Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the Paris-based retail landlord in the midst of exiting the U.S market, has sold a suburban Los Angeles mall for the highest price paid for a retail property the U.S. in years.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield sold the 1.5 million-square-foot Westfield Santa Anita at 400 S. Baldwin Ave. in Arcadia for $537.5 million, or about $358 per square foot, according to a statement.
The statement did not identify the buyer other than to say it was an established commercial real estate investor with a retail footprint in Southern California. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield said earlier this year it was planning to sell off its U.S. properties to focus on its European investments.
New York real estate firm Eastdil Secured represented the seller in the deal. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield paid $80 million for the property in 1998, according to the statement. The 78-acre property was 96% leased at the time of sale.
“This 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,” Chris Hoffmann, managing director of Eastdil Secured, said in the statement.
The property, about 18 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, has 23 buildings and was completed in phases between 1974 to 2009. Current tenants include Nordstrom, Zara, Lululemon, Macy’s and H&M. At about $358 a foot, the price paid was lower than the western San Gabriel Valley average of $373 per square foot, according to CoStar data.
The deal is the largest mall sale in the U.S. since 2018, according to Eastdil Secured, and comes amid an active 2022 for mall sales in the L.A. area.
In April, Steerpoint Capital, in partnership with Bridge Group Investments, bought the roughly 750,000-square-foot Shops at Montebello at 2000 Montebello Town Center for roughly $91.5 million. In March, billionaire and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought the 34-acre Westfield Promenade shopping mall for $150 million.
The western San Gabriel Valley retail market, which includes Westfield Santa Anita, has a vacancy rate of 3.7%, below the greater L.A. average of 5.1%, according to CoStar data. The market's average annual rent is $31.19 per square foot, below the greater L.A. average of $35.05 per square foot.