Westfield Century City has received $925 million in new financing provided by investment bank Morgan Stanley. The deal was announced by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the owner of the shopping mall.

The refinancing is a two-year floating rate commercial mortgage-backed security – a type of security backed by a bundle of commercial real estate loans. It is one of the largest commercial mortgage-backed security deals in the country this year and, so far, the largest in L.A. in 2023.

“This new financing for Westfield Century City increases optionality for URW with respect to the asset and reinforces the Group’s liquidity,” Fabrice Mouchel, chief financial officer of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said in a statement.

“As stated at our H1 2023 results, the radical reduction of URW’s U.S. financial exposure remains a path forward. The strong business performance across all markets, our low cost of debt, our ample liquidity position, our tight capital expense control and our net debt-to-EBITA ratio all provide us with flexibility on the timing of this process.” 

Last year, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield announced plans to sell all two dozen of its U.S. malls to focus exclusively on the company’s European properties and has already sold a lot of its Los Angeles-area properties, including its mall in Arcadia and two in Mission Valley.

However, the company does not seem to have plans to sell the Century City mall just yet, a greater indication that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield may be having second thoughts on leaving the U.S. 

Westfield Century City is a 1.4 million-square-foot asset in the Century City commercial district, located at 10250 Santa Monica Blvd. The shopping center is 95% leased; notable tenants include Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Gelson’s and AMC.

It recently underwent $1 billion in expansion and renovation, both of which were completed in 2017. The property did not previously carry any debt.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which is based in Paris, operates 74 shopping centers across 12 countries, including 39 that carry the iconic Westfield brand. Internationally, the company has over $3 billion in the development pipeline of mixed-use assets and a $55 billion portfolio overall.