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Kimco owns and rents out shopping centers anchored by grocery stores and other daily-needs retailers.
Kimco Realty is a real estate investment trust, or REIT. That's a fancy way of saying it owns buildings and is required to pay out most of its profits to shareholders as dividends. Kimco's buildings are shopping centers — mainly open-air strips and small plazas anchored by a grocery store, pharmacy, or discount retailer. Its customers are the tenants who sign leases: supermarkets, restaurants, gyms, banks, and small local shops. The tenants pay rent, and that rent is how Kimco makes money. It's basically a landlord for everyday shopping.
Think of it as owning the parking lot and storefronts around a busy grocery store — you're not selling the groceries, you're collecting rent from everyone who does. About 80% of Kimco's rent comes from tenants selling everyday essentials like food and medicine, which helps keep its income steady even when the economy wobbles. The company owns hundreds of these centers across the United States, concentrated in wealthy suburbs and coastal cities where land is scarce and valuable. Its main growth levers are raising rents on new leases, filling empty space, and buying more centers.
In recent years, Kimco made a big move by merging with Weingarten Realty in 2021, which expanded its footprint in the Sun Belt. More recently, it agreed to acquire RPT Realty, adding more grocery-anchored centers. The company also has a small mixed-use development arm, building apartments on top of some of its retail sites. As for cash, Kimco pays a hefty dividend, reinvests in renovating its centers, and uses leftover money to pay down debt and occasionally buy back shares. Rising interest rates make borrowing more expensive, so keeping its balance sheet strong matters a lot right now.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026