Inland and PGGM Acquire Creekside Commons

CLEVELAND—Inland Real Estate Corp., a publicly-traded REIT that owns and operates retail centers in the Midwest and the Southeast, has just acquired, in a joint venture with its partner PGGM, the Dutch pension fund advisor, another neighborhood shopping center in suburban Cleveland.

The partners paid $28.3 million for Creekside Commons, a 201,879 square-foot shopping center located in Mentor. The price included a $16.5 million mortgage loan on the property. The purchase follows quickly on the heels of the partners' $15.4 million acquisition of Cedar Center North, a 61,400 square-foot center in suburban South Euclid.

Inland tends to buy properties considered safe investments and Creekside certainly fits the bill. Kohl's helps anchor the center and tenants occupy a total of 99% of the space. Other anchors include Gordmans, Home Goods and Party City, and the other tenants include national retailers such as Five Below, Panera Bread, Payless Shoe Source, LensCrafters, Sally Beauty Supply, GNC and Great Clips, as well as a Longhorn Steakhouse on a ground-lease outparcel.

“Creekside Commons features a diverse tenant base of in-demand national retailers and a prime location in a major regional trade area, which draws from surrounding affluent neighborhoods as well as communities further east that have very limited retail options,” says Scott Carr, executive vice president and chief investment officer of IRC. “Including Creekside Commons, we now own a portfolio of six high-quality shopping centers aggregating more than 853,000 square feet of leasable space within the greater Cleveland metropolitan area.”

Creekside Commons sits on Mentor Ave., the town's primary retail corridor. Inland officials say that within a three-mile radius the area has a population of about 46,000 with average household income over $83,300, and more than 104,000 people with average household income of nearly $75,700 live within five miles.