Countrywide Commercial Real Estate Finance of Calabasas, CA financed the acquisition but a company representative declined to disclose the purchase price. However, retail investment brokers in the six markets tell GlobeSt.com the estimated total purchase price is in the $400 million-plus range or about $106.95 per sf. At $106 per sf, replacement cost would still be below the average estimated hard construction costs today of about $150 per sf for comparable properties, construction sources in the Southeast tell GlobeSt.com.

Besides the 130-store Colonial Mall Bel-Air, the other acquisitions are the 525,000-sf, 62-store Colonial Mall Myrtle Beach in Myrtle Beach, SC; the, 525,000-sf Colonial University Village in Auburn, AL; the 507,000-sf, 60-store Colonial Mall Glynn Place in Brunswick, GA; the 450,000-sfl, 65-store Colonial Mall Greenville in Greenville, NC; and the 400,000-sf, 65-store Colonial Mall Valdosta in Valdosta, GA.

On an individual property basis, Countrywide Commercial originated a 10-year, 5.30% fixed loan for $122.4 million with a 30-year amortization period, a 79% loan-to-value ratio and three years interest-only for Colonial Mall Bel-Air. The 10-year, 5.29% fixed loan for Colonial Mall Greenville totaled nearly $44.68 million with a 30-year amortization period, a 75% loan-to-value ratio with three years interest only payments.

At Colonial Mall Glynn Place, Countrywide originated a $23-million, five-year, 5.25%-fixed loan with a 25-year amortization period, and a 71.9% loan-to-value ratio. This loan carried no interest-only clauses. Colonial Mall Valdosta received a 10-year, 5.27% fixed loan for $51.6 million, amortized over 30 years with three years of interest-only payments. The loan-to-value ratio was 69%.

At Colonial Mall Myrtle Beach, the interest rate on the $50.2-million, two-year loan was based on the Libor floating rate. This interest-only loan was "based on an 83.7% as is loan-to-value ratio and a 70.2% stabilized loan to value," according to Countrywide Commercial managing director Boyd Fellows. "The interest rate spread over Libor is blended because of its mezzanine loan" status, Fellows tells GlobeSt.com.

Colonial University Village received a two-year, $31.79-million, Libor-based floating rate loan with interest only payments. The loan was based on a 79.5% loan-to-value ratio. Like the Colonial Mall Myrtle Beach loan, the interest rate on the Alabama-based property's mezzanine loan was spread over Libor and blended.

The financing package took 45 days to complete, Fellows says. "We have signed up, rate-locked or funded $5.9 billion over 420 loan transactions in our first year" of operations, he tells GlobeSt.com. Countrywide Commercial was established in April 2004 and started lending for the first time in fourth quarter 2004.

Although based in Australia, the New York offices of Babcock & Brown and General Properties Trust "ran the deal" for their companies, Fellows says.