HOUSTON, Sept. 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Whitestone REIT (NYSE:WSR) (“Whitestone” or the “Company”) announced the 100% lease up completion of a pad site at Fulton Ranch Towne Center property in Chandler, Arizona. Producing attractive financial rewards for Whitestone shareholders, the development results in a stabilized NOI of $263,000, an unlevered return on total cost of 8.8%, and contributes a 16.7% increase of NOI to the center.  
About Fulton Ranch Towne Center
Purchased in 2014 at a 7.4% cap rate, the property included vacant land that Whitestone earmarked for development. A four mile drive to Intel’s Ocotillo Campus, it is located in Maricopa County, the fastest growing county in the country for the third consecutive year ⁽¹⁾. Situated across the street from Arizona’s largest high school and on an intersection that has an average vehicle per day (VPD) of approximately 35,000 and a 1-mile average household income (HHI) level in excess of $163,000 and is projected to grow to $185,000 by 2024 ⁽²⁾.   About the Pad Site
Joining us at the property are Costa Vida, Jersey Mike’s, and Egg & Joe. Fulton Ranch Towne Center currently offers several regionally and nationally recognized operators, including Verizon Wireless, Old Chicago, Bahama Buck’s, PETCO, Lowes Home Center, and Aqua Tots Swimming School.Jim Mastandrea, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “The Fulton Ranch development pad, acquired with the Fulton Ranch Towne Center, proves innovative, scalable and sustainable and compliments our ‘e-commerce resistant’ business model. Our investment in the development was approximately $3.0 million of added real estate, which capped at a 6.4% cap rate ⁽³⁾ creates over $4.1 million of market value for our shareholders.”Mr. Mastandrea added, “Given Fulton Ranch Towne Center’s desirable location, developing a pad site that brings additional convenience and service to the growing neighborhood was by design. Providing a place for families to gather and creating communities within our properties is quite honestly what we love to do, and what we do best.”About Whitestone REIT
Whitestone is a community-centered retail REIT that acquires, owns, manages, develops and redevelops high quality “e-commerce resistant” neighborhood, community and lifestyle retail centers principally located in the largest, fastest-growing and most affluent markets in the Sunbelt. Whitestone’s optimal mix of national, regional and local tenants provides daily necessities, needed services and entertainment to the communities in which they are located. Whitestone’s properties are primarily located in business-friendly Phoenix, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, which are among the fastest growing U.S. population centers with highly educated workforces, high household incomes and strong job growth. For additional information, visit www.whitestonereit.com.About Intel
Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), a leader in the semiconductor industry, is shaping the data-centric future with computing and communications technology that is the foundation of the world’s innovations. The company’s engineering expertise is helping address the world’s greatest challenges as well as helping secure, power and connect billions of devices and the infrastructure of the smart, connected world – from the cloud to the network to the edge and everything in between. Find more information about Intel at newsroom.intel.com and www.intel.com.About Costa Vida
Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill is a proven, rapidly growing fast-casual Mexican restaurant franchise that is expanding throughout the U.S. With nearly 100 units open, it has a proven concept as a successful restaurant brand and as a franchise opportunity. For more information, please go to www.costavida.com.About Jersey Mike’s
Jersey Mike’s Subs is an American submarine sandwich chain headquartered in Manasquan, New Jersey. The Jersey Mike’s franchise has almost 1,504 locations open and about 124 more in development across the United States, in addition to three locations in Queensland, Australia and two in Ontario, Canada.⁽¹⁾  Source:  US Census 2019
⁽²⁾  Source:  ESRI, as of September 23, 2019.
⁽³⁾  Source:  CoStar, Chandler, AZ Retail Submarket Report as of September 12, 2019.Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). The Company intends for all such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe-harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act, as applicable. Such information is subject to certain risks and uncertainties, as well as known and unknown risks, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. Therefore, such statements are not intended to be a guarantee of our performance in future periods. Such forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the Company’s use of forward-looking terminology, such as “may,” “will,” “plan,” “expect,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “goals” or similar words or phrases that are predictions of future events or trends and which do not relate solely to historical matters.The following are some of the factors that could cause the Company’s actual results and its expectations to differ materially from those described in the Company’s forward-looking statements: the Company’s ability to meet its long-term goals, its assumptions regarding its earnings guidance, including its ability to execute effectively its acquisition and disposition strategy, to continue to execute its development pipeline on schedule and at the expected costs, and its ability to grow its NOI as expected, which could be impacted by a number of factors, including, among other things, its ability to continue to renew leases or re-let space on attractive terms and to otherwise address its leasing rollover; its ability to successfully identify, finance and consummate suitable acquisitions, and the impact of such acquisitions, including financing developments, capitalization rates and internal rates of return; the Company’s ability to reduce or otherwise effectively manage its general and administrative expenses; the Company’s ability to fund from cash flows or otherwise distributions to its shareholders at current rates or at all; current adverse market and economic conditions; lease terminations or lease defaults; the impact of competition on the Company’s efforts to renew existing leases; changes in the economies and other conditions of the specific markets in which the Company operates; economic, legislative and regulatory changes, the success of the Company’s real estate strategies and investment objectives; litigation risks; the Company’s ability to continue to qualify as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended; and other factors detailed in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and other documents the Company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company cannot guarantee the accuracy of any such forward-looking statements contained in this press release, and the Company does not intend to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.Contact Whitestone REIT:
Kevin Reed
Director of Investor Relations
(713) 435-2219
[email protected]
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