Macerich Set to Sell SoCal Shopping Mall to Stockdale Capital for $157M

Macerich is in the process of selling off some of its shopping center assets to meet its debt obligations, including a more than one million-square-foot mall in Southern California. 

The mall-focused real estate investment trust is under contract to sell The Oaks shopping mall, at 350 West Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks, to Stockdale Capital Partners for $157 million, according to The Real Deal, citing confidential sources. The REIT said in its latest earnings report that the deal was expected to close in the final quarter of this year.

The decision to sell the property is a change in course for Macerich. The Santa Monica-based REIT in late May closed a two-year extension on its $150 million loan tied to The Oaks, with a new maturity date in June 2026. Macerich acquired the property for $150 million in 2002 from the California State Teachers Retirement System and Trizec Properties, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. 

With the sale of The Oaks and other signed agreements taken into account, Macerich President and CEO Jackson Hsieh said that the REIT had reached about 60 percent of its $2 billion debt reduction goal. Hsieh was appointed in March to lead Macerich.

Hsieh told investors during Macerich’s third-quarter earnings call that The Oaks was an asset that needed to be “re-engineered,” particularly its retail component, but that its prospective buyer seems to have secured the financing necessary to redevelop the property. 

“[The Oaks has] a development opportunity that has entitlement, but there’s still some moves that are required,” Hsieh said. “But that buyer seems to have been able to secure financing, which I think is a really compelling opportunity for us, as we look to monetize some of these other assets … the fact that lenders are coming into what I call B opportunities, or maybe properties that could become A’s that need a lot of reconstruction, that to me is kind of encouraging. That wasn’t really as evident when I first started at the company in March of this year.”

Representatives for Macerich and for Stockdale did not immediately respond to requests for further details and comment. 

Macerich Chief Financial Officer Scott Kingsmore added during the earnings call that the REIT was also in the process of selling three other properties — Santa Monica Place, the Shops at Atlas Park in Glendale, N.Y., and Southbridge Mall in Des Moines, Iowa — and that it had four other assets in which it was also pursuing a sale transaction or was in discussion with their respective lenders.

One of those four is Lakewood Center in Lakewood, Calif., a 2 million-square-foot mall that Kingsmore said was likely to be sold “in the near term” for an undisclosed price. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.