Levin Management adds five new centers to its portfolio

Levin Management Corp. (LMC) has added five additional retail centers to its quickly expanding third-party management portfolio.

Two deals delivered 584,000 square feet of space into the hands of the North Plainfield, N.J., company, which reports to have increased its workload by a total of 2 million square feet of space in just the past two years.

Four neighborhood retail centers comprise one of the deals. Two of them--Park East Plaza and North Mall Plaza--are located on Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill, N.J. The other two, as well-- Ridley Town Plaza and RJ Vista Plaza--are positioned on the same thoroughfare of McDade Boulevard In Folsom, Pa.

The second deal includes just one retail property: Manchester Plaza, a ShopRite- and Lowes-anchored shopping center on Route 70 in Manchester Township, N.J. Included in that contract are Class A office buildings in Toms River and Tinton Falls.

“These assignments are particularly rewarding because they represent our first projects with two established and knowledgeable private owners who previously were managing their assets in-house,” said Joseph Lowry, LMC’s senior VP of acquisitions and business development. “Both are familiar with Levin’s high-quality commercial real estate services and entrusted us to bring that same level of consistency to their portfolios.”

Lowry sees the deals as indicative of a new trend in retail real estate.

“For many years the lion’s share of our new business came from institutional investors, which traditionally seek third-party real estate service providers,” he said. “Private owners tend to self-manage.”

LMC itself grew out of development roots. The firm is an outgrowth of Levin Properties, a development firm founded by Philip and Janice Levin, who created an extensive suburban retail real estate portfolio beginning in 1952.