Two Berks shopping centers sold for $96.3 million

Exeter Commons and Towne Square Plaza in Berks County have been sold to Blackstone Real Estate Group of New York for $96.3 million, according to real estate assessment records.

Exeter Commons, a 361,000 square-foot shopping center on Perkiomen Avenue and Route 422 in Exeter Township, was sold by a joint venture between Cedar Shopping Centers of Port Washington, N.Y., and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust of Toronto to Blackstone for $75.6 million. The joint venture bought it for $53 million in 2010.

The shopping center was built in 2009 on 50 acres and includes more than 2,100 parking spaces. Its anchor tenants include Target, Lowe’s and Giant Foods.

The Cedar-RioCan partnership sold Towne Square Plaza, a 128,000 square-foot strip mall on the Fifth Street Highway in Muhlenberg Township to Blackstone for $20.7 million. The joint venture bought Towne Square in 2010 for $19.3 million.

Officials at both shopping centers did not return requests for comment.

The sales come at a time when two other shopping centers in the region, Madeira Plaza and Fairgrounds Square Mall, both on Fifth Street Highway, have been sold in recent months.

In April, Fairgrounds Square Mall, a nearly empty 750,000 square-foot mall on Fifth Street Highway near Towne Square Plaza, was sold for $1.6 million to the Hull Property Group of Atlanta.

Madeira Plaza, a 165,000 square-foot shopping center, was sold with the North End Shopping Center in Lower Pottsgrove Township for $26.55 million, according to published reports.

Source:  LVB