Finmarc Management, Inc., a commercial real estate investment and management firm headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, together with KPR Centers, a real estate investment and operating firm based in New York City, have completed the acquisition of Providence Town Center, a 760,000 square foot retail center located northwest of Philadelphia in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. The purchase price was $161.75 million. Located at 100 Town Center, the asset was 92% leased at the time of the sale and features 11 anchor tenants led by Wegmans Food Markets, and approximately 70 tenants in total.
This marks the most recent acquisition in the greater Philadelphia market for Finmarc and KPR, following last year’s $56.45 million disposition of Red Lion Plaza, a center formerly owned by the joint venture partnership between Finmarc and KPR located at 9950 Roosevelt Boulevard.
Delivered in 2009, Providence Town Center is situated on nearly 82 acres of land and, in addition to Wegmans, is anchored by Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Einstein Medical, HomeGoods, LA Fitness, Movie Tavern, Old Navy, Michaels, PetSmart and Raymour & Flanigan. The balance of the tenant mix comprises both nationally-based and locally-owned retailers engaged in the apparel, consumer services, health and beauty, restaurant and soft goods categories. Other significant tenants include Ann Taylor Loft, Chico’s, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Five Below, Hallmark, JoS. A. Bank, Panera Bread, PF Chang’s, Starbucks Coffee and Ulta.
“The new ownership team has plans for improvements to the center to drive a higher velocity of customer traffic to the already busy Town Center,” explained Finmarc’s Co-Founder and Principal David Fink. “This strategy and preliminary activity have already garnered interest from additional national and regional tenants looking to establish a presence at Providence Town Center.”
Positioned at the intersection of PA Route 29 and Arcola Road, Providence Town Center is considered one of the most-visited open-air retail centers in Pennsylvania based on its nearly eight million annual consumer visits.
Providence Town Center is surrounded by extremely strong daytime and evening demographics including a consumer population that approaches 125,000 people residing within a five-mile radius of the center and annual household income levels approaching $150,000. The populations of Collegeville and the nearby residential communities have expanded by more than 42% over the past 20 years, and the nearby area continues to see a steady supply of new residential construction including a more than 700-unit apartment project currently under construction as part of the town center master plan. In addition, more than 1.6 million square feet of commercial office space, contained within several business communities, is located adjacent to the town center, which brings unique daytime traffic to the town center on a daily basis.
Major employers in the immediate area include GlaxoSmithKline (3,200 employees), Pfizer (3000 employees), Dow Chemical Company (3000 employees) and Quest Diagnostics (500 employees). Ursinus College, with more than 2,000 students and employees, is located less than three miles from Providence Town Center.
“Providence Town Center in an institutional-quality regional shopping center and, with more than a dozen high-performing anchor tenants including Wegmans Food Markets, is among the dominant retail venues in the greater Philadelphia trade area,” added Fink. “The surrounding demographics led by an ever-growing residential population, together with the presence of major employers and employment centers, provide us with tremendous confidence about the asset’s long-term performance. We consider Providence Town Center a true center of gravity. We intend to immediately initiate an aggressive leasing strategy to bring the center to 100% occupancy and further elevate its value.”
“We are excited to add such a high-quality asset to the portfolio and show our continued commitment to investing in the greater Philadelphia market,” stated KPR Centers Founder and Principal Daniel Katz.
Nearly 65,000 vehicles drive by Providence Town Center via PA Route 422 on a daily basis, and an additional 20,000 vehicles pass the site on US Route 29 each day. The center’s diversified tenant mix makes it a regional draw from Phoenixville, which is two miles from the site and King of Prussia, which is approximately six miles away. Major residential neighborhoods located in the immediate vicinity include Rivercrest Masters, Rivercrest, White Springs at Providence and Madison Providence.
The asset is located in Montgomery County, the third-largest county in Pennsylvania with more than 830,000 residents, a total workforce exceeding 430,000 employees and 15 colleges and universities. Providence Town Center is also a part of the greater Philadelphia submarket which is considered the seventh-largest city in the United States.
Jim Galbally, Chris Angelone, Chris Munley and Colin Behr of JLL represented the seller in this transaction. Joe Hoffman, Aaron Rosenfeld and Josh Thomas of Kelley Drye & Warren provided legal services to the buyer. Cliff Mendelson of Metropolis Capital Advisors assisted in the debt placement
Finmarc Management, Inc. is a fully integrated commercial real estate company that focuses on real estate investment, management, leasing and development of retail, industrial/flex, and office properties throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. The firm presently owns and manages a portfolio encompassing approximately seven million square feet of commercial properties located in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania. For additional information visit www.finmarc.com
KPR Centers is a vertically-integrated commercial real estate investment and development company with headquarters in New York City and regional offices in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Florida. Formerly known as Katz Properties Retail, the company has a defined strategy of acquiring retail properties, with a primary focus on grocery-anchored shopping centers and power villages in select submarkets across the United States. KPR maintains in-house leasing, management and development operations and is active in 15 states. For additional information, visit www.kprcenters.com
