Westfield Trumbull Parent Company Selling All Its U.S. Malls

TRUMBULL, CT — The parent company of the Westfield Trumbull mall is planning to sell all its malls in the United States as the French-based firm exits the U.S. market, according to media reports.

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE, which owns two-dozen malls in the U.S., including Westfield Trumbull, paid about $24.7 billion, including debt, to acquire the portfolio of malls in 2018. Westfield Trumbull is the company's only mall in Connecticut.

The main reason for the U.S. exit can be summed up in one word, coronavirus, reported Benzinga. As consumers increasingly turned to online shopping, malls across the nation suffered a loss of customers.

Jean-Marie Tritant, Unibail's CEO, said in a statement that selling the U.S. malls will allow the company to focus on its key region, Europe.

"By 2024, we will have successfully reshaped the business to capture future growth, centred on our portfolio of Flagship destinations in the wealthiest cities and catchment areas in Europe," Tritant said.

Specifically, what this means for Westfield Trumbull is not immediately known, other than it will be sold by 2024. A spokesperson for the mall declined to comment beyond Tritant's announcement that Unibail was becoming a "European pure play with a portfolio of high-quality, high-performing assets located in the continent’s wealthiest cities and catchment areas."

In recent months, Westfield Trumbull has lost some restaurants, and required emergency repairs to fix a hole that opened up in a parking deck.

— Jonah Meadows, Patch Staff, contributed to this report.