Lincoln Property Invests In Centennial, Teams Up To Buy And Redevelop Mixed-Use

Lincoln Property Co. is joining forces with a national retail real estate owner and operator to develop and invest in community-centered mixed-use projects across the nation.

Dallas-based LPC announced Wednesday it had made a strategic investment in hometown company Centennial in a deal that positions it for new mixed-use opportunities and gives Centennial the resources to accelerate its national expansion.

The terms of the transaction and the amount of the investment weren't disclosed.

“Our companies have collaborated on several joint ventures over the last decade, and throughout our engagements, we have seen that Lincoln shares our vision for the future of retail real estate,” Centennial founder and CEO Steven Levin said in a release.

“By combining Centennial’s retail expertise with Lincoln’s experience in office, multi-family, hotel and other real estate product types, Centennial will be even better positioned to deliver the industry’s best playbook for acquiring, repositioning, and redeveloping thriving retail and mixed-use developments.”

Centennial operates more than 23M SF of retail and mixed-use properties across 18 states. LPC is one of the largest private real estate firms in the United States, having completed upward of 164M SF of development over its 59-year history. LPC has about $20B in projects under construction or in the planning stages, according to the release.

The partnership will focus on acquiring, repositioning and redeveloping underperforming real estate. It will lean on Centennial’s experience as a mall operator and Lincoln’s development expertise as it advises on the redevelopment and rightsizing of nonretail and retail-adjacent real estate.

“Enclosed malls or large open-air malls … are overbuilt today,” Levin told The Dallas Morning News. “The best projects in America, in our opinion, are projects that are mixed-use — very dominant retail, but bring together an environment of residential, of working and of complementary uses. … Lincoln, as a leading developer of complementary uses, is the other part of the equation that really creates those great projects.”

The partnership marks LPC’s latest foray into retail. Last summer, it announced a joint venture with California-based Paragon Commercial Group, a firm specializing in the development and acquisition of value-add retail properties.

It also follows what was characterized in 2023 as a sizable cash injection from Connecticut-based Stone Point Capital aimed at allowing LPC to add more industrial, mixed-use, office, retail, production studio and life sciences properties to its portfolio.

“Stone Point gave us some capital to strategically grow,” co-CEO Clay Duvall said at the time. “At some point, when the capital markets do unthaw, we will have an opportunity to take advantage of what’s been a dislocation in the marketplace.”