Mortgage broker cleveland ohio

CBL & Associates has struck deals to buy two malls for a total of $157.5 million.

The REIT will pay $77.5 million for Park Plaza Mall in Little Rock, Ark., and about $80 million for Chapel Hill Mall in Akron, Ohio.

CBL made a pre-emptive offer for the 568,000-squarefoot Park Plaza Mall early in the marketing process that effectively shut out competing bids. Eastdil Realty is brokering the deal for First Union Real Estate Investments.

The purchase price, which translates into a relatively hefty initial annual yield of 8.5%, was depressed by two factors. First, CBL agreed to assume a $42 million mortgage with an above-average rate of 8.69%. First Union would have been hit with a whopping $10 million prepayment penalty if it retired the loan. Second, CBL agreed to incur the cost of some planned improvements by First Union. Without those factors, the property probably would have traded for about $100 million, or a cap rate of about 7.5%.

Park Plaza Mall, which contains the flagship store of the Dillard's chain, generates robust in-line sales of about $410/sf.

CBL is buying Chapel Hill Mall from Forest City Enterprises of Cleveland and local developer Richard Buchholzer, 88, who is ready to retire as the mall's manager. They quietly marketed the 865,000-sf property without a broker.

The mall, whose net operating income is about $6.8 million, is 94% occupied. The anchors are JC Penney, Sears and Kaufmann's. The in-line stores generate sales of about $305/sf.

CBL, which is based in Chattanooga, Tenn., has been steadily bulking up its portfolio over the past several months. So far this year, it has acquired three malls for $309 million, and it has agreements in place to buy another three, including Park Plaza and Chapel Hill, for $357.5 million.