Rouse Buys Providence Place Mall for $510M

PROVIDENCE, RI-The Rouse Co. has closed on its acquisition of 1.3-million-sf Providence Place mall here for $510 million in cash and assumed debt, marking the largest retail sale this city has ever seen. The seller was privately held Commonwealth Development Group. The asset is 98% occupied.

Providence Place includes 420,000 sf of mall space that is 98% occupied; 115,000-sf of larger, street-facing shops; a 200,000-sf Filene’s department store; a 197,000-sf Nordstrom department store; a 126,000-sf Lord & Taylor department store, which will likely close; a 16-screen cinema with an Imax theater; and a 4,500-slip parking deck. The mall is located immediately adjacent to Interstate 95, which provides direct access to the mall’s parking garage, and one-half block away from the Providence Amtrak station, which provides commuter and high-speed rail to Boston and Manhattan.

“The mall has significant near-term upside potential based on the successful re-tenanting of 126,000 square feet currently occupied by Lord & Taylor and The Rouse Company’s ability to increase mall store rents,” says Todd Stressenger. Stressenger, a senior managing director Holiday Fenoglio Fowler’s Boston office, represented the seller in the transaction along with HFF executive managing director John Fowler and senior real estate analyst Greg LaBine.