OAK BROOK, Ill., July 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Retail Properties of America, Inc. (NYSE: RPAI or the "Company") today highlighted that it continues to make substantial progress towards execution on its 2015 strategic goals.

During the first half of 2015, the Company continued to aggressively refine its portfolio with total transaction activity of $545.6 million, consisting of $390.5 million of acquisitions and $155.1 million of dispositions. The Company also continued to expand its access to new forms of capital with the issuance of $250.0 million of its investment grade public unsecured notes, demonstrating the strength and flexibility of its balance sheet. Operationally, the Company continues to enhance the dominance of its shopping centers and resiliency of its cash flow stream through its remerchandising initiatives and robust, target market focused operating platform.

Acquisition highlights during the first half of 2015 included the following:

• Completed $390.5 million of acquisitions, which included the purchase of six high quality multi-tenant retail assets:
  • Downtown Crown, Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Statistical Area ("MSA")
  • Merrifield Town Center, Washington, D.C. MSA
  • Fort Evans Plaza II, Washington, D.C. MSA
  • Tysons Corner, Washington, D.C. MSA
  • Cedar Park Town Center, Austin MSA
  • Woodinville Plaza, Seattle MSA
• Weighted average annualized base rent ("ABR") per square foot of $22.31;
• Weighted average household income of $133,000 and weighted average population of 102,000 within a three-mile radius;
• Strengthened its multi-tenant retail footprint in its target markets by 960,000 square feet; and
• As previously announced, remains under contract to acquire assets in the Seattle and Dallas MSAs for a combined gross purchase price of $26.3 million.

Disposition highlights during the first half of 2015 included the following:

• Completed $155.1 million of dispositions, which included the sale of six non-strategic multi-tenant retail assets for $123.4 million and four of the remaining six office assets in the portfolio for $31.7 million;
• Weighted average retail ABR per square foot of $10.18, 54.4% lower than the year-to-date acquisitions' ABR per square foot;
• Retail weighted average household income of $54,000 and weighted average population of 41,000 within a three-mile radius; and
• Completed multi-tenant retail exit from three states and four non-strategic markets:
  • States: Kansas, Montana and Oklahoma
  • Markets: Lawrence, Kansas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; St. George, Utah and Canton-Massillon, Ohio

Capital markets highlights during the first half of 2015 included the following:

• Completed a public offering of $250.0 million in aggregate principal amount of its 4.00% senior unsecured notes due 2025.

Strategic remerchandising highlights during the first half of 2015 included the following:

• Re-leased five of the 15 previously announced anchor locations, representing approximately 146,000 square feet;
• Weighted average comparable re-leasing spreads of 38.4% and weighted average downtime of five months;
• Upgraded the tenancy with vibrant, traffic generating retailers including Total Wine & More, Kirkland's, Dollar Tree and Five Below; and
• Proactively re-tenanted the only Sears location in its operating portfolio located at Fordham Place through a lease termination and new lease with Macy's Backstage. This location will be one of the first six stores in the New York City MSA for this discount/soft goods concept from Macy's.

"We continue to drive the dramatic transformation of our portfolio, which has enabled us to significantly move the needle in our goal to be a dominant player in our target markets and we are on track to end 2015 with over 60% of our multi-tenant retail ABR in our target markets and nearly 80% of our multi-tenant retail ABR in the top 50 national MSAs, well ahead of our overall portfolio repositioning goals," stated Steve Grimes, president and chief executive officer. "At the same time, we are aggressively taking advantage of the opportunistic retail real estate environment in order to create long term value through our strategic remerchandising objectives. We are extremely pleased with our results thus far in 2015 and now expect that between 155,000 and 175,000 square feet will be open and operating by the end of the year."

ABOUT RPAI
Retail Properties of America, Inc. is a REIT and is one of the largest owners and operators of high quality, strategically located shopping centers in the United States. As of March 31, 2015, the Company owned 212 retail operating properties representing 31.3 million square feet. The Company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RPAI. Additional information about the Company is available at www.rpai.com.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Michael Fitzmaurice, VP - Finance
Retail Properties of America, Inc.       
630-634-4233

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SOURCE Retail Properties of America, Inc.