Charleston’s Citadel Mall and North Charleston’s Northwoods Mall have a new owner.

CBL & Associates Properties Inc. said Wednesday that it had completed its purchase of The Richard E. Jacobs Group’s interests in 21 malls and two associated shopping centers. The Chattanooga, Tenn., real estate investment trust put the total consideration at about $1.301 billion, including the purchase of minority interests in some properties.

CBL acquired 100% of both Charleston-area malls in the deal, according to the list of properties in its announcement. The third South Carolina mall, Columbia Mall in Columbia, came with a 79% interest.

“This transaction clearly defines CBL as the leading mall owner in the Southeast and accelerates our previous expansion in the Midwest,” Charles B. Lebovitz, CBL’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in the company’s announcement.

How the deal was paid for

The price was made up of $124.8 million in cash, including about $12 million in closing costs, along with $771.3 million in non-recourse mortgage debt and 12,556,425 special common units of CBL’s operating partnership valued at $32.25 a unit, CBL said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The cash came from a new $212 million unsecured credit line from a group of banks led by Wells Fargo.

CBL shareholders approved the purchase at a special meeting on Jan. 19. The companies signed their agreement on Sept. 25, 2000, according to the filing.

Two Jacobs designees have joined CBL’s board as part of the deal: Martin J. Cleary, president and chief operating officer of The Richard E. Jacobs Group, and Gary L. Bryenton, executive partner of the law firm Baker & Hostetler LLP.

The two local malls

Citadel Mall has about 1,068,000 square feet, according to CBL. Its anchors are Belk, Dillard’s, Parisian and Sears, the company said Wednesday. CBL’s Jan. 19 list of the properties had also included JCPenney among Citadel Mall’s anchors. Wednesday’s list did not, and the announcement did not explain the change.

Northwoods Mall in North Charleston has about 833,000 square feet. Its anchors are Belk, Dillard’s, JCPenney and Sears.

The proxy statement CBL sent shareholders in December showed how the malls were performing as of Sept. 1, 2000. Citadel Mall, which opened in 1981 and was last expanded or renovated in 2000, had mall store sales of $254 a square foot, and 79% of its mall store space was leased. Northwoods Mall, which opened in 1972 and was last expanded or renovated in 1995, had mall store sales of $279 a square foot, with 89% of its mall store space leased.

Citadel Mall carried a mortgage loan with a balance of about $34 million and an $8.5 million recourse loan, according to the proxy. Northwoods Mall’s mortgage had a balance of about $42.3 million.

Who is selling

The Jacobs Group is a privately held enterprise organized in 1991 to hold real estate projects developed by Richard E. Jacobs and David H. Jacobs, according to the proxy. “The Jacobs brothers were among the earliest developers of regional mall shopping centers,” the document said. Jacobs Realty’s offices are in Cleveland.

Before the sale, the Charleston malls were held through entities called Charleston Joint Venture, for Citadel Mall, and North Charleston Joint Venture, for Northwoods Mall, the proxy said.

The proxy also addressed the people who run the malls. Jacobs agreed to terminate its employees at the properties and pay any severance due. CBL said it would offer jobs to substantially all of Jacobs’ mall managers, assistant managers and marketing directors, at pay and benefits comparable to what its own employees earn in similar positions.

What CBL becomes

With the purchase, CBL said it is now the largest owner of malls and shopping centers in the Southeast and the third-largest mall real estate investment trust in the country by gross leasable area owned. Its portfolio now totals 158 properties in 26 states, including 51 enclosed malls, with 55.9 million square feet. The acquired properties alone total about 19.2 million square feet.

CBL started in 1978 as a privately owned company with one shopping center and went public in 1993, the company said. Besides its Chattanooga headquarters, it has a regional office in Waltham, Mass.

Lebovitz said CBL expects to raise the malls’ value through leasing, “aggressive marketing and property management, and renovation and redevelopment where appropriate, all of which we expect to result in stronger properties.”

“Our entire organization has worked tirelessly over the last several months to ensure that the integration of these properties will be as seamless as possible from day one,” he said.