(Save the date: RealShare Chicago comes to the Union League Club of Chicago October 23.)
CHICAGO-Starwood Capital Group, based in Greenwich, CT, has closed its $1.1 billion purchase of seven US shopping centers from Sydney-based Westfield Group. Starwood, which has formed the locally based Starwood Retail Partners here to begin the company’s push into store ownership, has hired CBL & Associates Properties Inc. to manage most of the properties.
Scott Wolstein, former executive chairman for Cleveland-based DDR, has been named CEO of Starwood Retail. Wolstein resigned from DDR, founded by his father in 1965, in the first quarter of 2011 following poor financial performance by the firm. He will remain based in Cleveland.
Wolstein said in a statement today that he’s excited to be part of Starwod Retail. “Shopping centers in the United States are undergoing a transformation as junior anchors and value retailers are rethinking store size and distribution needs, to the benefit of regional malls, including the ones we recently acquired from Westfield,” he said. “We expect to build on this platform in the years to come." A Starwood spokesman said no one from the company is making any further comment on this deal.
Starwood purchased a 90% interest in the 6.6-million-square-foot portfolio, which was 94% leased as of April. The sites include Chicago Ridge in Chicago; b in Lincoln, NE; Louis Joliet in Chicago; Metreon (in redevelopment) in San Francisco; Solano in Fairfield, CA; SouthPark in Cleveland and Westland in Miami. CBL is managing all the properties except Metreon, a CBL spokeswoman tells GlobeSt.com.
Westfield retained a 10% interest in the properties. In April, co-CEO Peter Lowy said in a statement that the company will use the proceeds to pay down debt and for redevelopment projects in the US.
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