GREENWICH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. (NYSE: UBA and UBP), a real estate investment trust, announced today that is has completed the sale of its 315,000 square foot Townline Square Shopping Center located in Meriden, Connecticut. The HFF team led by Jim Koury exclusively represented the seller in the transaction and introduced the private real estate investment group who acquired the property for an all cash price of $44,500,000. The Company will use the proceeds to repay revolving debt that was used primarily to acquire grocery anchored shopping centers in fiscal 2014 and the first nine months of fiscal 2015 all located within the Company’s core marketplace, which is the metropolitan New York tri-state area outside of the City of New York. The Company estimates that it will record, for financial reporting purposes, a gain on sale of the property of approximately $21 million in its fiscal quarter ending October 31, 2015. At its current dividend level, the Company estimates it will be able to absorb the Federal income tax on this gain.
Commenting on the sale, Willing L. Biddle, President and CEO of UBP, said, “The sale of Townline Square concludes the objective we set approximately two years ago to divest the Company of certain properties that were located outside of the New York Metro area. Over the past two years, we have sold our warehouse properties in Dallas and St. Louis, our shopping center in Springfield, MA and now our shopping center in Meriden, CT. The proceeds have been used to buy shopping centers in Pompton Lakes, Wykoff, Kinnelon, Midland Park, and Ft. Lee, NJ, Greenwich, CT, Harrison, NY and to reduce debt. We now have a portfolio almost exclusively located in the suburbs around New York City with an occupancy rate of almost 97% and a leverage level that continues to be among the lowest in the REIT industry. We purchased Townline Square in 1996 and the property underwent many transformations during our ownership.”
Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. is a self-administered equity real estate investment trust which owns or has equity interests in 74 properties containing approximately 4.9 million square feet of space. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1970, it provides investors with a means of participating in ownership of income-producing properties. It has paid 183 consecutive quarters of uninterrupted dividends to its shareholders since its inception and has raised total dividends to its shareholders for the last 21 consecutive years.
Certain statements contained herein may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things, risks associated with the timing of and costs associated with property improvements, financing commitments and general competitive factors.
