Ian Ritter is national online editor of GlobeSt.RETAIL.

ARLINGTON, VA-The Mills Corp. has closed on its $1-billion acquisition of regional malls from General Motors Asset Management LLC. The deal, which the company announced in August, gives Mills a 50% interest in nine properties across the country.

The centers, which total 9.6 million sf, are Briarwood Mall, in Ann Arbor, MI; Columbus (OH) City Center; the Falls, in Miami; Hilltop Mall, in Contra Costa County, CA; Lakeforest Mall, in Gaithersburg, MD; the Mall at Tuttle Crossing, in Columbus, OH; Marley Station, in Glen Burnie, MD; Meadowood Mall, in Reno, NV; and Stoneridge Mall, in Pleasanton, CA. The malls were managed for GMAM by the Bloomfield Hills, MI-based Taubman Centers, which will cease overseeing the properties on Nov. 1.

Mills officials say tenant sales at the malls were $2.1 billion last year. The locally based company is funding the purchase with the assumption of $170 million of property debt, $410 million on three of the centers the company is acquiring, and a $200-million loan from JPMorgan.

Mills, known for its large value megamalls, first started acquiring traditional malls in 2002, when the company bought six properties for $621 million. The firm is remodeling many of them, including the 2.1-million-sf Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, CA where it is adding an outdoor lifestyle center and an AMC theater.

Earlier this month Mills officials announced nearly half of the tenants for its 4.7-million-sf retail-entertainment project, Meadowlands Xanadu, in East Rutherford, NJ. The company owns 37 traditional malls and retail-entertainment properties across the country.

GMAM, a subsidiary of the General Motors Corp., manages about $148 billion in assets. Its real estate portfolio is valued at $8.3 billion, company officials say.

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Mills Closes GMAM Deal

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