DLC Makes Its Biggest Buy Ever with Retail Portfolio

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

Home Goods at the Brook Highland Plaza, Birmingham, Ala.

Tarrytown, N.Y.—In the largest acquisition in its 25-year history, DLC Management Corp. has purchased, in a joint venture with DRA Advisors LLC, a portfolio of 16 shopping centers totaling roughly 4.9 million square feet. The purchase boosts DLC’s owned square footage by 26 percent, to about 21.7 million square feet.

The seller was DDR Corp., according to a separate announcement by HFF, which had marketed the portfolio on behalf of the former owner. HFF reported the transaction’s value as $390 million.

The portfolio’s three largest properties are:

• Big Flats Consumer Square, Big Flats/Elmira, N.Y., a 641,222-square-foot center near Arnot Mall, the area’s only enclosed shopping mall, and the Corning corporate headquarters.
• Brook Highland Plaza, Birmingham, Ala., a 549,466-square-foot plaza that features the first Sprouts Farmers Market in Alabama.
• Mohawk Commons, Niskayuna, N.Y., a 530,190-square-foot power center located near Crossgate Mall and Colonie Center, the Albany area’s two major enclosed malls.

The other 13 properties are all in New York: Burlington Plaza in Amherst; Delaware Consumer Square and Elmwood Regal Center in Buffalo; Thruway Plaza in Cheektowaga; McKinley Milestrip Center, McKinley Mall Outparcels and BJ’s Plaza in Hamburg; Tops Plaza in Lockport; Williamsville Place in Williamsville; Tops Plaza in Ithaca; Walmart Plaza in Olean; Westgate Plaza in Gates; and Freedom Plaza in Utica.

Tenants include such multiple high-quality national tenants as Home Depot, Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, Petsmart, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Field & Stream, T.J. Maxx, Old Navy, Petco, Tops Markets, Price Chopper and LA Fitness. Overall, the portfolio is 89.2 percent leased, according to HFF.

DLC reportedly plans to redevelop several of the acquired centers and will also open a new satellite office in Buffalo to facilitate the management of these new properties. The company did not respond to Commercial Property Executive’s request for additional information.

The HFF investment sales team representing DDR was led by senior managing director Jose Cruz, managing director Kevin O’Hearn, and directors Michael Oliver and Stephen Simonelli and supported by senior managing director James Koury.

“This portfolio represents a mix of high-quality, core assets and core-plus/value-add retail centers in the upstate New York market,” Cruz said in a prepared statement. “The outstanding tenant base coupled with the leasing upside was very attractive to the buyer pool.”

In January, the Times-Union of Albany, N.Y., reported that in a quarterly earnings report, DDR CEO David Oakes had stated that the company was not looking to sell the portfolio based on any need to do so, nor as part of a disposition program. Rather, Oakes said, “We have sold nearly 500 assets since the recession and the last remaining assets that we have identified for sale are of a much higher quality and are being marketed opportunistically as a result of high market pricing.”

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