A Florida-based real estate investment trust just dropped $103 million on a Lee's Summit shopping center anchored by Lowe's, Kohl's, Best Buy, TJ Maxx and Total Wine, and it's the second big Kansas City-area purchase the company has made in under a month. Summit Woods Crossing, a 545,000-square-foot open-air power center sitting on 57 acres at the southwest interchange of Interstate 470 and U.S. Route 50, is now owned by CTO Realty Growth after closing on October 6.
The deal, reported by citybiz, works out to roughly $189 per square foot and pushes CTO's total portfolio to 7.1 million square feet, up from 5.5 million square feet at the start of the year — a roughly 30 percent jump. CTO Realty Growth, which is headquartered in Winter Park, Florida, has now deployed $439 million in property and structured investments across 2026, and the Summit Woods Crossing purchase alone accounts for nearly a quarter of that total, per citybiz's reporting.
The Lee's Summit buy comes just three weeks after CTO entered the Kansas City market for the first time, paying $63.3 million for the 768,000-square-foot Zona Rosa mixed-use center in the Northland on September 14, according to Capdex. Combined, the two deals mean CTO poured $166.3 million into the Kansas City region in less than 30 days this autumn, as detailed in a CTO Realty Growth news release.
Two Very Different Bets in the Same Metro
The two purchases represent opposite ends of the retail investment spectrum. Zona Rosa was acquired at 67% leased, with 10 acres of undeveloped land attached, while Summit Woods Crossing was nearly 100% occupied.
CTO's own figures bear that out. Citybiz reports the company says Summit Woods Crossing draws approximately 7.3 million visits annually and serves about 113,000 people within a five-mile radius, where average household income runs around $123,000. A SuperTarget sits on the same site but is not part of CTO's purchase. CTO Realty Growth president and CEO John P. Albright called Summit Woods Crossing a market-dominant, open-air center that strengthens the company's presence in Kansas City, per the same citybiz report.
Beyond the big-box anchors, the center's tenant roster includes national names like Michaels, Old Navy, Petco and Ulta Beauty, according to The Rainier Companies, the Dallas-based firm, which says the property was purchased in 2022 as part of its investment strategy. The citybiz report also notes that CTO believes it acquired the property significantly below replacement cost, with rents still sitting below current market levels — meaning the company sees room for additional returns as existing leases roll over.
Fresh Capital Fueled the Spending Spree
The buying spree wasn't improvised. On September 30, sandwiched between the two Kansas City acquisitions, CTO finalized a new $1.0 billion unsecured credit agreement that added $250 million in incremental commitments and pushed its nearest debt maturity out to September 2029, according to the same CTO Realty Growth release. The agreement came between the Zona Rosa and Summit Woods Crossing deals.
Citybiz notes CTO's blended initial cash yield across its 2026 investments sits at approximately 9 percent, and the Lee's Summit deal marks a notable expansion of the company's strategy. CTO has historically concentrated its open-air shopping center portfolio in higher-growth markets across the southeast and southwest, with its other major 2026 purchase being Palms Crossing in McAllen, Texas, which closed in March for $81.6 million, as GlobeNewswire reported. The Lee's Summit transaction pushes that strategy into the Midwest for the first time.
Road Construction Looms Over the Site
CTO's new asset sits in the middle of an active construction zone. Hoodline previously reported that MoDOT began traffic modifications on August 14, with a southbound closure beginning August 18; demolition was underway by September 15. The specified closures were scheduled to run through November 13, 2026, while the full project was scheduled for completion in January 2027.
Citybiz notes that CTO also externally manages Alpine Income Property Trust, a publicly traded net-lease REIT in which CTO holds an ownership interest — giving the Winter Park company ties to two separate public real estate vehicles. With Zona Rosa requiring active repositioning and Summit Woods Crossing already stabilized, CTO's dual approach suggests the company sees long-term upside across the Kansas City metro, even as it now has to contend with construction-related traffic disruptions near its newest acquisition.
