Linear Adds 16th Shopping Center

(For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

LEOMINSTER, MA-Linear Retail Properties continued its shopping spree with the $1.9-million acquisition of a fully leased 18,205-sf plaza in Leominster, marking the firm’s fourth acquisition this year and its 16th since the company’s inception three years ago.

The 586 Main St. plaza, known as Brooks Plaza, was purchased from Berkshire Retail-L, LLC just two weeks after the Burlington-based shopping center buyer paid $6 million to acquire 75 Newbury St., a 29,003-sf, 79% occupied plaza in Danvers, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. The firm’s latest acquisition is fully leased to Brooks Pharmacy, Advance Auto Parts, Bank of America and Athens Pizza.

Linear, which still has $200 million investment funds waiting to be spent, isn’t through buying just yet. “Our goal is to build the portfolio,” Aubrey Cannuscio, a partner and senior vice president of acquisitions with the Burlington-based firm, tells GlobeSt.com.

Cannuscio says Linear, currently the most active shopping center buyer in the New England market, has averaged a shopping center purchase every nine weeks since the company was formed but is hoping to pick up the pace of its acquisitions in the next few months.

“We’re slightly behind schedule,” admits Cannuscio. “We have to close deals at a more rapid pace than we’re closing them today so we need to buy more properties. We’d sure like to match our current pace and be closing a deal every other week, given the $200 million we still have to invest.” Linear’s strong appetite for shopping centers has driven the firm to acquire about half of all plazas that hit the market in the $1-million to $6-million range, Cannuscio notes.

“Its just pure focus,” he says, adding that Linear’s investment criteria calls acquisitions that are well leased shopping plazas ranging from 10,000 to 120,000 sf located in high traffic areas. We know exactly what we want to buy so when it hits the market we can turn around properties pretty quickly.”

The Leominster deal was handled for both the seller and buyer by Rob Blanchflower, of Blanchflower Real Estate, of Leominster. Finard & Co. of Burlington will handle the leasing and property management duties.