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EQUITY ONE EXPANDS ITS SOUTHERN BASE THROUGH ACQUISITION OF IRT PROPERTY

Equity One’s purchase of Atlanta-based IRT Property, an owner of predominantly supermarket-anchored shopping centers, would give the North Miami Beach, Fla.-based REIT a total of 180 primarily supermarket-anchored centers in 12 states, principally in Florida, Georgia and Texas. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2003, pending shareholder approval. Equity One owns 88 centers, mainly in Florida and Texas, totaling 8.7 million square feet. The deal values IRT at $730 million, including the assumption of $297 million in IRT debt and transaction costs. IRT owns 92 mainly grocery-anchored centers in the Southeast. Both companies trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

TARGET OUTLINES 2003 EXPANSION

Target will open 94 stores next year, in a $3.5 billion expansion that will increase its shopping space by 8 percent to 10 percent, according to the company. Between 25 percent and 40 percent of that increase would involve SuperTarget grocery-discount stores, with the balance being regular Target stores, Karen Sack, a Standard & Poor’s retail analyst, told SCT. Minneapolis-based Target currently operates 1,435 stores in 47 states, including 264 Mervyn’s and 64 Marshall Field’s department stores, according to the company’s latest financial statement. This rate of growth has been typical for the company over the past five years, said Sack.

PAN PACIFIC RETAIL PROPERTIES TO BUY CENTER TRUST FOR $600 MILLION

Pan Pacific Retail Properties plans to buy Center Trust, a Manhattan Beach, Calif., open-air shopping center and regional center owner, for about $600 million. The deal is up for a vote in the first quarter of 2003. The purchase would increase the portfolio of Vista, Calif.-based Pan Pacific, which owns 180 neighborhood centers on the West Coast, by 5.2 million square feet and augment its home state profile. “The transaction will significantly increase our presence in Southern California, enhance our geographic diversification and further solidify our leadership position among shopping center REITs on the West Coast,” Pan Pacific President and CEO Stuart A. Tanz said in a press release. The company would be getting centers in Oregon and Washington, as well as its first properties in Arizona.

TAUBMAN BUYS OUT DOLPHIN PARTNER

Taubman Centers has acquired the half of the 1.3 million-square-foot Dolphin Mall, Miami, it did not already own from Swerdlow Real Estate Group, Hollywood, Fla. The two developed the center as partners, opening it in March 2001. Taubman paid Swerdlow nearly $97 million, assuming $94.5 million in Swerdlow debt and giving it $2.3 million worth of land around the mall. The two also settled lawsuits each had filed against the other.

MIKE WALLACE, TOMMY LASORDA TO SPEAK AT ICSC SPRING CONVENTION

Mike Wallace, co-editor of the venerable CBS News program 60 Minutes, and Tommy Lasorda, former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team and now a Dodgers executive, will speak at the 2003 ICSC Spring Convention, to be held May 18-21 at the Las Vegas Hilton and Las Vegas Convention Center.