Urstadt Biddle buys Stamford shopping center for $45.3 million

Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. in Greenwich has acquired the 72,000-square-foot Newfield Green Shopping Center on Newfield Avenue in Stamford for $45.3 million from Bridgeport property management company Hoffman Investment Partners LLC.

At the close of the deal earlier this month, the buyer, real estate investment trust, reported the shopping center at 97 percent capacity. The property is anchored by a 14,000-square-foot CVS and a 31,000-square-foot Grade A Market, a member of the ShopRite/Wakefern cooperative.

The cooperative is one of the largest retailer-owned cooperatives in the country and includes 50 member companies who own and operate supermarkets under the ShopRite name across New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.

Grade A has occupied the Newfield Green location since 1979. Other tenants in the shopping center include J.P Morgan Chase, Excel Urgent Care, M&T Bank, Subway, Village Gourmet and Riko”™s Pizza.

According to Urstadt, the purchase was funded with a 12-year, $22.6 million mortgage secured by the property with an affiliate of the Voya Financial Services insurance agency in Manhattan.  The balance of the purchase price was funded by the company”™s revolving credit facility.

Urstadt announced on July 26 that all borrowed funds associated with the purchase will be paid in full with earnings from the recent sale of 2.7 million shares of its Class A common stock, which yielded $64 million in proceeds.

In a media release, Willing Biddle, president and CEO of Urstadt, said the property is well-positioned to take advantage of nearby downtown Stamford’s growing Central Business District and residential communities.

James Aries, senior vice president and director of acquisitions for Urstadt, said the newly purchased shopping center has been on the firm’s radar for years and is the company’s fifth retail property in the Greenwich/Stamford market.

Jeffrey Dunne, David Gavin and Travis Langer of global commercial real estate firm CBRE represented Hoffman in the deal and were also responsible for procuring the buyer.