Pritzkers Sell Buena Park Downtown
Cleveland-based Developers Diversified Realty (DDR) and New York–based Coventry Real Estate Advisors spent $91 million to buy Buena Park Downtown, an Orange County shopping nexus that includes the Buena Park Mall, Buena Park Place and the Park Central Entertainment Center.
The two real estate investment trusts purchased the property from Sunrise Buena Park, an entity controlled by the Pritzker family of Chicago, known for its vast real estate holdings, including the Hyatt hotel chain.
The purchase comes after an extensive renovation of the Buena Park Mall, one of Orange County’s oldest regional malls. The improvements helped put the skids on several years of declining sales, but the 780,000-square-foot mall continues to face pressure from competitors, including the Brea Mall, The Block at Orange, Main Place and the South Coast Plaza. The Buena Park Mall is currently 75 percent occupied.
DDR owns Paseo Colorado in Pasadena, Calif., and The Pike at Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach, Calif. With Coventry, it owns City Place in Long Beach, Valley Vista in Lancaster, Calif., and the Plaza at Puente Hills.
The companies have targeted well-located retail properties that present opportunities for value creation, including re-tenanting, market repositioning, redevelopment and expansion. The companies did not mention any immediate improvement plans for the Buena Park centers.
All three centers house retailers that sell moderateand discount-priced goods. Wal-Mart, Sears and the Burlington Coat Factory anchor the Buena Park Mall. Buena Park Place, which has more than 200,000 square feet of space, is anchored by Kohl’s. Park Central is a 137,000-square-foot open-air entertainment center anchored by an 18-screen Krikorian theater.
All three properties are within one mile of the Interstate 5 and state Route 91 intersection. A population of 640,000 lives within a five-mile radius of the properties, and average household income in the area is approximately $66,000, DDR officials said. DDR will manage the three properties. —Robert McAllister
