HAZLETON, PA-Laurel Mall, the 610,000-sf shopping center here, is under an agreement to sell for $33.5 million, or about $54.92 per sf. Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust holds a 40% interest in the property, and its vice chairman, Jonathan Weller, tells GlobeSt.com the other partners, Lou Meshon of Plymouth Meeting-based Kramont Realty Trust, and members of the Boscov's Department Store family, have also entered into the agreement to sell the asset to an unidentified third party.

"It's a center in which we have a minority interest," Weller explains, "and we don't manage it. We prefer to manage everything we have an interest in. The mall is not strategic to the [PREIT] portfolio going forward."

The sale price includes assumed debt of approximately $22.7 million and represents a return of approximately 10% on the 2004 operating income from the mall. PREIT's share of the sale price is expected to be approximately $13.5 million, including assumed debt of about $9.1 million. The estimated net cash proceeds to PREIT are expected to be about $3.9 million after closing costs and adjustments. The transaction is scheduled to close in the second quarter of this year.

Occupancy as of Sept. 30, 2004 was 95.2%, Weller says. The property was built in the mid-1970s and has undergone several renovations. Boscov's, Kmart and J.C. Penney are anchors.

On completion of this sale, PREIT's portfolio will contain 53 properties in 12 states. They include 36 malls, 13 strip centers and four industrial properties for an aggregate of approximately 32.4 million sf.