Repositioning Planned for Two Retail Centers

HOUSTON—Whitestone REIT, a fully integrated real estate company that owns, operates and re-develops community centered properties, has launched two retail property redevelopment and repositioning projects here.

Sugar Park Plaza, a 95,032 square foot property with a daily traffic count of 259,000, is located at the exit ramp of US Highway 59 at Wilcrest Drive. The property sits at the entrance of Sugar Land and serves the densely populated and affluent Fort Bend County area with nearly 50,000 households within a three-mile radius. Current tenants include Suit Mart, Subway, Aga's Indo Pakistani Restaurant and Marshalls.

Providence Plaza, at its highly visible location on US Highway 6, serves the flourishing multi-cultural community in the new growth corridor to Sugar Land. With a daily traffic count of 44,000, current tenants occupying the 90,327 square foot property, such as Spec's Wine, Spirits and Finer Foods, Stanbridge Eye Center and Ace Hardware provide services to over 110,000 surrounding family units.

"As we continue to lease and strengthen our Houston portfolio, Sugar Park Plaza and Providence Plaza will require modest capital investment in the near term to produce exceptional returns over the next two years in both markets, " said James Mastandrea, Whitestone's chairman and CEO. "We believe our focus on service driven small tenants and the redevelopment of these properties will meet the needs of the respective neighborhoods.”

Both properties are well positioned for significant redevelopment opportunities in the expanding Houston economy. Key to Whitestone's value-add business model and redevelopment and repositioning strategies is the anticipated increase in revenue from the addition of new tenants that provide needed services to the surrounding communities. Whitestone will begin construction in 2014 and expects the payback on its $1.4 million investment to be less than 24 months and result in a center with dramatically increased visibility for the tenants.

"Redeveloping and repositioning these properties will result in strengthened overall property revenues, increased leasing spreads, and with increasing net operating income, corporate-level funds from operations per share," Mastandrea added.

Whitestone is a fully-integrated real estate investment trust that owns, operates and redevelops what it calls Community Centered Properties. Founded in 1998, the Company is internally managed with a portfolio of 61 commercial properties in Texas, Arizona, and Illinois.