HOUSTON, Dec. 24, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) ("Whitestone"), announced today that it has completed two strategic acquisitions of hard corners at its Village Square at Dana Park and Fulton Ranch-Towne Center Properties in the Phoenix market. Prior to purchase, the hard corners adjoining Whitestone's Village Square at Dana Park and Fulton Ranch-Towne Center, which were acquired in 2012 and 2014 respectively, were not available for sale.
Whitestone acquired the hard corner at Village Square at Dana Park located at the corner of Val Vista Drive and Baseline Road which has a relatively newly constructed building with 12,047 of leasable square feet, whose tenants include Chase Bank as well as a mix of national, regional and local credit tenants. Acquiring this corner provides Whitestone the ability to bring increased visibility and identity, as well as signage revenues to its Class "A" 310,000 square foot premier property Village Square at Dana Park in Mesa Arizona, a dynamic sub-market in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The purchase price of $4.7 million was funded with the assumption of existing debt of $2.6 million and the remainder through utilization of Whitestone's corporate credit facility.
Separately, Whitestone strategically purchased the vacant land corner of its recently acquired Fulton Ranch Town Center, from a different seller, providing an opportunity to capture increased visibility and signage revenues, as well as adding value through either ground leasing the pad or doing a build-to-suit for a restaurant. The land corner is located at the front door of Fulton Ranch Town Center, across the street from Hamilton High School, Arizona's largest public high school with 3,600 students. Control of this land parcel at the hard corner provides Whitestone more signage control of their existing property and is an ideal location for a future restaurant pad site. The $850,000 acquisition was funded with Whitestone's credit facility. Both strategic acquisitions provide an opportunity to add value, increased visibility and signage revenue.
About Whitestone REIT
Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) is a fully integrated real estate investment trust ("REIT") that owns, manages, operates, leases and repositions and redevelops Value–Add Community Centered PropertiesTM. Whitestone focuses on value creation in its community centers, concentrating on local service-oriented tenants that comprise approximately 70% of its tenants. Whitestone's diversified tenant base provides service offerings including medical, education, casual dining, and convenience services. The largest of its 1,272 tenants comprised less than 1.8% of its annualized base rental revenues as of September 30, 2014. Founded in 1998, the Company is internally managed with a portfolio of 64 commercial properties in Texas, Arizona, and Illinois. For additional information about the Company, please visit www.whitestonereit.com.
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