Investors including Barry Sternlicht and KKR & Co. (KKR) 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 (PEI), the Philadelphia-based owner of such centers mainly in the mid-Atlantic region, is the best- performing mall REIT this year. Growing interest in B malls is a turnaround from last year, when ... (full story)