Willing Biddle, president and CEO of Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. (NYSE: UBA), joined Nareit in New York for a video interview at REITweek: 2019 Investor Conference.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the grocery-anchored shopping center REIT, which has a portfolio focused on the New York suburbs. Biddle attributed the company’s longevity to property type, region, deep market knowledge, capital structure, and “the ability to be there when others aren’t there to buy.”
About 82% of Urstadt Biddle’s portfolio is made up of internet-resistant retail tenants. Biddle noted that retailers that haven’t been able to adapt to the internet are particularly vulnerable. “It’s really a weeding process” to replace those sorts of tenants, he explained.
Meanwhile, Biddle said the company is prepared to spend $100 million to $150 million on acquisitions in the next 12 months. He noted that because so few properties trade within its core markets, “it’s really a matter of what opportunities arise.”