Organization and Basis of Presentation and Consolidation |
12 Months Ended |
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Dec. 31, 2022 | |
| Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract] | |
| Organization and Basis of Presentation and Consolidation | Organization and Basis of Presentation and Consolidation Wheeler Real Estate Investment Trust, Inc. is a Maryland corporation formed on June 23, 2011. The Trust serves as the general partner of Wheeler REIT, L.P. (the “Operating Partnership”), which was formed as a Virginia limited partnership on April 5, 2012. At December 31, 2022, the Company owned 99.05% of the Operating Partnership. As of December 31, 2022, the Trust, through the Operating Partnership, owned and operated seventy-five centers and four undeveloped properties. Twenty-one of these properties are located in South Carolina, twelve in Georgia, ten in Virginia, eight in Pennsylvania, six in North Carolina, four in Massachusetts, four in New Jersey, three in Florida, three in Connecticut, two in Kentucky, two in Tennessee, one in Alabama, one in Maryland, one in West Virginia, and one in Oklahoma. The Company’s portfolio had total gross rentable space of approximately 8,173,000 square feet and a leased level of approximately 92.9% at December 31, 2022. Accordingly, the use of the word “Company”, "we", "our" or "us" refers to the Trust and its consolidated subsidiaries, except where the context otherwise requires. The Company includes the Trust, the Operating Partnership, the entities included in the REIT formation and the entities acquired since November 2012. The Company prepared the accompanying consolidated financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or GAAP. All material balances and transactions between the consolidated entities of the Company have been eliminated.
The Company owns, leases and operates income producing grocery-anchored centers, neighborhood centers, community centers and free-standing retail properties with a strategy to acquire high quality retail properties that generate attractive risk-adjusted returns. The Company targets properties in communities that have stable demographics. The Company considers properties that are generally located in the most prominent shopping districts in their respective markets, ideally situated at major “Main and Main” intersections. The Company generally leases its properties to national and regional supermarket chains and selects retailers that offer necessity and value oriented services and items and generate regular consumer traffic. The Company’s tenants carry goods and offer services that are less impacted by fluctuations in the broader U.S. economy and consumers’ disposable income, which it believes generates more predictable property-level cash flows.
The Trust through the Operating Partnership owns Wheeler Interests, LLC (“WI”) and Wheeler Real Estate, LLC (“WRE”) (collectively the “Operating Companies”). The Operating Companies are Taxable REIT Subsidiaries (“TRS”) to accommodate serving the Non-REIT Properties since applicable REIT regulations consider the income derived from these services to be “bad” income subject to taxation. The regulations allow for costs incurred by the Company commensurate with the services performed for the Non-REIT Properties to be allocated to a TRS.
Acquisition of Cedar Realty Trust
On March 2, 2022, the Company entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (as amended, the “Merger Agreement”) with Cedar Realty Trust, Inc. (“Cedar”), Cedar Realty Trust Partnership, L.P., (“Cedar OP”), WHLR Merger Sub Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, and WHLR OP Merger Sub LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merger Sub I (“Merger Sub II”), pursuant to which the Company agreed to acquire Cedar, including 19 of its shopping center assets, in an all-cash merger transaction consisting, in accordance with the terms of the Merger Agreement, of a payment to Cedar common shareholders of merger consideration of $9.48 per common share (the “Cedar Acquisition”).
On August 22, 2022, the Company completed the merger transaction with Cedar. As a result of the merger, the Company acquired all of the outstanding shares of the Cedar's common stock, which ceased to be publicly traded on the NYSE. Cedar’s outstanding 7.25% Series B Preferred Stock and 6.50% Series C Preferred Stock remain outstanding and continue to trade on the NYSE. Each outstanding share of common stock of Cedar and outstanding common unit of the Cedar OP held by persons other than Cedar immediately prior to the merger were cancelled and converted into the right to receive a cash payment of $9.48 per share or unit. As a result Cedar became a subsidiary of the REIT.
During the year ended December 31, 2022 the Company incurred acquisition related costs of $5.51 million for the merger. These costs were capitalized as part of the acquisition and are primarily comprised of professional fees and legal fees, see Note 3 included in this Form 10-K for further details.
The consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K include Cedar starting from the date of acquisition. We have determined that this acquisition is not a variable interest entity, as defined under the consolidation topic of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (the "FASB"), Accounting Standards Codification, or ASC, and we evaluated such entity under the voting model and concluded we should consolidate the entity. Under the voting model, we consolidate the entity if we determine that we, directly or indirectly, have greater than 50% of the voting rights and that other equity holders do not have substantive participating rights.
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