Colonial Park Mall owner Glimcher Realty to be acquired for $4.3B

Glimcher Realty Trust, which owns the Colonial Park Mall in Lower Paxton Township, announced it will be bought by Washington Prime Group Inc. for $4.3 billion in stock and cash.

Glimcher, the Columbus, Ohio-based mall developer, owns and manages properties across the country. The deal creates one company with 119 mall properties and about 68 million square feet of gross leasable area, according to a joint news release.

The company created will be call WP Glimcher and will maintain the Columbus headquarters. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.

Bethesda, Md.-based Washington Prime Group is a real estate investment trust spun off from Simon Property Group that went public in May. It owns 98 mall properties across the country, including 14 in Pennsylvania, but none in the midstate.

After the sale, Simon will then buy two properties from Washington Prime Group, but not Colonial Park.

Glimcher took ownership of the Colonial Park Mall in 1997 when it acquired former owner Catalina Partners LP. The 739,056-square-foot mall has 95 stores with anchor stores of Bon-Ton, Boscov’s and Sears, according to the company.

There is also a four-screen movie theater at its Route 22 location.

Glimcher Realty Trust trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GRT, and Washington Prime Group Inc. trades under WPG on the exchange. The new company will trade at WPG.

Source: Central Penn Business Journal