MERIDEN: Townline Square (TS) sold for $44.5 million cash to a New Jersey partnership, according to plaza owner Wing Biddle, president of Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc.TLS Group LLC bought the 316,000-square-foot plaza at 533 S. Broad St, and has hired Hampton Properties of Montreal, Canada, to manage it, according to Jacob Berger of Hampton Properties.
“It has a good tenant mix and strong rental history,” Berger said. “It has a strong lineup of national box chains and local tenants.”The sale was part of Urstadt Biddle’s plan to sell properties outside of the greater New York City area. The Greenwich real estate investment company sold properties in Springfield, Massachusetts, Dallas and St. Louis, Missouri, this year.
“We’re just bringing it closer to home,” Biddle said. ”We now have a portfolio almost exclusively located in the suburbs around New York City with an occupancy rate of almost 97 percent. We purchased Townline Square in 1996 and the property underwent many transformations during our ownership.”
The property was most recently appraised at $31.5 million, according to city records. It ranked as the fifth highest property taxpayer in the city last year.The company will use the proceeds to repay revolving debt that was used primarily to acquire grocery anchored shopping centers in fiscal year 2014 and the first nine months of fiscal year 2015, Biddle said.
