ALTO Real Estate Funds and M & J Wilkow Acquire Pittsburgh's Cranberry Square
Chicago, Illinois (February 15, 2018) M & J Wilkow, Ltd. announced today that the Company, together with ALTO Real Estate Funds, has acquired Cranberry Square, a 195,165 square foot, 100% leased, market-leading retail center located in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
Cranberry Square is centrally located in one of greater Pittsburgh's most affluent and fastest growing suburbs. The property is home to top national retailers including Field & Stream, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, and is shadow anchored by Walmart and Costco. Strategically positioned at the Township's most prominent intersection, Route 19 and Route 228, Cranberry Square sees traffic counts in excess of 70,000 cars per day.
Marty Sweeney, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions for M & J Wilkow stated, "Cranberry Square provides us the opportunity to acquire great real estate in the region's fastest growing and most affluent submarket at a price that would have been unlikely just 18 months ago. The shopping center is home to many of the area's strongest performing and top name retailers, and will make an outstanding addition to M & J Wilkow's Pittsburgh portfolio."
"Cranberry Square embodies the characteristics of a great real estate investment for our fund," says Scott G. Onufrey, President & Managing Partner at ALTO Real Estate Funds, "with irreplaceable real estate generating strong cash flow, and potential to add value over time as we recapture those spaces currently paying below market rents. The asset is shadow anchored by Walmart and Costco, both maintaining extremely high sales volumes in one of the fastest growing and most affluent suburbs of Pittsburgh. This bodes well for the long-term prospects for the property."
The acquisition of Cranberry Square marks the fourth joint venture between M & J Wilkow and ALTO, and represents M & J Wilkow's tenth acquisition in Pittsburgh market. The Company's other Pittsburgh holdings include office properties 11 and 20 Stanwix Street, mixed-use office and retail project Penn Center East, and the iconic Waterfront Shopping Center.