STARWOOD BROKERING SALE OF $1.2B US MALLS

June 22, 2016

Starwood Capital just hired Eastdil Secured to facilitate the sale of $1.2B of its US mall portfolio—much of it lower-tier.

Most of the portfolio stems from property acquired from Westfield, which includes malls in Chicago, Cleveland and S.F., Bloomberg reports. And in the wake of e-commerce’s triumph, it’s getting hard to find buyers for lower-tier malls.

Green Street Advisors, a REIT research firm, says the pool of investors for such properties is shallow and funding is hard to come by. The firm estimates several hundred malls across the country could be shut down over the next decade, with properties relying on anchor tenants Macy’s, JC Penney and Sears being the most at risk. [Bloomberg]