Fashion Square Is Being Purchased

Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, one of the largest shopping centers in the San Fernando Valley, is being sold to an Australian company for an undisclosed price, its owners said.

The shopping center, which did $107 million in retail sales last year, is being acquired by City Freeholds Inc., which is also buying La Habra Fashion Square from the same owners, the Chicago-based realty firm of Draper & Kramer and San Francisco-based BankAmerica Realty Investors.

BankAmerica Realty chairman Arthur Von Thaden, whose company is owned and operated separately from BankAmerica Corp., said that the owners decided to sell because the offer was a good one and that renovation or expansion is likely at both shopping centers.

“I can’t believe they’d pay the price they paid without having a big plan in mind for enlarging the centers,” he said, predicting an enclosure of the outdoor part of Sherman Oaks Fashion Square.

The Sherman Oaks center, on Riverside Drive between Hazeltine and Woodman avenues, has 695,000 square feet of usable space and 3,600 parking spaces. It contains an I. Magnin, a Bullock’s and The Broadway; the last two stores own their own space.

Officials of City Freeholds could not be reached for comment.