Preferred Apartment Communities, Inc. announced the acquisition on August 8, 2016 of seven grocery-anchored shopping centers with  an aggregate of approximately 650,400 rentable square feet located in four states including Georgia, Florida, Texas and North Carolina for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $158 million, exclusive of acquisition-related and financing-related transaction costs. 

The acquired portfolio consists of seven properties.  Three of the assets are located in the Atlanta, GA area: Thompson Bridge Commons, an approximately 92,600 square foot Kroger anchored shopping center, Cherokee Plaza, an approximately 102,900 square foot Kroger anchored shopping center  and Sandy Plains Exchange, an approximately 72,800 square foot Publix anchored shopping center.  Two of the assets are located in Florida: Shoppes at Parkland, an approximately 145,700 square foot BJ's Wholesale Club anchored shopping center in South Florida and University Palms, an approximately 99,200 square foot Publix anchored shopping center located in the Orlando area.  One asset is located in the Raleigh, NC area, Heritage Station, an approximately 72,900 square foot Harris Teeter anchored shopping center.  Finally, there is one asset in San Antonio, Texas, Oak Park Village, an approximately 64,300 square foot HEB anchored shopping center.

PAC acquired these assets through its wholly-owned subsidiary New Market Properties, LLC.  Joel T. Murphy, President and Chief Executive Officer of New Market Properties, LLC, said "We are pleased to add two more Publix anchored centers, two more Kroger anchored centers as well as adding our first Harris Teeter, HEB and BJ's Wholesale Club anchored centers to our growing Sunbelt portfolio.  We are also excited about our initial expansion into both the North Carolina and South Florida markets.  This is a transformative transaction for us in that we now own 30 grocery-anchored centers across seven states, consistent with our strategy of acquiring well-positioned grocery-anchored centers in suburban Sunbelt markets anchored by strong market leaders."  These acquisitions were financed utilizing separate non-recourse first mortgage loans from Nationwide Life Insurance Company and Keybank National Association for an aggregate amount of approximately $97.7 million with the balance of the purchase price paid from PAC's available funds.  Five of the loans from Nationwide have a ten year term and a fixed 3.45% interest rate. The sixth loan from Nationwide, which finances the Cherokee Plaza asset, is a five year, floating rate loan at 2.25% over the 30 Day LIBOR rate.  The loan from Keybank for the Shoppes at Parkland is a seven year loan with a fixed rate of 4.67%.