JV Closes $104M Mall Acquisition

(For more retail coverage, click GlobeSt.com/RETAIL.)

TUCSON-Feldman Mall Properties Inc. and Kimco Realty Corp. shoring up a JV plan set into play in the first quarter, has inked a $104 million deal for the 700,000-sf Foothills Mall. The seller is a Feldman subsidiary.

The transaction for the mall, developed in 1986 at 7401 N. La Cholla Blvd., rolled about $40 million into the till of the Great Neck, NY-based Feldman, which retained a $7.2-million equity stake in the property. Kimco, in the meantime, initially seeded the JV with $14.8 million and provided a $17.2-million bridge loan to Feldman, which was paid off prior to the sale. Meanwhile, Feldman recapitalized the property with an $81-million, 10-year loan with a 6.08% fixed-rate interest.

As part of the deal, Feldman retains management and leasing for the 96%-leased mall. Feldman’s MO is to renovate value-add properties, but executive vice president Thomas E. Wirth tells GlobeSt.com that no major renovations are planned for Foothills Mall at this time. “We’ll be looking to continually improve it and we feel the property is stabilized at this time,” he says.

Feldman’s Wirth says more JV deals could be in the works with the New Hyde Park, NY-based Kimco. For now, the plan is to hold the mall for the long term because of Tucson’s continued high growth. “There are still a lot of houses going up there,” Wirth says, “and the mall is right there in the growth path. The overall area is growing at a strong rate.”