FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Jim Cramer
K2 Group, LLC
132 North Woods Blvd.
Suite C-2
Columbus, OH 43235
Phone: 614 430.9960
www.k2realtygroup.com
info@k2realtygroup.com

Dublin picked for $24M 'lifestyle' center

Columbus, OH - April 06, 2005 - K2 Group and the Shoppes at River Ridge where featured in the March 25th 2005 issue of Business First of Columbus.

Article:
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Dublin picked for $24M 'lifestyle' center

By Kathy Showalter
Business First of Columbus

A young Columbus company plans to break ground this summer on the Shoppes at River Ridge, a $24 million open-air retail center east of the Scioto River in Dublin.

K2 Group, a 2-year-old commercial real estate development and advisory firm owned by James P. Cramer and Dean G. Kissos, plans to construct River Ridge on undeveloped land at the southeast corner of West Dublin-Granville Road and Riverside Drive. The 15-acre site surrounds a Wendy's restaurant on Riverside Drive.

The center would consist of eight buildings. Its design includes winding walks and an arbor. River Edge would include 700 parking spaces, with the option for valet parking at restaurants that are planned for the project.

K2 executives expect to open River Ridge next spring.

Going high-end

Cramer and Kissos hope to fill the center with high-end restaurants and fashion retailers they think will appeal to Dublin residents. It would join 120 retail complexes dubbed lifestyle centers in the nation.

Lifestyle centers generally mix an open-air shopping environment with upscale stores and restaurants and target affluent shoppers. Kissos characterized Easton as the "powerhouse" of lifestyle centers in the region. The Lane Avenue Shopping Center, renamed the Shops at Lane Avenue, was redeveloped as a lifestyle center.

About 70 percent of River Ridge's 105,000 square feet of retail space is tentatively booked. K2 Group principals said the company has letters of commitment for:

• Five or six specialty fashion retailers, mostly national firms and some that would be new to Dublin.
• An anchor that will be either a gourmet grocer, a bookstore, or both.
• About 20,000 square feet of restaurants.

Kissos said he wouldn't identify the tenants until leases are signed.

The contractor on the project is Danis Building Construction Co.; the architect is Bird-Houk Collaborative.

Kissos said he and Cramer are arranging financing through an area bank and have institutional equity partners, but he declined to identify them.

New company

Though K2 Group is young, Cramer and Kissos are seasoned hands in Central Ohio development circles. The two were executives at Columbus-based Pizzuti Cos., the developer of the Miranova complex.

Cramer, an accountant, was Pizzuti's executive vice president and treasurer for about a decade. Kissos was an executive vice president and chief financial officer for about seven years .

Before joining Pizzuti Cos., Cramer worked at Deloitte & Touche. Kissos, an attorney, began working in the shopping center industry in 1980 with the Edward J. DeBartolo Corp., now a part of Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group.

They established K2 Group to focus on specialty retail centers of 250,000 square feet or smaller. The Shoppes at River Ridge would be the firm's first project.

The two were attracted to the West Dublin-Granville Road area because of Dublin's demographics. Per capita income there was $136,000 in 2000, census reports show, substantially more than the per capita income level for Columbus.

'Vibrant' market

A retail leasing agent with Columbus Commercial Realty said the Dublin retail market - from Tuttle Crossing to Sawmill Road - has room for more development.

"That whole Dublin market is pretty underserved," Kevin James said. "A lot of the people living in Dublin travel to Polaris and even Easton."

He said the area could use additional upscale restaurants as well as specialty clothing and apparel shops.

James acknowledged some weakness in and around Dublin Village Center, a Sawmill Road complex that has sustained several store closings.

"The rest of Sawmill is very vibrant," he said.

2005 Business First of Columbus

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Based in Columbus, K2 Group is a commercial real estate development and advisory firm that specializes in developing unique retail centers. The company focuses on relatively smaller projects - 250,000 square feet or smaller - that can complement and become integral within an established community.

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