centro sell property on friday

Hannaford Plaza sold to Albany company
By PAUL POST, The Saratogian
10/11/2008



Albany-based Nigro Companies completed acquisition of the roughly 12-acre site on Friday from Australia-based Centro Properties Group, a real estate investment firm.

The plaza also has a Kohl's department store that opened last October, and a Tractor Supply store. Both Hannaford and Kohl's have room to expand and a small out-parcel might be used for another small business such as a branch bank, restaurant or office space.

"They (Centro) ran into financial difficulties in the past year," Nigro Companies principal owner John Nigro said. "They decided they would lighten up on some real estate. We thought it was a good opportunity for us to build on our portfolio.

"There were some other bidders that drove the price up a bit, but we were still comfortable with it."

He declined to reveal an exact sale price.

By purchasing the property, Nigro assumes the leases that go with it. The company owns two other area Hannaford plazas - Rotterdam and Central Avenue in Albany - giving it a working relationship with the supermarket chain. It also owns the Queensbury site - Price Rite Plaza on Route 9 - where Tractor Supply has another store.

Most of Nigro Companies business is focused on building new shopping centers. However, with current economic conditions, some retailers aren't opening as many stores. Instead of new development alone, the firm is pursuing existing properties as well, Nigro said.

"We're a very growth-oriented company," he said. "We want to keep growing. We're looking at several other centers that these people (Centro) do own in the Northeast."

Nigro Companies owns retail centers from Catskill to Ogdensburg. Elsewhere in Saratoga County, it owns Shops of Malta, whose main tenant is a newly-remodeled Price Chopper that reopened last November, along with a CVS Pharmacy and 16 other stores and services.

In addition, it owns a new Walgreens near Exit 15 in Wilton at the corner of Route 50 and Old Gick Road and is nearing completion on a roughly 30,000-square foot Route 50 plaza between Price Chopper and Wilton Mall. The site will have a 27,500-square foot main building with eight to 10 tenants and a free-standing, 3,000-square foot bank office.
"We'll be done with the building very shortly," Nigro said.

Plans call for a December opening. Some tenants will move in then, with others to follow in early 2009.

Tenants include Chipotle restaurant, Metro Mattress, Verizon and Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which is already located in two other Nigro properties.

Each store will occupy from 2,000 to 4,000 square feet. Nigro said the plaza will have a total of 10 tenants, some yet to be named.

A bank partner has been identified, but he declined to name it because a lease hasn't been signed.

Nigro's family founded Albany Public Markets, upstate New York's first large supermarket chain. He and his father founded Nigro Companies in 1974.

While living in the immediate Capital District, Nigro is well-known in Saratoga Springs. He is a former Saratoga Performing Arts Center board member and was recently named to New York Racing Association's newly-reorganized board.

Previously, he served on a racing Ad-Hoc Committee that reviewed bids from firms seeking the contract to run Saratoga Race Course, Belmont Park and Aqueduct.