LOS ANGELES — CIM Group has agreed to purchase Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, an 869,000-square-foot mall in the Crenshaw/Baldwin Hills submarket of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times reports the sales price at over $100 million. The seller is Chicago-based Capri Urban Investors, which took control of the property in 2019 from Capri Capital Advisors, the Times also reports.
The mall is situated on 40 acres at 3650 W. Martin Luther King Blvd., eight miles west of downtown Los Angeles. The Walmart and Sears stores shuttered prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, leaving over one-third of the property vacant. Cinemark Theater is also a tenant. The Macy’s and IHOP locations at the mall were not part of the sale. A timeline for the sale closing was not disclosed.
The asset is adjacent to the Crenshaw-LAX metro light-rail station, an eight-mile line that will connect the neighborhood to Los Angeles International Airport. The station is slated to open by the end of the year.
CIM Group reportedly plans to add office space to the property, closing the door on rumors that residential units might go up at the mall.
“We have the opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to the future of the property viewed through the lens of the current climate and the acceleration of the already declining retail environment,” says Shaul Kuba, principal and co-founder of CIM Group. “Since 1947 this property has been a commercial property, and although current entitlements allow residential components, we believe that residential uses are not suitable for this property and it should remain a commercial property in our repositioning.”
Further details of the renovation, including a timeline, were not disclosed.
CIM Group is a privately held real estate owner, operator, lender and developer based in Los Angeles. The company holds nearly $30 billion in assets across all commercial real estate classes.
— Alex Tostado