Many residents and officials may only know the Dreher Group from its connection with the development of the Rite Aid property on Princeton-Hightstown Road, but its president, Richard Dreher, has had an extensive background in developing properties for such big name retail establishments as Home Depot, Staples, and CVS.##M:[more]##
While Dreher would not talk to the News about his possible purchase of the Acme property on Princeton-Hightstown Road, nor about his background, a biography on his company’s website gives a little insight into some of the other projects, including one in Pennsylvania, in which he had been involved in developing the first Staples office supply chain stores around the region.
According to his website, he formed the Dreher Group and Sadge Development in 1994 in partnership with Nicholas Scandale, owner of SABEL (Scandale Associated Builders & Engineers), a regional engineering, construction management, and general contracting business.
Currently, the Dreher Group is based on Nassau Street in Princeton, but it also has an office in Dickson City, near Scranton, PA, where it has been involved in various real estate deals. The group’s website states that its clients range from Fortune 100 companies to family-owned businesses and private landowners, and that its experience spans 30 years and hundreds of projects. The site also states that it is a “preferred developer for national and regional retailers including Rite Aid, PNC Bank, and Giant Foods.”
Dreher, the firm’s president, has been involved in real estate since 1979, when he became a partner in a regional real estate brokerage company specializing in hotels, restaurants, and other highway commercial real estate deals, his website biography states. From there, he worked with corporate chains with respect to their expansion programs until the mid-1980s, when shopping centers were sprouting up all over suburban communities, his website states.
Dreher later joined the retail division of a national brokerage company based in New York, where he was responsible for the leasing of 3.5 million square feet of retail space in suburban centers in New York and the Hudson Valley. This is where Dreher became involved with the team responsible for the first dozen Staples stores in the New York metro market, in which he worked with the chain’s founder, Tom Stemberg, his website says.
Dreher later freelanced as a broker and developer in the late 1980s, and also consulted for an international entertainment company, in which he was involved in acquiring and developing real estate projects across the U.S. and in Europe.
He became a consultant for two families in northeast Pennsylvania with substantial real estate holdings and developed over 2 million square feet of centers in that region, in the early 1990s, his site stated.
A case study found on the website, www.surrealconcepts.com, describes his involvement in the deal. The Dreher Group joint ventured with the family in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, after the family had acquired substantial real estate holdings through its ownership of an independent supermarket chain. The family wanted to maximize their real estate assets and transition out of the operating business.
“First, the Dreher Group re-developed an older, 100,”000 square foot center which had previously contained one of their supermarkets,” the website states. “The existing 100,”000 square feet was leased to Raymour & Flanigan and Burlington Coat Factory, and a new freestanding Home Depot was built on the site. After that was complete, the Dreher Group took a 12-acre site the family owned, located at a new interstate ramp, and negotiated a new land lease with Wegmans and Applebee’s Restaurant. Then, on an adjacent parcel, Dreher completed a purchase of 24 acres from the regional Chamber of Commerce to combine with 16 acres the family already owned to create a 40-acre regional site.”
Dreher then brought in CBL & Associates Properties, one of the nation’s largest retail REITs, to finance the acquisition and master leaseback of the entire tract. CBL developed a 350,”000 square foot regional center anchored by a Wal-Mart Supercenter, the website states. Dreher then arranged to broker the sale of all but one of the dozen smaller stores to Associated Wholesalers, Inc. The family then relocated its last store to the site of their warehouse.
