ddr industry reit retail founded 1965 headquarters beachwood ohio united states key people terrance r. ahern chairman thomas f. august president revenue us 1.628 bil 2013 1 number of employees 601 january 31 2013 2 website www.ddr.com ddr corp. headquarters in beachwood ohio ddr corp. is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that owns and manages value oriented open air retail shopping centers or power centers in the united states mainland and puerto rico . the company was founded in 1965 and is based in beachwood ohio an eastern suburb of greater cleveland . it operates in approximately 40 continental u.s. states and in the u.s. commonwealth of puerto rico . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 references 4 external links history edit the company s roots go back to a group of companies established by lawyer and single family home builder bertram wolstein an alumnus of cleveland marshall college of law . in 1965 he switched to commercial real estate and began a partnership with kmart with the first one built in 1965 . ddr filed its initial public offering of common shares on february 2 1993 . the price at that time was 22.00 per share and the company began trading on the new york stock exchange under the ticker symbol ddr on february 2 1993 . 3 on september 12 2011 the company announced plans to change its name from developers diversified realty corporation to ddr corp. adopting the nyse ticker symbol as its name . 4 the new name was chosen to represent a simplified strategy portfolio and capital structure as the words developers and diversified no longer accurately describe the company s focus . ground up development of shopping centers is still a part of the company s business but does not warrant top billing in the company s name . further the company s focus on power centers renders the word diversified inaccurate . in september 2011 the company also launched a new tagline think retail . create value . the new tagline was meant to emphasize the company s objective to see the world through the eyes of its customers retailers and that the company s primary reason for being is to create shareholder value . 5 in august 2013 ddr and blackstone group s joint venture acquired a portfolio of seven open air shopping centers from regency centers corporation for 332 million . 6 in march 2014 ddr agreed to exit its brazilian joint venture by selling its stake to the firm s largest shareholder for 343.6 million . 7 in october 2014 ddr closed on its third joint venture with blackstone group the acquisition of 70 shopping centers totaling 15.7 million square feet for 1.93 billion . the portfolio primarily consists of prime power centers located in los angeles houston denver chicago atlanta washington d.c. and phoenix and is occupied by retailers such as whole foods trader joe s the fresh market costco target walmart kohl s petsmart bed bath & beyond and the tjx companies . 8 in february 2014 david oakes was appointed as ddr s president and chief executive officer . previously oakes had served as the company s president and chief financial officer . 9 in q1 2016 ddr reported that due to strong demand in the retail sector the company would sell between 600 to 800 million of its retail portfolio . 10 the move to sell is an attempt to upgrade the overall quality of its portfolio . the company will be selling its lower class malls . 10 operations edit as of december 31 2014 the leased rate of the company s portfolio stood at 95.7 % up from 90.7 % in july 2009 . 11 the company invests in regional power centers located in large and supply constrained markets occupied by national retailers . core tenants include wal mart kohl s t.j. maxx petsmart bed bath & beyond michaels and lowe s. 12 as of december 31 2014 the company owned and managed approximately 400 retail properties in the continental united states and puerto rico . 13 references edit ddr quarterly supplement for the year ended dec. 31 2013 pdf . 2013 02 12 . ddr corp. 10 k report pdf . edgar . 2013 . ddr corp. investor faqs . 2014 03 25 . ddr announces new name tagline and brand identity . acquire media . 2011 09 12 . reits on a re branding roll . nareit . 2011 09 12 . ilaina jonas 13 august 2013 . regency sells 7 shopping centers to blackstone ddr jv . reuters . u.s. shopping center operator ddr to exit brazil in 343.6 million deal . reuters . 10 march 2014 . retrieved 11 march 2014 . pdf . ddr corp. p. 16 http files.shareholder.com downloads abea 2d9pyu 3336681561x0x808856 7218d020 1d1f 461c be79 ad32a0cc19f1 4q14 quarterly supplement.pdf . retrieved 1 jan 2015 . missing or empty title help . united states security and exchange commission . 10 february 2015 http ir.ddr.com secfiling.cfm filingid 1193125 15 50293 & cik 894315 . retrieved 10 february 2015 . missing or empty title help a b ddr under contract to sell 17 properties costar group . www.costar.com . retrieved 2016 01 11 . ddr 4q14 financial supplement pdf . ddr nareit presentation pdf . company external links edit official site yahoo finance profile retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ddr corp. & oldid 743405504 categories companies listed on the new york stock exchangecompanies based in clevelandbeachwood ohioreal estate companies of the united statescompanies established in 1965real estate investment trusts of the united statesshopping property management firmshidden categories pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having bare urls navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable 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