Taubman Sells 2 Santa Barbara Shopping Malls

Taubman Centers Inc. said Thursday that it has sold two of Santa Barbara’s largest shopping malls, La Cumbre Plaza and Paseo Nuevo, in separate deals.

The real estate investment trust said it will use a portion of the $77million from the sale of the two properties it has owned since 1996 to buy a 50% stake in Sunvalley, a 1.3-million-square-foot shopping center in Concord, Calif.

Taubman sold La Cumbre Plaza, a 474,000-square-foot, open-air center anchored by Robinsons-May and Sears, to Madison Marquette, a Washington-based property management and development company. J.P. Morgan Fleming Asset Management has agreed to purchase Paseo Nuevo, a 438,000- square-foot center anchored by Macy’s and Nordstrom, on behalf of a fund advised by J.P. Morgan Investment Management Inc.

The sale of La Cumbre Plaza has been completed and the Paseo Nuevo deal is expected to be final in the next several weeks. Both properties will be managed by Madison Marquette.

“These transactions are consistent with our goals of recycling our capital and improving the overall consistency of our properties,” said Robert S. Taubman, chairman of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman Centers.