Pittsburgh-based real estate investment and development firm ECHO Realty entered the Wilmington shopping center market last week with the $12.2 million purchase of Beau Rivage Marketplace and adjacent land.

Buying the Harris Teeter-anchored center and 6 acres off Carolina Beach Road is part of ECHO Realty’s bigger strategy to expand beyond grocery-anchored properties in Pennsylvania and Ohio, said Drew Gorman, the company’s senior vice president for acquisitions and investments.

“We want to diversify by adding properties that are not in our historic market,” Gorman said Thursday.

Many of the centers the company owns in the Northeast are anchored by Giant Eagle grocery stores, he said, and like Harris Teeter stores in the Southeast, Giant Eagle is considered a market leader there.

Beau Rivage Marketplace consists of the Harris Teeter strip and two more buildings in the 5900 block of Carolina Beach Road. Among the other tenants are Great Clips, P.T.'s Grille and a children's resale store called Finders Keepers. The center has 8,400 square feet available for leasing, Gorman said.

"In all our centers we look for a mix and a balance of national and regional/local tenants because we very much like to have a local flavor," Gorman said.

The Charlotte office of Orlando-based CNL will assist ECHO Realty with property management and leasing for Beau Rivage Marketplace. 

He said the company is evaluating what it might be able to do with 2 acres of the six it bought as part of the Wilmington center's deal.

ECHO Realty also bought seven additional assets, including two Harris Teeter-anchored centers in Charlotte and a stand-alone Harris Teeter in Kill Devil Hills, from the same seller, which is listed as BRM Associates #2 LLC on the deed for the Beau Rivage Marketplace transaction recorded July 21 in New Hanover County.