VIRGINIA BEACH, VA-Wheeler REIT has announced pricing of a public offering it is planning of 2,750,000 common shares: the REIT will sell the units at $4.30 a pop, for gross proceeds of about $11.825 million. The offering is scheduled to close on Aug. 26, 2013.

Maxim Group LLC and Newbridge Securities Corp. are acting as joint book-running managers. National Securities Corporation is acting as lead manager of the offering. Capitol Securities Management and CV Brokerage are co-managers for the offering.

Since it went public last year, Wheeler REIT has been steadily adding to its portfolio. For its first quarter earnings, the REIT noted its portfolio occupancy was 94% and that it had inked a contract to purchase Bixby Commons, a 75,000 square foot retail property in Bixby, OK, for $10.6 million.

The company has also entered into agreements to acquire four third-party retail focused properties and a third-party retailed focused property and an adjoining parcel of vacant land.

It has also entered into purchase contacts with five related-party sellers to acquire an additional three shopping centers, one strip center and one free-standing retail building.

In an interview late last year when the REIT went public, CEO Jon Wheeler told GlobeSt.com that some 75% of Wheeler REIT's business would be in retail real estate and 75% of that business would be invested in grocery-anchored properties. The company has a strong footprint in the Mid-Atlantic and plans to expand deeper in the southeast and southwest and, eventually, northeast in the coming months and years, he said. The REIT is also targeting for expansion Kentucky, Alabama and Ohio.

NOT FOR REPRINT

© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.