As the status of the broader economic recovery is debated endlessly in the media (and on the campaign trail), data shows legitimate improvement in various sectors of real estate, including retail. The latest evidence: a pick up in investment in 'B-grade' malls. As you may recall from our note last month, Starwood Capital- the large private equity group best known for its hotel and residential real estate holdings- recently made an incursion into malls. They and other investors (including several REIT's) are making noteworthy investments in mall properties in smaller U.S. cities lacking high-end tenants, investments that would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago given a lack of credit available for anything but 'class A' malls in major cities (think Phipps Plaza or Lenox Square). [Bloomberg]
Filed under: