Regency Centers Wraps $1.4B Acquisition of Urstadt Biddle

The newly acquired centers align with Regency’s strategy, expanding the company’s presence in strong trade areas in the Northeast, according to Lisa Palmer, Regency’s president & CEO. Image courtesy of Regency Centers

Regency Centers Corp. has completed its previously announced all-stock acquisition of Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc.

The deal’s dollar value was estimated at $1.4 billion when the acquisition was first disclosed, in May.

Urstadt Biddle owned or had equity interests in 5.3 million square feet of space across 77 properties.

The combined company has a total equity market capitalization of more than $11 billion and an enterprise value of more than $16 billion, according to Regency. The combined portfolio comprises 480 properties encompassing more than 56 million square feet of gross leasable area.

In addition, the acquisition expands Regency’s footprint of grocery-anchored shopping centers in premier suburban trade areas.

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The newly acquired centers align with Regency’s portfolio strategy, expanding its presence in strong trade areas in the Northeast, Lisa Palmer, Regency’s president & CEO, said in a prepared statement.

RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities were financial advisors and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz was legal advisor to Regency Centers. Eastdil Secured and Deutsche Bank were financial advisors and Hogan Lovells US LLP was legal advisor to Urstadt Biddle.

Regency Centers operates as a self-administered, self-managed REIT that is an S&P 500 Index member.

Strength in groceries

Coming out of the first quarter, “grocery-anchored retail retained its position as the most heavily transacted multi-tenant retail sub-type by volume,” at $3.6 billion, JLL reported earlier this month. The report added that grocery-anchored centers also are priced the most aggressively, at an average cap rate of 6.9 percent.

In May, Regency Centers and joint venture partner Blumenfeld Development Group announced plans to redevelop the vacant 282,223-square-foot SunVet Mall in Holbrook, N.Y., on Long Island. The joint venture intends to replace the 1973-vintage mall with a 168,000-square-foot open-air retail center anchored by Whole Foods Market.