Cedar Closes on CT Shopping Center Buy

BETHEL, CT-Cedar Realty Trust Inc. has closed on its acquisition of Big Y Shopping Center, a 101,123-square-foot, grocery-anchored shopping center in this affluent Fairfield County suburb. The center traded for $34.5 million, unencumbered, with a CBRE team both  representing seller CE Bethel LLC and procuring the buyer.

“We are excited about the acquisition of Big Y Shopping Center as it represents a strategic shift at Cedar from defense to offense,” says Bruce Schanzer, president and CEO of the Port Washington, NY-based retail REIT. He calls the acquisition “consistent with all aspects of our strategic plan to acquire grocery-anchored centers, in the Washington, DC-to-Boston corridor, that improve our average asset quality. The acquisition was initially acquired using our line of credit, but we ultimately intend to fund it with proceeds from our capital recycling activities.”

Big Y Shopping Center is strategically located on Route 6, a main artery in northern Fairfield County. It's 100% occupied by a tenant roster that includes Dollar Tree, a Wells Fargo bank branch and Starbucks as well as the Big Y supermarket anchor. The shopping center is part of a solid trade area with average five-mile household income of $92,000 and a population of 103,000.

 “The center's stable rent roll, highlighted by its long term lease with Big Y, offers strong in-place cash flow,” says Jeff Dunne of CBRE's New York Institutional Group. “Metro New York has continued to experience very strong investor demand for high quality, grocery anchored assets like Big Y Shopping Center.” Dunne and his New York colleague David Gavin negotiated on behalf of the seller, in conjunction with Chris Angelone, Nat Heald and Bill Moylan of CBRE/New England's Boston office.