Brixmor adds Venice center to portfolio

Brixmor Property Group, a New York-based retail property owner that controls roughly a dozen Gulf Coast centers, has acquired a Sarasota County shopping center for $33.5 million.

The Venice Village Shoppes becomes Brixmor's third holding in Venice, together with the Venice Plaza and the Venice Shopping Center, according to the company's website.

In all, the company now controls more than 732,000 square feet of retail space in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Brixmor acquired the 175,054-square-foot Shoppes property, at 4115 S. Tamiami Trail, from an affiliate of Bronstein Properties LLC, of Forest Hills, N.Y., property records show. Bronstein had acquired the center in July 2001 for just more than $20 million.

Venice Village Shoppes is anchored by Publix Super Markets Inc., Panera Bread Co., JoAnn Fabrics and others.

“There were many attributes that drew us to Venice Village Shoppes,” says Kristen Moore, a company senior vice president. “It's a Publix-anchored center, with a strong roster of national and local tenants, and it's located on Tamiami Trail, which by our latest traffic count has 53,000 cars a day going through in that section of the trail.”

Moore adds that the changing nature of the Venice submarket also attracted the company.

“Venice used to be seasonal in nature, but now the population is becoming more and more year-round,” she says. “The population growth there is incredibly strong, at 11.4%. And because we already have a few centers in the greater Sarasota area, this acquisition helps us to increase efficiencies.”

In addition to its three Venice properties, Brixmor also owns the Bay Pointe Plaza, in St. Petersburg; Carrollwood Center, in Tampa; Clearwater Mall; Dolphin Village in St. Pete Beach; First Street Village in Fort Myers; and Freedom Square, Naples Plaza and Park Shore Plaza, all in Naples.

Throughout Florida, the real estate investment trust controls 56 properties, its website states.

In all, Brixmor owns more than 500 retail properties nationwide containing some 86 million square feet.