Colonial Tops $135M for '02 with Sale of Two Centers

BIRMINGHAM, AL-Diversified REIT Colonial Properties Trust, based here, has sold off majority interests in two Alabama shopping centers. Proceeds from the complex transactions will be used to pare down debt on the company’s revolving credit line.

“The company has generated over $135 million through asset dispositions this year, with the closing of these transactions,” says Thomas H. Lowder, chairman and chief executive officer of Colonial Properties Trust. “As a diversified property portfolio, our company maintains the flexibility to recycle assets and reinvest the proceeds into new opportunities in other sectors.” Colonial officials would not reveal financial details of the two recent transactions to GlobeSt.com.

Colonial has sold half of its 50% interest in Colonial Promenade Madison, a 111,000-sf center located near Huntsville, AL, to Columbus, OH-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. In a simultaneous transaction, Winchester Commons LLC, Colonial’s partner, sold half of its 50% interest in the property to Nationwide. The result of the two concurrent deals leaves Nationwide with a 50% stake in the property while Colonial and Winchester retain 25% each.

Located at 7830 Highway 72 West in the Huntsville suburb of Madison, the two-year-old center is roughly 97% occupied with tenants paying rents in the mid-teens per sf. Colonial will continue its leasing and management arrangement under the new ownership structure. The center is anchored by Publix, Books-A-Million and Staples.

In a separate transaction, Colonial sold 90% of its stake in the155,000-sf Colonial Promenade Hoover to the Highway 150 LLC joint venture, a partnership between Colonial and a group of private investors. Colonial will retain a 10% interest in the suburban Birmingham property.

Completed this year, the 99%-occupied center is located at 2720-2810 John Hawkins Parkway in Hoover. Rents in the area are upwards of $20 per sf.