GGP Buys $550MM of Retail Properties

General Growth Properties, a retail real estate investment trust based in Chicago, is acquiring three retail properties for a total of $550 million.The REIT has closed on the purchase of the 675,000-square-foot Sikes Center in Wichita Falls, Texas, and has entered into agreements to acquire The Maine Mall, a 1.1 million-square-foot mall in South Portland, Maine, and the 1.2 million-square-foot Glenbrook Square in Fort Wayne, Ind. The acquisitions are each being funded with a combination of five-year, nonrecourse, variable-rate mortgages; cash; and advances under an unsecured revolving credit facility, the REIT said. By MortgageWire's deadline, a spokesman for the REIT was not available to comment on the specifics of the mortgage financing. John Bucksbaum, GGP's chief executive officer, said the properties are "the single dominant regional mall destinations in the markets they serve."