(Bloomberg)—Brookfield Property Partners LP has boosted its bet on malls, adding exposure to a corner of the real estate market that some of the firm’s investment rivals are avoiding.
Brookfield recently bought JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in four U.S. shopping centers in which the firms were co-invested, said people familiar with the matter. New York State Teachers’ Retirement System also had a stake in two of the malls, one of the people said. In a simultaneous deal, JPMorgan and NYSTRS bought Brookfield’s stake in a fifth mall, the Bridgewater Commons in New Jersey.
The transaction valued the five malls at $3.2 billion, including debt, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the transaction is private.
Representatives for Brookfield, JPMorgan and NYSTRS declined to comment.
Top malls remain a draw for shoppers and are receiving interest from institutional investors at a time when weaker properties have struggled, hurt by the rise of e-commerce and store closures.
The deal fits with Brookfield’s strategy of acquiring top-tier malls where the surrounding land can be redeveloped with hotels, residences, and offices, one of the people said.
Brookfield acquired JPMorgan’s stakes in the Perimeter Mall in Atlanta, Park Meadows in Denver, Towson Town Center in Maryland and the Shops at Merrick Park in Coral Gables, Florida. NYSTRS was an investor in the shopping centers in Colorado and Maryland.
--With assistance from Michelle F. Davis.
To contact the reporters on this story: Gillian Tan in New York at [email protected];
Scott Deveau in New York at [email protected].
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at [email protected]
Craig Giammona, Daniel Taub
© 2019 Bloomberg L.P.