New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Dozens of CT retailers to get new landlord after company sold
In its $1.4 billion acquisition of Urstadt Biddle Properties, Regency Center is getting the keys to many more crown-jewel retail properties in several southwestern Connecticut cities and towns, as well as the wider New York City region.
Urstadt Biddle lists more than 30 retail properties in 14 municipalities, including Ridgeway Shopping Center in Stamford measuring some 350,000 square feet of space, and Danbury Square near the Danbury Fair Mall with nearly 200,000 square feet.
Regency has 13 retail plazas in Connecticut, most of them in Fairfield County but its properties including Southbury Green, Corbins Corner in West Hartford and Brookside Plaza in Enfield.
The combined company is valued at $16 billion, with Urstadt Biddle’s 77 properties pushing the combined company’s total to more than 480 in all with 56 million square feet of space.
In a conference call last week, Urstadt Biddle CEO Wing Biddle did not delve into what was behind the decision to sell the company, which Charles J. Urstadt created in 1989 after becoming CEO of Hubbard Real Estate Investments and transitioning the company to focus on open-air retail plazas. Urstadt died in March 2020 at age 91.
“As we consider the next phase for our company, we found Regency to be a company that has a strong management team that shares our values and priorities,” Biddle said. “Regency as a company has a large national presence. Their teams also have a local mentality and prioritize strong tenant relationships.”
Regency Centers CEO Lisa Palmer described Urstadt Biddle’s portfolio as amounting to “irreplaceable assets” and that she believed her company can bolster leasing with major national chains in its lease base.
“[The] area is benefiting from positive post-pandemic structural trends, including suburban micro migration and hybrid work,” Palmer said on the conference call. “We do believe that there’s upside in shop occupancy.”