The Legends Outlets at I-70 and I-435 in Kansas City, Kan., has changed ownership.
Walton Street Capital LLC of Chicago, a private equity real estate investment firm, is the new majority owner of the 1.2 million square feet shopping center, said Dave Claflin, marketing director of Legacy Development. Legacy Development remains a minority owner that will continue to manage and operate the shopping center, he said.
Claflin said he could not divulge the details of the price of the sale, which closed on Tuesday.
KKR, a New York firm, had bought The Legends Outlets in 2013 for $131.5 million as the center’s prior owners defaulted on a $179.4 million loan.
Claflin said the public won’t see any change at all, and that the management team would stay the same. The direction of the center will be the same, he said.
He said he expected to continue the retail outlet concept, or value proposition retail concept now at The Legends. Legacy Development and the new owners have the same vision of investing in the property and continuing to make it a great shopping center, he said. Legacy Development changed its name from Red Legacy in June of this past year.
“Our draw is regional in nature, not just a Kansas City shopping destination,” Claflin said. “In order to continue drawing from that, we have to find unique tenants.”
Claflin said the sale of the shopping center was primarily driven by the former partner, KKR, a large fund that thought the time was right for their investors to move on to other retail investments, and by the new partner, Walton Street, that thought the time was right to buy in, invest and grow.
Some new projects are in the works at The Legends Outlets, including a new hotel, The Residence Inn, scheduled to open this month, and a new luxury apartment and parking garage project, he said.
“The whole area continues to be booming,” Claflin said.
He said sales were very good at the Legends, just under $500 a square foot, considered very good in the retail field. He said he had plans on continuing to improve and raise those sales per square foot.
The Unified Government on Jan. 7 improved a community improvement district for The Legends Outlets that will cause the sales tax to go up there slightly, an increase of six-tenths of one cent, to pay for part of the parking garage and public infrastructure. The garage will be attached to the 240-unit luxury apartment development planned there.
The sale of the shopping center is unrelated to the recent CID action and also to the sales tax revenue bonds that are scheduled to expire soon on the Legends, Claflin added.