It’s been a huge month for retail real estate, so let’s get to the highlights:

• Equity One is in the process of selling 36 shopping centers to Blackstone Property Group. The centers are located in Georgia and Florida, and they are selling for $473.1 million.
• Atrium European Real Estate Ltd. has purchased Prague’s Palac Flora shopping center from AFI Europe Avestus Capital Partners for $259 million.
• Inter Ikea Centre Group announced earlier this month that it will be expanding its three current malls in Shanghai, and adding a fourth on which it expects to spend $626 million.
• DDR is swapping centers with Glimcher Realty Trust, trading Kansas’s Town Center Plaza for Polaris Towne Center in Ohio.
• Regency Properties has recently picked up four new centers, including Quitman Shopping Center, Vancleave Shopping Center, Village Square Shopping Center and Green Acres of Havana.
• Homburg Canada Real Estate Investment Trust went on an even larger shopping spree, picking up 29 neighbourhood shopping centers in Montreal and Ontario for $114.9 million.
• Simon Property Group recently snapped up the shares of many of its partners in the ownership of King of Prussia Mall, bringing its stake to a controlling 96 percent.
• SM Prime is also expanding in China, opening a fourth mall, SM City Suzhou, and working on its fifth, SM City Tianjin.
• First Capital Realty Inc. has acquired 3 Canadian shopping centres in $181 million of acquisitions. They include Hazleton Lanes, Macleod Plaza and Longstreet Shopping Centre.

• Kimco Realty Corp. has acquired three shopping centers for about $75.5 million. The centers include Independence Plaza, Garden State Pavilions and Village Shoppes of Flowery Branch.
• West Valley Properties has acquired Point Shopping Center from Cornwell Corporation for $30 million.
• Fiddler’s Cove in Romeo, MI has been purchased for 2.8 million. It was purchased by Stockbridge Michigan LLC. from Citi Financial.
• Tanger Outlet Centers moves into Ohio with the acquisition of a Simon Properties center for $134 million. The two companies have also announced a joint venture to open a Tanger Outlet Center south of Houston, Texas.
• Westfield recently announced a £1bn expansion to Westfield London, which will add 1,700 new homes, 48,000sq meters of retail space and a new public garden.
• Lakeland Town Center has been sold for for $39.4 million to Loja Real Estate LLC.
• According to CoStar Group, General Growth Properties sold Chapel Hills Mall in Colorado Spring for $71.5 million, a major loss. The center held outstanding debt of $111.9 million at the time of the sale.

February was a big month for shopping center deals. Here are some of the highlights:

• Macerich has moved from partial to full ownership of Kierland Commons in Phoenix, US. They paid $34.2 million and assume $18.6 million in debt.
• Capital & Regional have purchased The Waterside Shopping Centre in Lincoln, UK for £24.8 million.
• ING Real Estate Investment Management has acquired Tyresö Centrum in Stockholm, SE for $113 million.
• Landmark Center in Boston, US has been purchased for $530 million. Samuels & Associates and a division of JPMorgan Chase & Co purchased the center from Abbey Group.
• Mall at Marion becomes Illinois Starr Centre following its purchase by Barrett Rochman.

In addition to these deals, Melbourne, Australia’s Highpoint Shopping Centre will see a $300 million redevelopment. And UK retailer Kiddicare has been sold for £70 million to grocery chain Morrisons.

Let’s get started, because there are plenty of deals that rang in the new year:

• Denesol Limited has picked up a 51% stake in Vitantis Shopping Center and Moldova Mall in Romania for EUR 5. The properties carry heavy debt.
• Bayfield Realty Advisors Inc. and RioCan Real Estate Investment have purchased Millwoods Town Centre and surrounding property in Alberta, Canada for $94.6 million.
• Memphis’s Eastgate Shopping Center has been sold to an affiliate of Arrow Realty for $31.5 million.
• Charter Hall Retail has paid $67 million for Gordon Centre in Sydney, Australia. The REIT was formerly the Macquarie CountryWide Retail trust.
• Equity One is reported to be in the process of purchasing Serramonte Cente as part of a $600 million retail real estate deal that should be resolved early this year.
• Atrium European Real Estate has acquired Warsaw’s Promenada Shopping Centre for EUR 169.5 million.
• Regency Centers has purchased Willow Festival in Chicago from developers Hamilton Partners for $64 million.
• Overgate Mall in Dundee, Scotland has been purchased by Land Securities for $220 million.

Here are several of the major shopping center deals that have happened in recent weeks:

• Australia’s AMP Capital Property has sold West Aukland’s LynnMall Shopping Centre for USD $174 million to Kiwi Income Property Trust.
• Inland Real Estate Acquisitions has purchased Bell Oaks Shopping Center for $13.1 million.
• Stockland has acquired a $4 billion land parcel outside Melbourne, where it plans to build residential lots and a new regional shopping centre.
• South Africa’s Hyprop Investments Ltd. has agreed to purchase Attfund Retail’s property assets for USD $1.3 Billion.
• Westfield sold a 50% stake in Westfield Stratford City to Algemene Pensioen Groep and Canadan Pension Plan for £871.5 million.