Correction Aug. 17, 2010 — Due to an editing error, the article below about the sale of the Best Buy property incorrectly stated its location. It is in Lancaster city.
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The Golden Triangle Shopping Center's owner and its partner plan to buy Red Rose Commons along Fruitville Pike and the Best Buy site in East Lampeter Township as part of a $200 million deal.
Cedar Shopping Centers and RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust said Monday the local properties are included in a seven-center transaction.
They hope to complete the deal by the end of the year.
In addition to the two local parcels, the deal would include malls in Selinsgrove, Warrington, Allentown, Forked River, N.J., and Christiansburg, Va.
The sale would not affect local shoppers because the buyers are not anticipating making changes at the two city sites.
Cedar's Leo S. Ullman said the purchase would let his firm boost its presence here without the regulatory hurdles of developing a new center.
"I like Lancaster generally. I think it's a very strong community," said Ullman, Cedar's chief executive officer.
"But there are severe barriers to entry. Lancaster's governmental authorities are very careful about development, as they should be."
Red Rose Commons — the county's third-largest shopping center — is owned by Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust and the Goldenberg Group.
While Cedar and RioCan have reached an agreement with PREIT, they have yet to do so with Goldenberg.
The sale would exclude the buildings housing the 12-year-old mall's two biggest merchants, Home Depot and Weis Markets. They own their stores.
The Best Buy site, part of Pitney Road Plaza, is owned by PREIT alone. Best Buy opened last October.
Two undeveloped parcels at the plaza, where a bank and restaurant have been considered, would be retained by PREIT for the time being.
Also excluded from the purchase would be the Lowe's at the plaza, near Costco. PREIT divested the Lowe's tract last year.
Neither Cedar nor PREIT would itemize the prices for Red Rose Commons and the Best Buy tract.
Ullman didn't envision changing Red Rose Commons, a Fruitville Pike "power center" of 463,000 square feet.
It features big, category-leading stores such as Sports Authority, Old Navy, PetSmart, Office Max, Pep Boys and Barnes & Noble.
"This entire portfolio is being acquired with the thought that the centers have very stable, high-credit tenancies with long leases for their anchors," Ullman said.
"That's the mantra for most of the acquisitions we're doing with RioCan."
Ullman was optimistic that PREIT and Goldenberg soon will fill the center's two vacancies, buildings once occupied by Linens 'N Things and Hollywood Video.
They recently filled another vacancy, the former Circuit City space, by signing hhgregg.
The Indianapolis-based electronics and appliance retailer opened here in April, paving the way for a major expansion into the mid-Atlantic region.
Besides deepening Cedar's roots in Lancaster, the pending purchase would tighten the ties between Cedar, of Port Washington, N.Y., and RioCan.
Toronto-based RioCan, which owns 14 percent of Cedar, and Cedar earlier bought nine other centers, with RioCan holding an 80 percent stake and Cedar holding 20 percent.
That ownership ratio would apply to all of the new sites except for Allentown's Whitehall Mall, which would be owned 50-50.
PREIT would keep managing and leasing all seven centers for three years, although both PREIT and the Cedar/RioCan joint venture can end the arrangement after one year.
Cedar bought the Golden Triangle at Lititz and Oregon pikes in 2003. A firm with ties to Cedar had owned it since 1986.
The 50-year-old property in Manheim Township is part of a portfolio encompassing 118 centers which Cedar owns either alone or with partners.
Cedar recently spent $11 million to overhaul the mall, adding L.A. Fitness, Walgreens and Aldi's.
It also owns the idle 11-acre Oregon Manor property on Oregon Pike, which it acquired in 2008, and a Rite Aid at 825 E. Chestnut St.
From PREIT's perspective, the deal would help it reduce its borrowings substantially.
Last November, PREIT and Goldenberg refinanced their Red Rose Commons mortgage for $24.9 million, ending the foreclosure threat voiced by its previous lender.