Metro Chicago Mall Lands $100M Refi

By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Fox Valley Mall

Aurora, Ill.—Fox Valley Mall, a 1.4 million-square-foot super regional mall in the suburban Chicago city of Aurora, has just been refinanced to the tune of a cool $100 million. Commercial real estate and capital markets services provider HFF orchestrated the loan on behalf of the ownership, a joint venture of Centennial Real Estate Co., Montgomery Street Partners, USAA Real Estate Co. and Westfield America.

The lending community took more than a sweeping glance at this financing opportunity. “We worked with the borrower’s parameters, and had significant lender interest in this transaction,” Claudia Steeb, managing director with HFF, told Commercial Property Executive. “The overall deal metrics were very attractive to the lenders.” Ultimately, HFF secured financing in the form of a five-year loan featuring a 24-month extension option through a consortium headed by J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., with Aareal Capital Corp. and CIT Bank NA as participant lenders.

Claudia Steeb, HFF

Developed in 1975 and upgraded over the years, Fox Valley occupies a 43-acre site at 195 Fox Valley Center Dr., roughly 35 miles from downtown Chicago. The three-story, enclosed mall is 93 percent leased to approximately 160 retailers, including four anchors: Carson Pirie Scott, Macy’s, Sears and JCPenney. The tenant roster boasts a host of national and regional names ranging from Abercrombie & Fitch to Teavana to 25 Silver Boutique, a high-end jewelry and fashion accessories store that just opened on the first floor of the shopping center in July 2016.

Fox Valley Mall’s ownership team utilized proceeds from the financing to pay off the existing CMBS loan on the property, which the partners had assumed upon acquiring the asset as part of a $1.1 billion mall portfolio purchase in December 2015.