Smith's Food & Drug Centers, Inc. acquires lease rights of Furrs Supermarkets, Inc.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin --August 31, 2001--  Frank Crivello, Executive Vice President, Phoenix Investors, LLC ("PI"), www.phoenixinv.com, announced that Smith's Food & Drug Centers, Inc., a division of Kroger Company, www.smithsfoodanddrug.com, acquired the leasehold rights of Furrs Supermarkets, Inc. for the shopping centers owned by PI's affiliates including Furrs 1, LLC located at 4016 Louisiana NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Furrs 2, LLC located at 5850 Eubank, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Smith's Food & Drug Centers, Inc., is a regional grocery chain. Each lease term has approximately 18 years remaining.

PI Executive Vice President Frank P. Crivello stated: "The Furrs stores suffered from competitive pressures led by Wal-Mart. As a division of Kroger Company, www.kroger.com, Smith's Food is well equipped to face the competitive landscape. We support Smith's Food and wish them well."

PI Managing Director David Marks stated: "Our management team supports this acquisition and believes it strengthens the competitive position of Smith's Food & Drug Centers as Furrs' successor. Furrs enjoyed a strong market share in New Mexico; we are hopeful Smith's Food & Drug Centers can be more effective against competitors such as Wal-Mart, www.walmart.com. We are pleased to work with Smith's Food & Drug Centers."

About Phoenix Investors, LLC, www.phoenixinv.com:

PI provides real estate management and advisory services. Since 1994 PI has been offering professional management and advisory solutions to public and private companies, trusts, and individual investors. Our management endeavors to understand our clients' individual needs, work with our client to assess specific goals, and structure investments according to our clients' specific risk/reward profile to meet both the clients' short term and long term needs. Our real estate management team professionally manages our portfolio properties through a combination of local and national representation in order to effectively create a "working-bridge" between owner and tenant, building a cooperative mutually beneficial working relationship. Our experts assess and refine our client's portfolio's to maximize our clients cash flow, equity accumulation, and internal rate of return based upon our clients' specific dynamic goals.