RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust Announces $105 Million Acquisition Of Shopping Centres And Further Expansion Of Joint Venture With Kimco Realty Corporation.

Business Editors

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 2002

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust ("RioCan") (TSX:REI.UN) today announced that it and its joint venture partner, Kimco Realty Corporation ("Kimco") (NYSE:KIM), have agreed to acquire four shopping centres for an aggregate purchase price of $105 million. The four shopping centres together have an aggregate area of about 1,039,000 square feet and completion of the purchases are all expected this month. The four centres are:

-- Leaside Centre, a 133,000 square foot unenclosed shopping centre in the heart of Toronto. It is 100% occupied and anchored by Canadian Tire and Future Shop.

-- Thickson Ridge Power Centre, a 323,000 square foot new format retail centre in Whitby, Ontario which is anchored by Sears Whole Home, Winners, Future Shop, Home Sense and Michael's. It is adjacent to a user owned Home Depot. The centre is currently 100% occupied and includes land for further expansion of about 60,000 square feet.

-- Place Greenfield Park, a 370,000 square foot new format retail centre located in Montreal and which is anchored by a Maxi (Loblaws) supermarket and a Leons furniture store, as well as including many other national retailers such as Winners and Staples. It is currently 95% occupied.

-- Centre Jacques Cartier in Montreal, a 213,000 square foot shopping centre anchored by an IGA supermarket, a Rossy junior department store and a Pharmaprix (Shoppers Drug Mart). It is currently 94% occupied.

These four shopping centres are being acquired at an overall unlevered return of approximately 10%. RioCan will be providing all management and leasing services for these joint venture acquisitions.

Edward Sonshine, Q.C., President & CEO of RioCan, said, "These centres, which are being acquired from two separate vendors, are of high quality, both from a location and tenant profile viewpoint and are typical of the type of shopping centres on which RioCan and Kimco focus. The centres are currently 90% tenanted by national and anchor tenants with scope for improvement of the current income levels through lease-up of the vacant space in the Montreal centres and completion of development on the expansion lands in Whitby."

RioCan and Kimco are also today announcing that they have agreed to further expand the joint venture initiated about one year ago by the commitment of a further $100 million (Cdn) each. Today's announcement brings the total commitment to the joint venture to $500 million (Cdn), of which well over $300 million (Cdn) will have been invested on completion of the closing of these four shopping centres. To-date, the joint venture has 25 shopping centres aggregating about 6,360,000 square feet.

About RioCan

RioCan's purpose is to deliver to its unitholders stable and reliable cash distributions, which continuously increase over time.

RioCan is Canada's largest real estate investment trust. RioCan has total assets of over $3 billion consisting of ownership interests in a portfolio of 153 retail properties across Canada containing an aggregate of well over 23.5 million square feet of gross leasable area. RioCan derives about 77% of its gross revenue from national and anchor tenants, with no one tenant providing more than 5.5% of gross revenue. RioCan's largest tenant is Wal-Mart and 14.1% of RioCan's revenue is provided by food supermarkets.

About Kimco

Kimco is the United States' largest publicly traded owner and operator of neighbourhood community shopping centres.

Kimco currently has interests in 562 properties totaling approximately 72 million square feet of gross leasable area throughout 41 states and in Canada. Kimco's primary objective has been to generate superior investment returns from its expertise derived from more than 35 years of experience developing, owing, operating and managing retail real estate properties.