Tampa firm partners with TIAA to buy Vegas mall in massive real estate deal
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: Jan 30, 2017

A subsidiary of Tampa's Third Lake Capital has acquired an open-air lifestyle mall in Las Vegas in a transaction that industry observers peg at around a half-billion dollars.

Fairbourne Properties, which is wholly owned by Third Lake Capital, partnered with Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America to buy Town Square Las Vegas, said Ken Jones, CEO of Third Lake Capital.

Town Square Las Vegas is a 1.2 million-square-foot retail center just south of the Las Vegas Strip. It counts Apple Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc. among its anchors and has a significant entertainment component, including an AMC 18 Theatre and Stoney's Rockin' Country, a country music-themed nightclub.

Jones declined comment on the sales price. When Town Square hit the market in April, Real Estate Alert said the property could fetch $550 million.

A 50 percent ownership stake in the St. Johns Town Center, a similar open-air property in Jacksonville, sold for $375 million in 2014.

Town Square, completed in 2007, was hit hard by the Great Recession. The original developer eventually lost the property to foreclosure in 2011.

Some retail centers, particularly enclosed malls, face a troubling future as more and more staples of mall shopping shutter their brick-and-mortar locations.

But Jones says the outlook is sunnier for assets like Town Square, a trophy property with upscale tenants and steady tourism base to support its shops and restaurants.

"I think you have to be a smart investor and pick marquee assets in gateway markets," Jones said. "I don't think we're going to buy strip malls in Toledo, Ohio."

Jones declined to say whether Fairbourne, which will also handle the management of Town Square, owns similar properties, saying only that it owns real estate across multiple sectors, including retail, office, multifamily and hospitality.

TIAA, however, has assets in Vegas, including an ownership stake in Fashion Show Mall, for which it paid $1.25 billion in August 2016.

Ashley Gurbal Kritzer is senior reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.