The big announcements keep coming this month from Kimco Realty, the world’s largest public owner and operator of grocery-anchored retail.

The REIT's co-founder, Milton Cooper, is retiring as executive chairman of the board of directors, effective Tuesday, after more than 60 years with the company. He is taking up the role of chairman emeritus, according to a press release. Cooper was involved in the approval process of Kimco's new investments, developments and property dispositions as a voting chairman of the investment committee.

Earlier this month, Kimco completed the purchase of RPT Realty in an all-stock deal valued at $2B. The acquisition added 56 open-air retail centers totaling 13M SF to Kimco’s portfolio. Assets in the sale include the mixed-use grocery-anchored Brickell Village in Miami and a 646K SF Wegmans-anchored retail center in Massachusetts. The deal was announced in late August as part of Kimco's strategy to further its presence in the Sun Belt and coastal markets.

The firm now owns 583 open-air retail properties nationwide.

Cooper and Marty Kimmel founded predecessor Kim-co in 1960. Cooper served as the company's director and president before becoming chairman of the board of directors from November 1991 to December 2009. In that time, he also served as CEO.

Cooper led Kimco through its 1991 initial public offering, the first successful equity REIT IPO. Nareit credits that listing as the creation of the modern REIT era.

Cooper is also a director at Getty Real Estate Corp.

Richard Saltzman will take up the role of independent chairman of the board. Saltzman has been a director with Kimco since 2003. He served as CEO of Colony Capital in New York from 2015 to 2018 and before that as managing director and vice chairman of Merrill Lynch's investment banking division.

Joining the board of directors as of Tuesday are Nancy Lashine on the audit and executive compensation committees and Ross Cooper, Kimco's president and chief investment officer.