PREIT wants to sell 5 Pa. malls - Update
Springfield Park on the block
TUESDAY UPDATE: Not enough, says dissident investor. MONDAY: Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, the Philadelphia shopping-center landlord that owns the Gallery at Market East, Cherry Hill, Willow Grove and other area malls, said today it is looking for buyers for five more of its Pennsylvania centers: Springfield Park, a strip of stores near Baltimore Pike in Delaware County; Palmer Park, Easton; Uniontown Mall, Uniontown; Lycoming Mall, Williamsport; and Washington Crown Center, Washington, Pa.
The plan falls short of a larger divestment strategy urged by a dissident investor last year, which would also sell off malls in Moorestown, Voorhees and Plymouth Meeting, among other places. But in this statement, PREIT ceo Joseph Corradino pointed out that his firm sold interests in several malls in 2014, including a half interest in the Gallery, for a total of $192 million, after selling properties worth over $200 million in 2012-13; and that its remaining malls have better sales and more promising rental prospects.