Dealmaker: Aventura Mall Receives $1.75B Refi

Aventura Mall Venture, a Turnberry Assocs. and Simon Properties affiliate, refinanced 2.2 million-square-foot super-regional Aventura Mall in Aventura, Fla. for $1.75 billion.

JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley Bank provided the commercial mortgage-backed securities financing, which closed on June 7.

Law firm Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, Pittsburgh, advised the joint venture. Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney Shareholder Rebecca Livingston Lando said the transaction enabled Aventura Mall to refinance on attractive terms, positioning the owners to sustain their “robust” growth strategy.

The property is anchored by Bloomingdales, JCPenney, Nordstrom and Macy’s, but only JCPenney serves as collateral for the loan; the other anchors own their stores and lease the underlying land. The largest non-anchor tenants include Apple, H&M, Forever 21 and a 24-screen AMC movie theatre.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency, New York, rated Aventura Mall Trust 2018-AVM, a single-asset single-borrower securitization. It said the 10-year fixed-rate loan requires interest-only payments. “The loan is secured by the borrower’s fee simple interest in 1.2 million square feet of Aventura Mall, a mostly two-story super-regional mall located in Aventura, Fla., approximately 18 miles north of the Miami central business district,” KBRA said.

KBRA noted the collateral includes a 226,000-square-foot mall expansion completed in November 2017 that includes a new food court and in-line tenant space. That expansion is still in its initial lease-up phase.

Aventura Mall was 95.9 percent occupied in February, while the space serving as collateral for the loan was 92.8 percent leased.

Asset Securitization Report said the mall’s 1.2 billion in gross sales placed it among the top five malls in the country. ASR reported the loan priced at 4.12 percent.