PREIT Selling Two Center City Properties As Part of Fund-Raising Strategy

The real estate trust is selling two buildings in Center City to raise its portfolio.

preit

1501 Walnut

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, the publicly traded trust that operates in the ownership of shopping malls and retail properties, is selling off five properties, including two in Center City.

This is part of PREIT’s strategy to sell off properties that don’t perform as well in order to raise money for more high profile ventures, according to philly.com’s Jacob Adelman.

“[PREIT] is concentrating its resources on malls with good locations in affluent areas and other competitive advantages,” Coradino said of the sales, after a presentation to investors.

One of the Center City buildings is at 1501-05 Walnut St., the building that PREIT agreed to house an AT&T store in back in June, essentially creating a “Cell Phone Alley” with the mega Verizon store in the glassy building at 1430 Walnut Street.

At the time, it was lauded as a transaction that was “representative of PREIT’s dominance in and significant knowledge of the retail landscape in Philadelphia” by Coradino. The AT&T store is still under construction.

The other Center City property being sold is at 1520-22 Chestnut St., which is currently a Dollar Tree store. The Center City sales alone are expected to bring in as much as $45 million.

In addition to those two properties, PREIT is also selling off four other malls: Palmer Park Mall in Easton, a package of two malls in Alabama and one in Virginia.

According to Coradino, the plan is to then use the money to finance other more lucrative initiatives, such as the $325 million renovations on the Gallery at Market East, which they finalized the plans for last month and plan to start construction on soon.

They also recently announced plans to open Pennsylvania’s first Lego Discovery Center at Plymouth Meeting Mall. The 33,000-square-foot site “will offer a fun, highly interactive and educational two-three hour indoor experience” dedicated to the popular toys. Construction there is planned to begin this summer, and it is expected to open in spring 2017.

The sale of properties has been an extended strategy for PREIT, as Adelman reports they have made $483.7 million over the last three years selling eight malls and other assets.