Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Sells Super-Regional Mall for $538M

Westfield Santa Anita

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has closed the sale of Westfield Santa Anita, a super-regional mall totaling 1.5 million square feet in Arcadia, Calif.

The $537.5 million disposition represents the largest sale price paid for a mall within the U.S. over the last four years, according to Eastdil Secured, which advised the seller.

The buyer, a yet unnamed, but “established commercial real estate investor” with a retail footprint in Southern California funded the acquisition through equity investment as well as mortgage debt. The Class A property last traded in late 1998, when URW paid $80 million for the multi-tenant asset, CommercialEdge data shows.

Westfield Santa Anita was 96 percent leased at the time of the sale, with tenant sales reaching 93 percent of their 2019 values in the first half of the year.

According to Chris Hoffmann, managing director at Eastdil Secured, the transaction bodes well for the mall industry as a whole as it further demonstrates the private capital market’s recognition of the significant improvement in the sector’s operational performance. “We see interest in owning high-quality and irreplaceably located malls as increasingly diversifying,” he said in prepared remarks.

In the second quarter, total vacancy rates for super-regional and regional malls across Los Angeles County reached 9.8 percent, while retail assets within the same class in the Inland Empire had a 14.8 percent vacancy rate. However, both areas were outperformed by Orange County, which had a 3.5 percent vacancy rate, Colliers data shows.

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Meanwhile, the total vacancy rate across all retail property types in Los Angeles County plateaued at 6.1 percent, with negative net absorption of 170,866 square feet and average asking lease rates increasing slightly to $2.87 per square foot, according to Colliers.

A Class A super-regional mall

Located at 400 S. Baldwin Ave. on more than 79 acres, Westfield Santa Anita offers valet parking, complimentary wheelchairs to address mobility needs, a family lounge, a play space, among other services. The 23-building property was completed in several phases between 1974 and 2009.

The three-digit list of tenants includes Nordstrom, Zara, MAC, Lululemon, Macy’s and H&M, among others. Westfield Santa Anita is less than a mile from Interstate 210, some 6 miles from Interstates 10 and 605. Downtown Los Angeles is less than 18 miles southwest.