Urstadt Biddle Pays $39.9M for Westchester Pavilion Mall

WHITE PLAINS, NY-First, the Mills Corp. announced earlier this month that it had bought the Galleria Mall here. Now, a Greenwich, CT-based shopping center owner, Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc., has acquired the Westchester Pavilion shopping mall here for $39.9 million.

Urstadt Biddle Properties officials note that the facility, originally developed and operated in the late 1950s as an Alexander’s department store, is currently 99% leased. The firm acquired the 185,000-sf complex, which was converted into a power center in 1994 by Fisher-Reese Associates, from the State of Wisconsin Retirement Fund.

Urstadt Biddle Properties also reports that it has purchased the Orange Meadow Shopping Center in Orange, CT., for $11 million from a partnership headed by Louis Ceruzzi of Westport, CT.

Charles J. Urstadt, chairman and chief executive officer of the Greenwich-based REIT, says, “These acquisitions complete nearly $150 million of properties acquired in our target region of New York and Connecticut this year. We have another $32 million under contract which we expect to close on in the next several months.”

Willing Biddle, president of Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. adds, “The Westchester Pavilion increases our retail presence in Westchester County and continues our strategy to expand in our target region of New York and Connecticut.” The shopping center’s major tenants are Toys R Us, The Sports Authority, OfficeMax, Borders Books, Outback Steakhouse, and McDonald’s.

Biddle says that the firm is about to secure a lease for the remaining 1,500 sf of available space at the property. “It is just a very solid retail facility with stable, growing cash flow,” he notes.

Its other acquisition, The Orange Meadows Shopping Center is 85% leased and contains 78,186 sf on seven acres of land. Its major tenants include Talbot’s, Seamans Furniture, Thomasville Furniture and Trader Joe’s, a specialty supermarket. The company is in negotiations for the remaining 11,000 sf of available space there.

In December, two out of the three enclosed shopping malls in downtown White Plains changed hands. In addition to the Westchester Pavilion, Mills Corp. acquired the 885,000-sf Galleria mall from Cadillac Fairview. The city’s other major enclosed mall is The Westchester, which is located next to the Westchester Pavilion property. Nearby, Fortunoff is building its own store that will also include some other retail tenants, including a new Cheese Factory location.