CBL closes deals for $305 million

Chattanooga-based mall operator CBL Properties on Tuesday announced it had closed on nearly $305 million in transactions.

CBL and a 50% joint venture partner closed on a new $148 million loan secured by Friendly Center and The Shops at Friendly Center, a lifestyle center in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The new nonrecourse five-year loan bears a fixed interest rate of 6.44% and replaces two loans with an aggregate balance of $145.2 million that were set to mature this month, the company said in a news release.

Earlier this month, CBL and a 50% joint venture partner closed on the extension and modification of a $161.9 million loan secured by West County Center, an enclosed mall in St. Louis, Missouri, according to the company. The newly modified nonrecourse loan has a principal balance of $156.9 million and was extended for an initial term of two years to December 2024, with one two-year conditional extension available upon meeting certain requirements. The loan maintained the existing fixed interest rate of 3.4%.

“CBL’s success in closing nearly $305 million in financings in the last 30 days clearly demonstrates the strength of our company and the quality of our properties,” Stephen Lebovitz, CBL’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Judge clears the way for Alaska oil drilling

Environmentalists lost the first round of their legal battle over a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope on Monday as a judge rejected their requests to halt immediate construction work related to the Willow project, but they vowed not to give up.

The court’s decision means ConocoPhillips Alaska can forge ahead with cold-weather construction work, including mining gravel and using it for a road toward the Willow project. Environmentalists worry noise from blasting and road construction could affect caribou.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason said she took into account support for the project by Alaska political leaders — including state lawmakers and Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation. She said she also gave “considerable weight” to the support for Willow by an Alaska Native village corporation, an Alaska Native regional corporation and the North Slope Borough, while also recognizing that project support among Alaska Natives is not unanimous.

Environmental groups and an Alaska Native organization, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, had asked Gleason to delay construction related to Willow while their lawsuits are pending. They ultimately want Gleason to overturn the project’s approval, saying the U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to consider an adequate range of alternatives.

5,000 GM workers take buyout offers

About 5,000 white-collar workers at General Motors took the company’s buyout offers, which the automaker says is enough to avoid layoffs at this time.

GM said Tuesday that the offers will save about $1 billion per year in costs, about half of the $2 billion it wants to cut annually by the end of 2024. The company now has about 58,000 salaried workers in the U.S.

The buyouts come at an uncertain time for the auto industry, which is in the midst of a transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles. GM has a goal of selling only electric passenger vehicles by 2035.

The Detroit automaker and its competitors are making huge capital outlays to develop and build new electric vehicles, all while continuing to make cars, trucks and SUVs with gasoline engines. They’re also spending big to get scarce minerals and parts needed for EV batteries.

U.S. job openings drop to 9.9 million

Demand for workers in the United States eased in February, a sign the red-hot labor market continues to cool off somewhat.

There were 9.9 million job openings in February, down from 10.6 million on the final day of January, the Labor Department reported Tuesday in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey.

The drop in open positions is a signal the labor market is slowing, but the report included data that points to a still-healthy environment for workers: Four million workers quit their jobs during the month, a slight increase from January, and the number of layoffs decreased slightly to 1.5 million.

There were 1.7 jobs open for every unemployed worker in February, a decline from 1.9 in January. The Federal Reserve has been paying close attention to that ratio as it looks to slow hiring, part of its effort to contain inflation.

— Compiled by Dave Flessner