Meadowood Mall for sale

A half interest in Meadowood Mall is on the sales block and the company that manages the regional mall in south Reno may be among the bidders.

The mall more than a million square feet of retail space is 100 percent owned by General Motors Pension Trusts and managed by Taubman Centers Inc.

of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

The GM pension thinks this is a good time to take some money out of its real estate holdings, an advisor said, but it doesn't want to leave the Reno market entirely.

General Motors Pension Trusts said last week it plans to recapitalize its interests in eight of the malls it owns.

Karen McDonald, director of communications for Taubman Centers, said the recapitalization will involve sale of partial or full interests in the shopping centers across the United States.

The decision was driven by strong prices for retail properties across the nation, said Rob Gifford, a principal in Boston-based AEW Capital Management, a firm that advises the GM pension trusts on their real estate holdings.

"Prices are very attractive," he said.

"We've determined it's a good time to take some money off the table."

But at the same time, Gifford said the General Motors Pension Trusts want to maintain a presence in Reno.

That's why the organization is looking to sell only a 50 percent interest in Meadowood Mall.

The Reno mall, Gifford said, provides its owners with a good mix of tenants that are posting strong sales in a thriving market.

McDonald said Taubman, a real estate investment trust, will take a careful look at making a bid for the half interest in Meadowood Mall as well as the other properties owned by the GM pension fund.

Taubman Centers Inc.

owned the Meadowood Mall itself until 1998.

At that time, General Motors Pensions Trust which had owned a big chunk of Taubman itself swapped its equity position in Taubman for ownership of the mall properties in a deal valued at $1.7 billion.

While General Motors Pension Trusts works through the process of selling the shopping centers, Meadowood Mall will continue to be managed by Taubman.

"We are committed to intensively managing these assets as we always have," said Robert S.Taubman, chairman, president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement.

"We will make every effort to minimize the impact of this announcement on our talented associates."

McDonald said the management contracts have a 90-day cancellation clause.

She said Taubman executives won't know if the company will continue to manage the malls in Reno and elsewhere until the sales are completed.

Meadowood Mall's four anchor stores which total 313,000 square feet are JC Penney, Sears and two Macys locations.

Taubman has said that Meadowood Mall has posted strong sales increases annually since the 1980s, and the mall is among the top performers among Taubman-managed properties in sales of upper-end merchandise.

Along with the Meadowood Mall, properties to be sold by the General Motors Pension Trusts include shopping centers in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; Miami, Fla.; Richmond and Pleasanton, Calif.; and Gaithersburg and Anne Arundel County, Md.