Henderson Park and Lowe buy Plaza Bonita, appoint Centennial to manage and lease

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) continues its disposition strategy of American mall assets, this time with the sale of Plaza Bonita (formerly known as Westfield Plaza Bonita) in National City, Calif. Spanning over 1 million square feet, the mall benefits heavily from its strategic location in San Diego’s South Bay, serving a densely populated community and capturing robust cross-border traffic from Mexican nationals.

Unlike struggling Class B malls, Plaza Bonita is classified as a Grade A– mall asset and features high and consistent traffic, robust sales performance, and a stable lineup of today's typical major anchors (including Target, Macy's, JCPenney, Nordstrom Rack, Round1 and AMC Theatres).

May Centers developed the property, which opened in 1981, anchored by JCPenney, Mervyn's, Montgomery Ward and the May Company. Those were the days when all malls were anchored exclusively by department stores.

URW disposed of Plaza Bonita as part of a broader, years-long strategic shift to radically reduce its financial exposure to the U.S. retail market and deleverage its balance sheet. Like other mall owners, URW has faced mounting pressures regarding commercial mortgages and today's declining market valuations across its U.S. holdings.

Many regional malls across the U.S., including Plaza Bonita, have experienced a compression in valuation compared to peak market years prior to the pandemic and the broader mall valuation correction. While URW originally held and valued the asset much higher as part of its massive U.S. portfolio, the macro environment for enclosed malls forced pricing downward, allowing the new owners to acquire the asset at a resetting market basis. The mall sold for $201.5M.

The new owners, private equity real estate firm Henderson Park and real estate investor, developer and manager Lowe through its Retail reVision division have appointed Centennial to manage and lease Plaza Bonita. Retail reVision primarily targets regional malls, lifestyle centers and power centers in supply-constrained, high-barrier-to-entry major metros with a strong footprint in California's most coveted markets like San Diego, Orange County, Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

The new owners plan to inject significant capital to refresh the property. No tear downs have been announced to date. Key plans focus on creating more inviting interior and exterior public spaces, enhanced plazas and upgraded outdoor dining areas to foster a community-gathering environment.

Eastdil Secured helped source the acquisition loan from Morgan Stanley.

Read more: Westfield Plaza Bonita sold for $201.5M (The San Diego Union-Tribune)