NY landlord 'dominates' S. Philly after $93M deal

Cedar Realty Trust, Inc., a publicly-traded shopping-center landlord based in Port Washington, Long Island, N.Y., says it is now the "dominant" retail landlord in South Philly after agreeing to pay $92.3 million-- including $53.4 million in fixed-rate debt -- to developer Forest City Ratner Cos. for the 10-year-old Quartermaster Plaza center at 23rd and Oregon, near the Passyunk Ave. exit on I-76.

Metro Commercial Real Estate's Paul Rumley was lead broker on the deal, says president Steve Gartner. "This was not a property that was on the market," he added. "However, it is extremely difficult to develop a center in Philadelphia from the ground up. The barriers to entry, including simply finding a site, are too high. South Philadelphia is a strong retail market. Centers are well occupied, if not fully leased. The surrounding residential neighborhoods continue to get stronger, with home price increases and new residential development all over," spreading south from Center City.

The 456,000 sq ft plaza, on 43 acres, is anchored by a BJ's Wholesale Club. Cedar says the stores are 98% rented, and there's room to add nearly 100,000 sq ft of new stores. Cedar already owns the neighboring, 283,000 sq ft South Philadelphia Shopping Center, and the firm says that gives it 22% of all the retail space in the city below South Street. Cedar will "leverage" its "dominant presence (in) South Philadelphia" to "serve the needs of this large and growing urban population," chief executive Bruce Schanzer said in a statement. More here.

UPDATED: Philly-wide, Cedar owns five shopping centers, totalling 1.3 million sq ft., and that makes Cedar "the shopping center REIT with the most open-air shopping center square footage in Philly," according to the company.

Cedar's Julia Bonner says the company has no intention of comparing itself to enclosed-mall operators like Pennslylvania Real Estate Investment Trust -- PREIT -- as I wronglyl assumed in an earlier version of this item.