Theater's BK Kills Giant Mall Sale

ORANGE COUNTY, CA-Last week’s bankruptcy filing by locally based Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc. is being blamed for the collapse of the sale of an 800,000-sf package of retail properties in Los Angeles.

Santa Clarita-based development giant Newhall Land & Farming Co. announced last week that it had agreed to sell its 675,000-sf Valencia Towne Center mall and 125,000-sf Valencia Entertainment Center in northern LA County. Though Newhall Land wouldn’t disclose the name of the buyer, GlobeSt.com learned from other brokers than it was Chicago-based investment and advisory giant RREEF.

But now, Newhall Land says the deal has fallen apart because of Edwards Theatres’ Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last Wednesday. Newhall Land says the 800,000-sf portfolio that it had agreed to sell includes two Edwards theaters with 21 screens plus a giant IMAX complex, which accounted for a combined 16% of the portfolio’s total income in the first six months of the year.