No Boundaries
Century Retail is a developer that has no conformities. Developing everything from large mixed-use projects to single-tenant properties, the Florida-based firm is on a lot of retailers’ radar screens.
Randall Shearin

Century Retail was formed as an affiliate of Century Realty Funds (CRF) in 2004, after the company acquired Anchor Investment Corporation, its first introduction to commercial development, in 2001. Anchor specialized in small, shadow-anchored and unanchored strip centers. In 2005, Century Retail hired Charlie Boscarino to head up site acquisition. Boscarino was with Bealls Stores, where he was head of real estate for 25 years. With that, the company began acquiring centers, redeveloping centers and developing new neighborhood and mixed-use centers.

The Fountains at Stuart is a lifestyle project Century Retail is developing with The Trotman Company and Strategic Retail Advisors in Stuart, Florida. The 300,000-square-foot center is anchored by Belk, Barnes & Noble, Ulta and DSW Shoe Warehouse.

“The plan was to move us into a larger realm,” says Boscarino, who has since been promoted to president of the Lakeland, Florida-based company. Under his leadership, the company has moved to many other levels beyond shadow-anchored shopping centers: today, it owns or has under development more than 80 centers across the Southeast, with more than 40 of those in Florida.

One of the first changes Boscarino made was to revamp Century Retail’s leasing team. The company went from having a leasing office in Orlando to having employees in multiple offices that have a wide range of capabilities. Chris Ralph joined from Centro to be the company’s vice president of leasing, and Lynda Nagy joined to head up the company’s business development efforts. Other leasing employees, like Kelly Franzino, who joined from Centro, Sherri Mann from Edens & Avant, Pam Bentley, who specializes in mom-and-pop retailers, and Mark Sneed from Jacoby Development, each have their own expertise that they bring to the table that lends to leasing space to big box, anchor and lifestyle tenants.

“We get the best possible people to do what we need done,” says Boscarino. “We’re not cutting back on leasing. Our leasing staff is the best out there. We rely on them when we find a site. We ask them, ‘is this site right for your tenant?’ and they are quick to tell us because they know our retailers so well. We’re big believers that this is a relationship business.”

Century Retail is developing Jonquil Village in the Atlanta area of Smyrna. The 650,000-square-foot project will have a retail component anchored by Publix Supermarkets.

Century currently has several large projects under development. The first is a 680,000-square-foot mixed-use project called Jonquil Village in Smyrna, Georgia. The retail component is anchored by Publix Supermarkets. The project also contains office and for-sale residential uses. In Avondale Estates, Georgia, the company is developing a similar project, Avondale Marketplace, that will be 375,000 square feet developed over two phases. The retail at Avondale will also be anchored by Publix. Avondale Marketplace and Jonquil Village are set to open by fall 2009.

In Stuart, Florida, the company has joint ventured with Montgomery, Alabama-based The Trotman Company and Jupiter, Florida-based Strategic Retail Advisors to develop a lifestyle project called The Fountains at Stuart that will be anchored by Belk, with other tenants that include Barnes & Noble, Ulta, DSW Shoe Warehouse, Talbots, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers and Coldwater Creek. The 300,000-square-foot center will also have office space. The project is set to open in spring 2009.

Century Retail is redeveloping Wabash Center in Lakeland, Florida. The center will be anchored by Sav-A-Lot.

The company is also active in the redevelopment of properties that it acquires. The company is currently redeveloping Wabash Center in Lakeland, Florida, which it recently purchased. The company has leased a portion of the dark anchor space at the center to Sav-A-Lot. Century is also working on a redevelopment in Gardendale, Alabama, called Northgate Village which will include a new, 45,000-square-foot Publix.

In addition to these mixed-use properties, Century Retail is also active in developing a number of neighborhood centers in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, the Carolinas and Tennessee.

“Our focus now is developing anchored shopping centers, power centers, lifestyle and mixed-use developments,” says Boscarino.

Century finds a lot of its opportunities through its site acquisition team, headed by Vanessa Santos, who recently joined the company. Century is also able to pull from CRF’s more than 500 employees for their expertise. Throughout the company, there are in-house engineers, attorneys, due diligence professionals and others who can lend their knowledge if need be. CRF, known mostly as a homebuilder and homesite developer, also has an office division and a self-storage division. This expertise has helped Century Retail garner some interesting assignments, such as the preferred developer for the downtown redevelopment of Casselberry, Florida. The company is working closely with the city to redevelop the county offices, residential and retail space.

“Everybody else stays inside of a box,” says Boscarino. “We don’t have a box. We have a residential component, self-storage component, office component, and the commercial division. If we run into a piece of dirt that makes better sense for residential, we will call our residential division about it. They will do the same for us. We really compliment each other. It’s the best of all worlds.”

Century Retail is developing Avondale Marketplace, a 375,000-square-foot mixed-use project in the Atlanta suburb of Avondale Estates, Georgia.

Century Retail is very methodical about its development. It likes to have anchors in place before it even buys a piece of land.

“Before we will go into a development, we need to know who is going to be there, what level of interest there is and we need the tenants to validate that,” says Boscarino. “Someone has to bring us the tenant before we will commit.”

In addition to the projects the company has under development, it has several in the pipeline for the future. It has two projects it is considering — one in Florida and one in Georgia — that are in excess of 300,000 square feet. These projects are set to open in 2011.

Century Retail is well capitalized, and the company reacts quickly to opportunities, often going under contract and under construction in a matter of weeks.

“If someone called us tomorrow and said they had a project that fits our wants, we are very quick to analyze whether it makes sense for us and we’re quick to step in and takeover a project,” says Boscarino. “We are always growing, and we’re always looking for the next project.”