Regency (REG) Brings New Tenants To Springwoods Village

Regency Centers Corporation (NYSE:REG) has made the announcement of bringing some new tenants to The Market at Springwoods Village. This is in sync with the strategy of the Jacksonville, FL-based retail real estate investment trust (“REIT”) to add more tenants to generate steady rental revenues.

Notably, Springwoods Village is an 1,800-acre mixed-use community. It is situated in between the Springwoods Village Parkway and the Grand Parkway. Upon completion, this nature-friendly community is likely to provide a variety of facilities to the customers, including housing, lodging, dining, civic facilities and outdoor recreation.

The Market at Springwoods Village, located at the junction of Holzwarth Road and Grand Parkway is a 170,000 square foot project. Since the initial announcement, momentum for the project has accelerated and presently it is over 80% leased. Further, slated to be completed in the first half of 2017, Kroger (NYSE:KR) Marketplace will serve as the anchor and include a blend of national local and regional tenants.

Regency Centers’ portfolio mainly constitutes grocery-anchored community and neighborhood centers. Regency’s first-quarter 2016 funds from operations (“FFO”) of 86 cents per share surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 79 cents. Further, the results compared favorably with 74 cents reported in the year-ago quarter.

The stock presently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

However, investors interested in the retail REIT sector can consider stocks like Retail Opportunity Investments Corp. (NASDAQ:ROIC) , Saul Centers Inc. (NYSE:BFS) and Urban Edge Properties (NYSE:UE) . Each of these stocks carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Note: FFO, a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs, is obtained after adding depreciation and amortization and other non-cash expenses to net income.