Benjamin Schall, president and CEO of Seritage Growth Properties (NYSE: SRG), participated in a video interview at Nareit’s REITworld: 2019 Annual Conference in Los Angeles.
Seritage has been navigating through the Sears bankruptcy filing for about a year now. Schall said the company made “significant progress” on achieving diversified, non-Sears rental income during 2019. At this point, Sears is a tenant in only 16 of over 200 projects, he noted.
At the same time, Seritage is expecting that the 100 redevelopment projects it is currently working on will come online steadily in the next 18 to 24 months and generate income in excess of $240 million.
Meanwhile, Seritage is also focusing on the mixed-use arena and has identified and prioritized three dozen sites where 6,000-8,000 apartment units can be integrated with retail. “We’re making good inroads there,” Schall said.
“Our mantra is to embrace the transformation within the retail real estate industry...as we look forward, we think we have some of our best opportunities ahead of us,” Schall said. He noted that the REIT is looking to reinforce its close relationships with preferred users and retailers, as well as its relationships with mixed-use developers and preferred capital sources.