LOS ANGELES-The Australia-based Westfield Group, with US headquarters here, said Monday it would sell seven non-core US shopping centers to a Starwood Capital Group affiliate for $1.64 billion. Expected to close in the fourth quarter, the deal marks Westfield's second 10-figure sale to Greenwich, CT-based Starwood Capital in the past 18 months.

Peter Lowy, Westfield's co-CEO, says the sale “continues the implementation of our strategic plan which positions WDC to generate greater shareholder value. We are focused on redeploying our capital into superior retail destinations in major cities through divesting non-core assets and introducing joint venture partners into our high quality portfolio of assets.”

The portfolio totals 7.9 million square feet and include four retail properties in the Midwest and three on the West Coast. At 1,361,168 square feet, the Westfield Southlake in the Chicago suburb of Merrillville, IN is the largest, followed by the 1,319,739-square-foot Westfield Parkway in El Cajon, CA, a suburb of San Diego.

The other properties include Westfield Franklin Park in Toledo, OH, 1,261,954 square feet; Westfield Great Northern in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted, OH, 1,184, 733; Westfield West Covina in West Covina, CA, 1,180,455 square feet; Westfield Belden Village in Canton, OH, 826,140 square feet; and Westfield Capital in Olympia, WA; 779,268 square feet. Starwood will own and manage the majority interest in the centers, with Westfield retaining a 10% common equity interest.

For Westfield, the deal marks its exit from “all of its Midwest assets outside the Chicago area and all non-core West-Coast assets,” Bloomberg quoted Morgan Stanley's Louise Pylott and Lou Pirenc as saying. The value of the transaction is about $120 million below the properties' combined value at the end of 2012 and in line with their value as of June 30, according to Westfield.

The divestiture will mean an increase in sales per square foot across Westfield's US portfolio. When it closes, Westfield will own and operate a portfolio of 40 centers in the US with average annual sales of $513 per square foot as of June 30, compared to $494 per square foot as reported last month in the company's half-year results announcement.

In April of last year, Westfield traded another seven-mall portfolio to Starwood Capital for $1.1 billion. At the time, Lowy said, “We have previously flagged the potential divestment of non-core assets in the United States, and this transaction is an important step in the repositioning of our portfolio to major retail assets with strong franchise characteristics.” This past March, the company sold half stakes in six Florida properties to O'Connor Capital Partners for approximately $700 million.