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Hope for Change from the Sacramento Bee:

Bob Shallit: Sale near for Sacramento's Downtown Plaza?

By Bob Shallit
Saturday, Apr. 7, 2012

Is Downtown Plaza being sold to the owners of Starwood Hotels & Resorts?
That's at least a possibility amid reports that Starwood Capital Group is in talks to acquire seven as-yet-unidentified shopping centers from Westfield Group, owner of the beleaguered downtown center.

Westfield, based in Australia, confirmed last year that it had put 17 properties on the market, including Downtown Plaza. Since then, it's announced a deal to sell a minority interest in 12 U.S. malls to a Canadian pension fund.

And now the Wall Street Journal is out with a story about the pending $1 billion Starwood transaction.

Westfield spokeswoman Katy Dickey isn't commenting on whether the Sacramento property is included in that deal.

But Valerie Mamone-Werder, the well-connected retail recruiter for the Downtown Sacramento Partnership, suggests it's more than a remote possibility. She tells us she was hearing rumors of a Downtown Plaza sale to Starwood even before the Journal came out with its story.