UIRT Realizes $2.3 Mil from El Campo Shopping Center Sale

HOUSTON-Houston’s United Investors Realty Trust has taken another step is realigning investments and reducing debt. It has sold the 83,300-sf El Campo Shopping Center in the Texas town of the same name, to provide working capital, according to Robert Scharar, UIRT’s president and CEO.

The $2.3 million being derived from the sale will be used to retire $1.6 million in revolving loans and $700,000 will be used for “general purposes,” says Scharar. “This sale allows us to take another step in our capital recycling strategy. In the last six months, we have sold three properties aggregating over 200,000 sf and reduced our debt by over $6.2 million.” The sold list represents debt-laden, non-core assets with “poor long-term characteristics,” explains Scharar.

UIRT recently has wound up construction of 60,000 sf for Ingles Grocery at the McMinn Center in Athens, TN, and has expanded Market at First Colony in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land by more than 15,000 sf. The company also has completed the first phase a Tampa project. The properties are expected to significantly infuse the company’s fourth-quarter cash flow, says Scharar. UIRT owns eight shopping centers in Houston, six in Dallas, three in Arizona, five in Florida and two in Tennessee.