Article Excerpt:
TWST: What is Weingarten Realty Investors?Mr. Alexander: Weingarten Realty Investors is a New York Stock Exchange publicly traded real estate investment trust (REIT). Our enterprise value is approaching $6 billion, making us one of the largest REITs in the US. Our operations are principally focused on the retail shopping center sector, but we also have some attractive industrial properties. Overall, we have a total of about 353 properties in 20 states from coast to coast. We are generally active in the southern half of the US ' stretching from North Carolina to Florida across the country to California. Our portfolio currently stands at over 47 million square feet of property. We recently celebrated our 20th anniversary as a publicly traded stock (WRI) and rang the bell on Wall Street. The company's history dates back to over 100 years ago when my great- grandfather opened his first supermarket. As his business grew, the family-run company expanded and was transformed into the predecessor company of Weingarten Realty Investors in 1948. At that time, the company's focus was very similar to ours today: maximizing value from its shopping centers that were anchored by strong grocery tenants.
TWST: Give us an idea of the dynamics that exist in the shopping centers
and industrial sectors. What do you use as your target property?
Mr. Alexander: We have been active in the retail sector for over 50
years. While tenants have changed and the size of the centers has grown
dramatically, the fundamentals remain the same: we principally lease to
grocery stores with basic goods and services adjoining them. We have
been in the industrial business for about 35 years. These properties are
very functional buildings that we can buy at good discounts to
reproduction costs, offer tenants a favorable rent and produce a very
nice return for our shareholders. We're involved in approximately 14
million square feet of industrial space in many markets that overlap our
retail footprint in California, parts of Texas, Florida and Georgia. A
majority of our industrial property is bulk distribution space, but we
also offer small office and service center space. The shopping center
business certainly has evolved significantly over the last 50 years, and
we continue to fine tune our strategy to meet the growing needs of
consumers. Today, we are very focused on strong, growing metropolitan
areas, which is reflected in the 64 major markets that we serve. As we
manage our portfolio, we closely track a number of key factors or
indicators. We evaluate the density of the population, performance of
anchor stores, barriers to entry, road patterns, expected changes in
demographics, the competitive posture, and any planned population growth
or changes in road patterns. We use these evaluations to review our
existing properties as well as potential acquisitions or new
developments. We continually examine our centers to ensure that it makes
economic sense to be involved in these properties. We have a team of
experienced people involved in our leasing and asset management area who
review our portfolio several times each year and are engaged in our
decisions to buy or build a new center. When it comes to evaluating what
makes an attractive shopping center location, we use a lot of metrics
and science combined with experience, business intuition and a certain
amount of art. Among real estate holdings, shopping centers are unique
as overall market conditions have less impact on our properties than
most other types of real estate. If you have the right corner with the
right anchor, you have a very viable, profitable shopping center. Let's
say there is an unanchored, partially developed center that's almost
empty, which is located near one of our centers. Frankly, the two
projects really don't compete with each other. For the consumer, what's
important is the strong anchor tenant at our center along with other
retailers and services. So the shopping center sector is not as much a
market-driven situation as an office or apartments. It's much more size
specific, and we are very hands-on and focused on the specific size of
our properties.
Tickers included in this excerpt: WRI
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