It’s official: Sale of Country Club Plaza closes
A joint venture between two experienced owners of shopping centers has completed its $660 million purchase of the Country Club Plaza, it was announced Tuesday.
The seller, Highwoods Properties, announced the deal in early January with Country Club Plaza KC Partners LLC, a venture owned equally by Taubman Centers Inc. and the Macerich Co.
The partnership now owns the Plaza’s 804,000 square feet of retail space and 468,000 square feet of office space.
The Taubman company is based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and owns and manages 23 shopping centers in the United States and Asia. Macerich is a real estate investment trust with interests in 50 shopping centers and malls throughout the United States.
The Plaza opened in 1923 and is known for its architecture reminiscent of Seville, Spain, and its annual Christmas lights display. It lays claim to being the nation’s first “suburban” shopping center designed for shoppers arriving by car.
Highwoods, a real estate investment trust based in Raleigh, N.C., said last year that it put the Plaza on the block to help finance its acquisitions of office towers in Georgia and Florida, properties that were more consistent with its overall business plan.
Highwoods was only the second owner of the Plaza, which it acquired in 1998 as part of a $544 million merger of Highwoods and the J.C. Nichols Co.
This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 4:09 PM with the headline "It’s official: Sale of Country Club Plaza closes."