Urstadt Biddle Continues Buying Spree

The New Milford Shopping Plaza is anchored by a 102,000-square-foot Wal-Mart and a 72,000-square-foot Stop & Shop supermarket. The deal with WestRidge Realty Advisors of Westport, CT gives the REIT two grocery-anchored shopping centers in New Milford. The company also owns Veteran's Plaza, a 61,000-square-foot center anchored by Big Y Supermarket.

Other tenants at The New Milford Shopping Plaza located alongside Route 7 include: Dollar Tree, Union Savings Bank, Radio Shack, Hallmark and GameStop. The property was built in the 1970s and renovated in 1990.

Last month Urstadt Biddle, through a wholly owned subsidiary, acquired a 66.67% equity interest in the Putnam Plaza Shopping Center in Carmel, NY for $6.2 million and also purchased three contiguous mixed-use properties in Katonah, NY for $8.6 million.

Urstade Biddle Properties president Willing Biddle says the company is continuing to pursue additional opportunities in its core market. "The addition of the New Milford Plaza property gives the company ownership of a majority of the grocery-anchored shopping center space in the New Milford area, which will benefit our tenants through operational cost savings due to economies of scale."

James Aries, senior vice president and director of acquisitions, tells Globest.com that the company is in contract on another grocery shopping center purchase and has several other properties in its acquisition pipeline.

"It has already been a great year and is going to be a very exciting year," Aries says. "Two thousand and nine was clearly a quiet year for most of us, so we are excited about our opportunities." He adds that the company is definitely in acquisition mode. "We have a lot of cash, credit lines and most of our properties are unencumbered," he notes.

Joanna Rotonde, acquisition manager for Urstadt Biddle Properties, adds that the company has one of the lowest debt ratios among all real estate REITs. The company currently owns approximately 4.4 million square feet in 49 properties located mainly in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey.