portfolio of 39 community and neighborhood shopping centers and office properties totaling seven million sf of leasable area. "Over 80% of the company's cash flow is generated from properties in the metropolitan Washington, DC/Baltimore area," Schneider says.

For North American, the sale generates additional revenue for a company that has several Georgia projects on its development plate. Last year the Ohio company opened the first 750,000-sf phase at 100% occupancy of Camp Creek Marketplace, an estimated $100-million, 1.1-million-sf venture on 145 acres at Interstate 285 and Camp Creek Parkway in southwest Fulton County.

North American's most recently planned metro area venture is Lakeside MarketPlace, an open-air, 330,000-sf shopping center in Acworth, GA, about 30 miles northwest of Downtown Atlanta. The project is near two large Cousins Properties Inc. mixed-use projects, Bentwater and Seven Hills. Acworth officials anticipate about 10,000 homes new homes will surface in the Cousins project within the next 10 years.