Simon Property Group Closes $2.3B Prime Outlets Purchase

August 31, 2010
By Barbra Murray, Contributing Editor

Courtesy Flickr Creative Commons user Bitman

It’s pretty much a done deal. Indianapolis-headquartered Simon Property Group Inc. has wrapped up its $2.3 billion acquisition of 21 outlet centers from Baltimore, Md.-based Prime Outlets Acquisition Company, a limited liability entity associated with Lakewood, N.J.-based Lighstone Group. The price tag on the approximately 7.9 million-square-foot portfolio included Simon’s assumption of nearly $1.6 billion of existing debt and preferred stock.

The assets span from as far west as Pismo Beach, California, the location of the 147,400-square-foot Prime Outlets Pismo Beach, and as far east as Lee, Massachusetts, home of the 224,500-square-foot Prime Outlets Lee. Prime Outlets Barceloneta in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico, a 331,800-square-foot center that Simon acquired in May, was also part of the transaction.

Equity consideration paid to owners of Prime involved 80 percent cash and 20 percent in Simon common operating partnership units. Along with the closing of the Prime deal, Simon signed a Consent Agreement with the staff of the Federal Trade Commission in anticipation of review and approval.

“We have received an overwhelming show of support from this deal from our retailer tenants,” David Simon, chairman and CEO of Simon, said during the company’s second quarter earnings call at the end of July. “They recognized the highly competitive nature of this business and our acquisition will provide a significant amount of new capital to a company currently in financial distress, and put that capital to work to improve the operations of Prime assets and therefore, improve the retailers’ performance in those centers.”

With the completion of the Prime transaction, Simon has further solidified its position as the largest real estate company in the country; however, its assets do extend beyond United States borders. The company owns or has an interest in 393 retail real estate properties encompassing 263 million square feet of space in North America, Europe and Asia.