Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/74664
THE BOTTOM LINE A second quarter to smile about Rents and vacancy levels improved at U.S. shopping centers in the second quarter, according to research firm Reis. Open-air-center vacancies dropped for a second con- secutive quarter, to 10.8 percent, from 10.9 percent in the first quarter and from 11 percent a year ago. Effective rents, meanwhile, were at $16.55 per square foot, on av- erage, up from $16.49 per square foot a year earlier. Regional mall vacancies eased to 8.9 percent from 9.3 percent a year ago, while those rents rose to $39.12 per square foot, from $38.77 per square foot. Some 572,000 square feet of new space opened in the second quarter, the second-lowest figure Reis has recorded since 1999. Average U.S. vacancy rates 20% 10 12 14 16 18 4 6 8 Retail Office Apartment Starwood stakes retail claim '02 '03 '04 * Through the first quarter U.S. commercial mortgage debt outstanding 10% 13.4% 3.5% 34% Banks and thrifts State and local government CMBS, CDO, other ABS issues Agency and GSE portfolios, MBS 14.8% Life insurance companies Other 24.2% Figures are rounded. SOURCE: MBA '05 '06 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12* SOURCE: REIS Having made a name in the hotel sector with its Starwood Hotels & Resorts subsidiary, Greenwich, Conn.–based Starwood Capital Group is determined to establish itself in the shopping center sector as well. The firm closed on the $1 billion purchase of a 90 percent stake in seven Westfield Group properties, comprising some 6.6 mil- lion square feet, in July. Westfield retains the other 10 percent. Starwood Capital brought in Scott Wolstein, founder of DDR, to head the Starwood Retail Partners division overseeing those properties. "Shopping centers in the U.S. are undergoing a transformation as junior anchors and value retailers are rethinking store size and distribution needs, to the benefit of regional malls, in- cluding the ones we recently acquired from Westfield," Wolstein said in a prepared statement. "We expect to build on this platform in the years to come." CBL & As- sociates Properties will provide some management ser- vices for six of the assets. The malls are Chicago Ridge Mall; Gateway Mall, in Lincoln, Neb.; Louis Joliet Mall, Chicago; Metreon, San Fran- cisco; Solano Mall, Fairfield, Calif.; SouthPark Mall, Cleveland; and Westland Mall, Miami. Deal Barometer WHO IS PAYING HOW MUCH FOR WHAT $9.3 million Mimms Enterprises sold the 78,442-square-foot Bloomingdale Hills neighborhood cen- ter, in Riverview, Fla., to Thompson National Properties $10.4 million Greenwich, Conn.– based J.S. Karlton Co. bought the 97,303-square-foot Venice Pines (Fla.) Shopping Center from Houston- based Weingarten Realty Investors $22.1 million Kite Realty Group Trust acquired the 160,000-square- foot Cove Center, in Stuart, Fla., from Woolbright Development. Publix and Bealls anchor the center $22.5 million Owings Mills, Md.–based Black Oak Associates bought the 117,000-square- foot New Town Village Shopping Center, in Owings Mills, from Kimco Realty and Jones Lang LaSalle $29.4 million Finnish landlord Citycon bought the 172,223-square- foot Albertslund Centrum, in Copenhagen, from the local munici- pality $67.1 million Westfield Group sold the 152,191-square- foot Shore City, in Auckland, New Zealand, to Aviva Investors Asia Pacific Property Fund DEAL OF THE MONTH $240 million Spanish retail group Inditex bought its 75,347-square-foot flagship Zara store in London from German fund man- ager Dek 58 SCT / AUGUST 2012