Travel

New York REIT flipping huge shopping, office campus in Wilton

http://www.thehour.com/business/article/NewYork-REIT-flipping-huge-shopping-office-10989820.php

By Alexander Soule

Published 1:22 pm, Thursday, March 9, 2017

aa1b9726aead572d33ed69535e1aef66_920x920-8131682

c3f6d3a7389b4555d68921b086c974fd_920x920-6603373

d8fce33e5895ab17b0011008cfd864d3_920x920-4699427

993ecd6ce14d0977af10687e8be3a88d_920x920-7756848

4a46db191af68f285af360e193b58568_920x920-8845453

6cd17eb4d2c303ff864f581f38f46b8c_920x920-9317712

6422f1e12637d8ec5df58bf1b1a7db41_920x920-1182175

9fcd7dee64c87abe291e3d8b227712d1_920x920-9803599

b8c494f0effe82a2d616eef5ad462e7b_920x920-5852238

656a142ce232221d21e07d3cfefe0a2e_920x920-6452777

dcb455dfed67efec83dd456df283e8f3_920x920-5842802

9f1884a77691aefdd57f36efb4c829eb_920x920-9210724

0e3322b5e65094d060678a23ac7ef8aa_920x920-4465102

d32cdf3568f0197f3909c253e9760074_920x920-9033401

93d8c50e3907f10e127242a17085e5ea_920x920-9363607

div {
background: none !important; }

.OUTBRAIN {

padding: 0 !important; border-top: 0; }

.ui-page .article-body .OUTBRAIN,

.ui-page .article-body .OUTBRAIN > div {
background: #EEEEEE !important; }

.ui-page .article-body .hst-resgalleryitem .OUTBRAIN,

.ui-page .article-body .hst-resgalleryitem .OUTBRAIN > div {
background: #000 !important; } ]]>’); var sct = document.getElementById(“HDN-OB-WIDGET-MARKUP”); sct.parentNode.removeChild(sct);

})();

2318d4127185a2ec125be23f6f1822c6_square_gallery_thumb-9241277

d81c7baa11bf5c86405695c52fc1c77e_square_gallery_thumb-5635061

56f47de8f49114bb44f7fe1c69f99e7c_square_gallery_thumb-7863363

695a246e127f46c20dd26c7b8f871713_square_gallery_thumb-1852240

649b018e42156056ee444990ed8bdb71_square_gallery_thumb-5950573

41563ea04e4a0615738912b7f016a91c_square_gallery_thumb-6298857

ffc9dc6122acc7f13cd3033f9cd898bf_square_gallery_thumb-5955154

822ad490ab5fe9362bf73b6a9072a92f_square_gallery_thumb-7298174

7d59f053044a767a7d88d0862051cfd8_square_gallery_thumb-5546280

5e03489d673d0d77f1a7d13ab1193c54_square_gallery_thumb-2998738

d7ab9ac93b4b182b30130ba00fd6367d_square_gallery_thumb-5177670

a44f1c06a441d5d6f04a6df4c48677ec_square_gallery_thumb-8406438

eb4cca85800568b3afd8b7d70b4f1dad_square_gallery_thumb-6030091

dcb2603b347c8bb730fa73726f2c421a_square_gallery_thumb-3894909

1984c87d034e7d701fe6af6430a9e02e_square_gallery_thumb-1903281

4ed71453fa4f48ca410a1c9da2aaa0d9_square_gallery_thumb-8798729

Caption

Close

The names clustered in quaint Wilton Center roll off the tongue like a mini who’s who in consumer products and retail, both big brands like Blue Buffalo and Stop Shop and local favorites like Sweet Pierre’s and the Toy Chest.

Now, it is Wilton Center itself that is for sale — the main aisle, anyway.

Just four years after acquiring Wilton River Shopping Center, Kimco Realty is quietly soliciting buyers for the big plaza at the town’s figurative crossroads just off Route 7, as well as the adjacent Wilton Campus office complex that has additional storefronts including the town’s lone movie theater.

Combined, Wilton River Park adds up to nearly 300,000 square feet of space with dozens of tenants, most prominently Stop Shop and the pet food maker Blue Buffalo Pet Products, whose headquarters occupies about 40,000 square feet of space. The complex is also home of the Wilton Bow Tie Cinema 4 movie theater.

First Selectman Lynne Vanderslice said she has reached out to prominent retail property operators in the area to alert them of the opportunity to purchase Wilton River Park Shopping Center.

With nearly 525 properties nationally, New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Kimco Realty is accustomed to the law of big numbers, many of them open-air shopping centers like Wilton River Park Shopping Center. At present, the Wilton campus is one of just 16 positioned for “disposition” on a company website.

Kimco spent $82 million in 2013 to purchase Wilton River Park from an entity controlled by Al Kleban, chairman of Kleban Properties in Fairfield, who had originally constructed the complex in the 1980s.

“It has a lot of small businesses, mom-and-pop kind of businesses that (requires) a unique owner,” Vanderslice said. “Al Kleban was. He was very hands-on and involved in the community. If you look at (Kimco’s) portfolio, it’s not the kind of property they have.”

Kimco is led by Milton Cooper, the company’s executive chairman who co-founded Kimco in 1958 and became a legendary figure in the real estate investment trust, or REIT, industry; and CEO Conor Flynn, a graduate of Yale University. In a February conference call, Flynn told investors the company has positioned properties for sale to focus on “major metro” markets, in his words.

“We were able to divest assets at an opportune time when (interest) rates were hovering near all-time lows and demand for open-air centers was at an all-time high,” Flynn said in February. “We have seen certain private buyers exercise a level of caution over the past few months, especially as interest rates have risen … during that time frame.”

Like other real estate investment trusts, s of Kimco have dropped since last summer amid ongoing difficulties by retail chains, with several bankruptcies having been announced this year. Currently, a third of the storefronts in Wilton River Park’s Stop Shop campus are vacant, the largest at about 1,400 square feet of space and occupying a visible perch on River Road.

— Stephanie Kim and Pat Tomlinson contributed to this report.

[email protected]; 203-354-1047; www.twitter.com/casoulman