Richard Crenian: ReDev Interested in Buy Shopping Centres
After selling a couple of properties in recent months, ReDev has capital in its coffers and he has a specific plan of what to do with it, which involves those acquisitions. Specifically, Richard Crenian, CEO of ReDev Properties, is looking into acquiring shopping centre properties – several of them, if possible.
“We’ve got a 10-year game plan, and our game plan is specifically this; we want to do more development, mainly in the retail sector,” Crenian told RENX during an interview. “I’m just looking for good deals right now.”
All three malls in questions are located in Alberta which is home to the majority of ReDev’s properties and holdings. “We’re looking at buying either more land or we’re looking at getting another mall, or two malls, or three malls right now. We’ve got offers out on three malls so we’re waiting to hear back,” Richard Crenian said.
Richard Crenian Bases ReDev Portfolio in Alberta and Ontario
ReDev is a real estate investment asset manager with a portfolio of about 25 small and mid-sized shopping centres in Alberta and Ontario.
Richard Crenian, as a stakeholder in retail real estate, often considers the effects of Amazon’s bullish expansion of online retail. he has also been paying close attention to the retreat of department stores such as Sears and the fading of the big-box business model, and has been implementing a strategy to ecommerce-proof as much of the tenant mix in ReDev’s properties as he can. A review of ReDev’s online portfolio reveals mostly drive-up shopping centres with drug stores, restaurants, grocery stores, banks and tire shops.
Richard Crenians explains that his investment and leasing philosophy is simple: he likes restaurants, wellness shops, fast food and pharmacies, saying: “Whatever you can’t get on the internet, you are coming to my place to [get] it.”
And it’s evident that his strategy has been working.
“If you need your tires changed, where are you going to go? You can’t do it online,” said Richard Crenian. “My goal is to be everything that I cannot do online. I am more interested in filling (my shopping centres) with those non-online tenants.”
ReDev Sells Two Properties in Edmonton, Alberta
ReDev’s most recent property sales, Daly Grove Medical Centre and Whitemud crossing, were both high traffic locations in Edmonton, which is why Richard Crenian felt it was time to sell the plazas.
“With its high-traffic location, it was the right time to sell the plaza and provide the maximum return to our partners,” Richard Crenian said. “We hope to complete a similar deal on another property during the fourth quarter.”
Daly Grove, a 33,000 square foot of rental retail and office space was originally purchases back in 2007, it’s major tenants including a KFC, a convenience store, and a pharmacy. Whitemud Crossing is a 93,3000 square foot shopping centre with 34 local and national tenants was purchased by ReDev 12 years ago.
Many of the companies plazas have also undergone refinancing at rates lower than maturing mortgages. In a press release, the asset manager framed the move as a “springboard towards acquiring new plazas and future development deals during the rest of 2017 and into 2018.”
Since 1981, Richard Crenian and ReDev Properties have developed, owned, and managed commercial real estate worth more than $2 billion by partnering with high-net worth individuals, family offices, and institutions on joint venture opportunities and assisting developers with acquisitions, equity, financing and business expertise.
Richard Crenian: “Alberta Is My Home”
Growing up in Swift Current, Richard Crenian recalls that many of his peers as young men joined a mass migration to Alberta and took up roles in the Alberta real estate industry, and he went, too. Because of this, the ReDev CEO explains that Alberta has become a home to him as a result which is why the company focuses on the western province despite being based in Ontario.
“As a result, I feel like Alberta is my home as well,” Richard Crenian said. “I’m very comfortable with Alberta…I’ve seen Alberta boom, bust, boom, bust, boom, bust.”
The ReDev CEO also notes that Alberta is a lot less dependent on oil than most think. According to the provincial government, oil, gas, and mining in Alberta currently accounts for about 16 per cent of its GDP which is down 24 per cent from less than 5 years ago.
“They do have tech industry that is very exciting. I know they have tried for years and years since the 1980s to get off their reliance on oil,” he said. “Commercially, I’m not worried at all about Alberta.”