MOBILE, AL—Rouse Properties Inc. said on Friday it had finalized its purchase of Bel Air Mall, a 1.3-million-square-foot super regional mall here, for $135.2 million. The New York City-based mall REIT had first announced the pending off-market deal earlier this month.
The seller of the 47-year-old retail property was a private partnership managed by Gregory Greenfield & Associates. Rouse has assumed an existing $112.5-million non-recourse loan, with a 5.3% interest rate and due to mature in December 2015.
Andrew Silberfein, Rouse's president and CEO, says the acquisition marks “a perfect fit with our growing portfolio of dominant 'only-game-in-town' regional malls. As the only enclosed mall within 60 miles, Bel Air enjoys a protected competitive position.”
The property, which was built in 1967 and renovated in 2006, serves a trade area of more than 570,000 people across southern Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle. The largest metro area along the Gulf Coast between New Orleans and Tampa, FL, Mobile contains one of the most active ports in the South, and a financial and manufacturing base that includes the $600-million assembly plant Airbus is building six miles from Bel Air Mall.
The mall is anchored by Target, Dillard's, Belk and Sears. Currently it's 90% leased.
Silberfein says Rouse sees “substantial opportunities to create value through targeted improvements to the asset and to the retailer merchandising mix. Since our formation, we have acquired more than $650 million of malls, growing our portfolio by more than 30%, and we continue to have a pipeline of additional opportunities we are considering as we move forward.” The REIT recently raised its 2014 guidance on funds from operations from $1.57 to $1.61 per diluted share.
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