Reports: Westfield defaults on nearly $200 million loan connected to mall

A $195 million loan connected to the Westfield Valencia Town Center was not paid off by its deadline, according to a Los Angeles-based real estate news publication, The Real

Deal.   According to The Real Deal’s reporting, Fitch Ratings — a financial market analysis company — attributed the missed payment to an anticipated increase in

defaults and said the Valencia Town Center was the “largest contributor to losses” of all the properties attached to the loan.   The loan was taken out by

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, a Paris-based company that owns the Valencia Town Center, and was provided by UBS and Barclays.  URW has unloaded several properties across

the country and in the L.A. metro area recently, selling Westfield Santa Anita and two Woodland Hills malls to local billionaires.   The upscale mall in the heart of

Santa Clarita still has a large vacant space where Sears used to be, following Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018.   Earlier this month, The Canyon Santa Clarita announced it

was closing its Valencia mall location due to numerous challenges, including a flooding incident during a New Year’s Eve show — which proved to be the final straw for the venue,

which had called Westfield Valencia home since 2017.  “We’ve had so many problems with flooding, and Westfield’s been totally unable to, or unwilling to help with

anything,” The Canyon’s Luanne Nast said, adding the issues on New Year’s Eve made it several years in a row the club had problems with the location.