Simon DeBartolo Group Inc. and Macerich Co. said Monday they agreed to buy 12 malls from an IBM Corp. pension fund for $974.5 million, furthering the mall industry’s consolidation.
Indianapolis-based Simon DeBartolo, the U.S.’s largest real estate company, and Santa Monica, Calif.-based Macerich formed a 50-50 venture to buy the properties, which are in eight states. The purchase price includes the assumption of $485 million of debt.
The collection of malls, which includes SouthPark Mall in Moline and four malls in Iowa, is the second that Simon DeBartolo has bought in three months and is likely to accelerate a trend that is putting the bulk of the nation’s malls into the hands of a few of the biggest operators.
“In 1998, more malls will probably change hands than have ever changed hands before,” said Jim Sullivan, a real estate analyst at Prudential Securities.
Simon DeBartolo is the industry’s most active buyer of malls. This year, it has bought or agreed to buy about $1.9 billion of mall properties, including the $1.2 billion hostile takeover of closely held Retail Property Trust in September and its half stake in the IBM properties.
