KKR Joins Sternlicht in Yield Search From Second-Tier Malls

Investors including Barry Sternlicht and KKR & Co. are buying second-tier shopping malls in places from Lincoln, Nebraska, to suburban Chicago in a hunt for higher yields as retail sales at the properties rebound.

Sternlicht’s Starwood Capital Group LLC and KKR, run by Henry Kravis and George Roberts, have announced acquisitions of so-called B malls in the past month, and Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, the Philadelphia-based owner of such centers mainly in the mid-Atlantic region, is the best-performing mall REIT this year.