Rams Owner Drops $325M On San Fernando Valley Mall
Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke closed out 2022 with another big-ticket purchase in the San Fernando Valley — his third in the last year.
An entity led by Kroenke purchased The Village, a 600K SF shopping center next to the Promenade site Kroenke bought last year, for $325M, the mall's seller, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, announced in late December.
The sale price "reflects an initial yield of 5.6% on the in-place net operating income, and a 10.6% discount to the last unaffected appraisal," URW said.
URW's neighboring property, Westfield Topanga, was not part of the sale.
According to URW, The Village sale was the nation's second-largest retail sale of 2022, bested only by its nearly $537.5M sale of the Westfield Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia, which sold in August.
“This transaction is another step in the streamlining of our U.S. regional asset portfolio as part of our wider plan to radically reduce our financial exposure to the US, and demonstrates the continued investor interest in high-quality assets with strong operating performance," URW Chief Financial Officer Fabrice Mouchel said in a statement. URW announced plans in 2021 to sell all its retail assets in the U.S. URW currently owns 21 centers in the U.S., 13 of which are in California.
Kroenke has amassed land in the San Fernando Valley over the past year. In addition to the Promenade redevelopment site and The Village, he also purchased a 13-story office building in Warner Center and the adjacent 30 acres of land for $175M.
His purchases are fueling speculation that he will build a training facility in the Valley and move his team to the northern reaches of the city, building a mixed-use project like the one around SoFi Stadium, the Los Angeles Daily News notes.
A representative for The Kroenke Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
CORRECTION, JAN. 12, 4 P.M. PT: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the Westfield Topanga retail center. The story has been updated.
