Westfield Wheaton's Owner Selling Many U.S. Locations: Reports

WHEATON, MD — The Westfield Wheaton Mall may undergo a change in owners in the near future, as reports said the owner of the Westfield Montgomery mall hopes to sell many of its American properties.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news last Tuesday. The Journal said the parent company, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, wants to sell most of its U.S. malls by the end of 2023. The Los Angeles Times reported last Friday that Unibail, which is based in Paris, plans to sell all of its American locations.

Unibail told Patch that it had no comment on whether the Westfield Montgomery Mall will be up for sale.

Unibail bought its 24 U.S. malls from Westfield, an Australian property manager. The companies finalized the $16 billion sale in December 2018. The malls seem to have lost value as online shopping continues its takeover. This trend was already hurting shopping centers, but the COVID-19 pandemic sped up the decline.

Unibail estimated that its U.S. malls were worth $13.2 billion last year, the Los Angeles Times said. Real estate analyst Green Street instead valued them at $11.4 billion. Unibail took on a significant amount of debt to buy Westfield. The company hopes to ease a bit of this debt by selling some of its American assets.

The business wants to lower its loan-to-value ratio to 40 percent. This means that Unibail wants its debt to be about 40 percent of the value of its holdings.

Unibail is optimistic that it will find a buyer. The company said 95 percent of its U.S. malls are in the top tier of sales. Unibail will turn its focus toward the wealthiest European cities after this "radical reduction of financial exposure to the US."

"This is the beginning of an exciting journey for URW that will reshape the business to focus on our core strengths in Europe," CEO Jean-Marie Tritant said in a March 30 press release outlining her path to 2024.