Urbanamerica buys $120.6M in real estate in 9 months.

UrbanAmerica L.P., the first commercial real estate investment company to focus exclusively on acquiring and developing properties in America's inner-cities, announced it has closed 14 investments valued in excess of $120 million in its first nine months of activity. Dr. Richmond McCoy, UrbanAmerica's Chief Executive Officer, made the announcement.

UrbanAmerica's investments center on retail and office properties in the states of Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, and Washington, D.C., within inner-city markets previously lacking institutional investment and redevelopment expertise. UrbanAmerica's investment dollars are focused in the nation's Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Communities and low- and moderate-income inner-city neighborhoods.

"Institutional investment dollars, combined with solid real estate expertise, will have a dramatic and immediate impact on the quality and value of these properties, as well as opening doors to new development and vitality for the markets as a whole," Dr. McCoy said. "We are delighted with the activity of deal flow -- and results -- we've had in such a short time span.

"UrbanAmerica is proving itself to be the country's pre-eminent vehicle for fiscally and socially prudent investment in inner-city commercial real estate," he said. "Our strategy is to serve our investors with strong returns on quality investments and, at the same time, help create new jobs and economic growth in these neighborhoods."

Many of Corporate America's leaders agree. UrbanAmerica counts Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Prudential Insurance Company of America, Citibank, Summit Bank, General Mills and numerous other institutional investors among its initial participants. Utendahl Capital Partners, L.P., the nation's premier fully diversified minority-owned investment bank and broker/dealer, is the sponsor of the company.

According to Dr. McCoy and Hal Reiff, UrbanAmerica's Chief Financial Officer, the minority-controlled company is in a unique position to capitalize on investment opportunities.

"We are a lean and agile company with a great depth of real estate investment and development experience," Mr. Reiff said. "We are well poised and funded to execute our innovative strategy: buy quality properties in these sound, underserved markets, improve and stabilize them, then build on our holdings to create density and efficiency of operations.

UrbanAmerica's investments include the following retail properties: The Tampa Festival Center in Tampa, FL, ($5.38 million); Eastover Shopping Center, Oxon Hill, MD, ($19.5 million); South Capital Shopping Center, Washington, DC, ($4.435 million); Dolphin Center, Opa Locka, FL, ($6.159 million); Lakes Mall, Lauderdale Lakes, FL, ($5.63 6 million); Ft. Davis Shopping Center, Washington, DC, ($4.3 89 million); East River Center, Washington, DC ($ 13.5 million); College Park Commons, Detroit, MI ($29 million); and Nucleus Plaza, Las Vegas, NV ($6.7 million). In addition, UrbanAmerica has purchased four office buildings totaling in excess of 200,000 sq.ft. for $23 million.