CTO Realty Growth is a self-managed equity REIT focused on owning and operating open-air retail shopping centers, primarily in high-growth Southeast and Southwest markets — with heaviest concentrations in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. The portfolio totals 21 properties (~5.5M sq ft), including 17 shopping centers anchored by national retailers, grocers, and fitness operators such as Publix, Burlington, and Ulta Beauty. CTO leases space to retail tenants through multi-year leases, typically structured as NNN or similar arrangements where tenants pay base rent plus operating expenses. The core business model is built around acquiring centers with below-market in-place rents and embedded vacancy, then re-leasing that space at market rates — a "mark-to-market" strategy that CTO has pursued actively, executing comparable leases at a 21.7% weighted average base rent spread year-to-date through Q3 2025. CTO also uses retail bankruptcies as an opportunity to recapture below-market anchor spaces and re-lease them at significantly higher rents, targeting 40–60% positive cash leasing spreads on recaptured boxes. Beyond its core property income, CTO runs a smaller commercial loans and investments business, originating fixed and floating-rate real estate loans at yields typically in the 10–12% range. CTO also externally manages Alpine Income Property Trust, a publicly traded net-lease REIT in which CTO holds ~15.4%, earning a recurring management fee. CTO operates as a REIT, requiring it to distribute at least 90% of taxable income as dividends, and therefore relies on debt and equity markets to fund growth and acquisitions.