Rouse to Buy Chesterfield Towne Center From Macerich as Part of $293M Deal

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

As the holidays approach, Rouse Properties Inc. is about to find a major Richmond retail property in its Christmas stocking. The New York City-based REIT announced on Dec. 11 that it is under contract to buy Chesterfield Towne Center from Macerich as part of a two-property, $292.5 million deal.

Chesterfield Towne Center would be the first Virginia shopping center acquired by Rouse. Home to some 130 stores and restaurants, the 1 million-square-foot regional mall is anchored by Sears, Macy’s, Garden Ridge and JCPenney.

As part of the deal, Rouse is also acquiring the Centre at Salisbury, an 862,000-square-foot regional mall in the Eastern Shore community of Salisbury, Md.

Santa Monica, Calif.-based Macerich acquired Chesterfield in 1994 and renovated it in 2008. Rouse reported that inline sales average $360 per square foot and that the property is about 88 percent occupied.

For its part, Macerich has closed sales of eight retail properties so far in 2013 for approximately $560 million, generating $466 million of equity. Chesterfield Towne Center is one of four additional properties it is currently under contract to sell.

CBRE reports that Chesterfield Towne Center led Richmond’s southwest quadrant to outperform the region’s overall vacancy rate, which rose slightly to 8.4 percent during the third quarter. The quadrant registered positive net absorption of 25,000 square feet, the only Richmond submarket to post an improvement.