CBL Sells SoCal Mall
The deal helps the company pay down debt.
CBL Properties has sold Imperial Valley Mall in El Centro, Calif., for $38.1 million in an all-cash deal. Completed in 2005, the regional mall measures about 761,000 square feet.
Anchored by Macy’s, JCPenney and Dillard’s, the retail asset also has an anchor vacancy where Sears used to be. The property also features a Cinemark movie theater and a number of inline stores.
The sale was a financial play for CBL. The property served as collateral for the firm’s non-recourse term loan, and proceeds from the sale were applied to the term loan principal balance, which was thus reduced to $680.3 million.
“The sale of Imperial Valley Mall demonstrates the demand for stable enclosed malls,” a CBL spokesperson told Commercial Property Executive. Moreover, the deal puts CBL on course to meet the loan principal balance extension test in November 2025, without contributing further capital beyond required amortization.
The firm applied the same debt-reducing strategy two weeks ago, when it sold two retail assets in Monroeville, Pa., for $34 million. CBL used part of the net proceeds to lower the outstanding principal of a $333 million loan.
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Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CBL is a major retail owner, with 88 properties totaling 55.4 million square feet in 20 states. Its portfolio includes 53 enclosed malls, outlet centers and lifestyle retail centers, as well as more than 30 open-air centers and other assets.
Portfolio occupancy was 90.3 percent at the end of 2024 for CBL, a 100-basis-point-increase over the quarter, but a 60-basis-point decline compared with portfolio occupancy of 90.9 percent at the end of 2023.
SoCal retail market improves
The demand for retail space in Southern California has seen a recent uptick, according to Avison Young, which reports net absorption of 151,000 square feet for the region in the fourth quarter of 2024, the first positive quarter after three straight quarters of negative absorption.
Meanwhile, retail vacancy decreased across all SoCal markets, coming in at 5.7 percent for the region, the report showed. The retail under-construction pipeline totaled 2.3 million square feet across 56 properties.
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