Looking to improve cash flow, Pemberton Square mall’s parent company, CBL & Associates Inc. of Chattanooga, Tenn., announced it reduced the mall’s book value from $7.1 million to $1.4 million.

The 25-year-old mall in Vicksburg is one of three CBL-owned malls — the others being in Tennessee and Ohio — that saw reductions totaling $114.9 million due to what the company called “declining property-specific market conditions” in its 2009 year-end financial statements.

“During the course of the company’s normal quarterly review, the company determined that it was appropriate to write down the depreciated book value of three shopping centers to their estimated fair values,” the report states.

In accounting, using depreciation to adjust the book value of an asset increases a company’s expenses without spending any cash and results in lower taxes through reduced profits.

Reducing the book value of the Pemberton mall will not have any immediate effect on Warren County tax collections, however, said the county’s assessor of commercial properties, Jim Agent.

“We look at the actual market value of the property,” Agent said. “The book value does not necessarily represent the actual market value if they were to expose the property or put it on the market. That’s got to come through this office.”

Redevelopment plans are in the works for Pemberton Square, but specifics are not available, said Katie Reinsmidt, vice president of corporate communications and investor relations. Due to the uncertainty of when those plans will be completed and fulfilled, the company thought it appropriate to reduce the mall’s book value, she said.

CBL has no plans to sell the mall, she said.

Warren County has adjusted the assessed value of the mall property a number of times in recent years, Agent said.

For the past two years the property has been assessed at just over $4.8 million, down from nearly $5.9 million in 2007, Agent said. In 2002 it was valued at $10.1 million, according to previous reports.

CBL & Associates paid $89,071.14 in property taxes in 2009, Agent said. In 2007, the figure was $105,881.22.

Pemberton Square comprises 351,444 square feet of retail space currently anchored by Belk on the north, Dillards on the south and J.C. Penney on the west.

Occupancy was 61 percent in 2008, the last year for which figures are available, Reinsmidt said. “We are always looking for more shopping options and restaurant choices,” she said.

Mall manager Renee Williams said Friday a fourth large retail space, which has been vacant, will soon open as a National Furniture Liquidators outlet.

The company has been stocking living room and bedroom furniture in preparation for its opening in a couple of weeks, she said, and might also offer kitchen and dining room pieces.

Williams said more than 35 of the retail spots are currently under lease. “We had a good Christmas,” she added.

The last major business to come into the mall was Wilcox Theaters, a four-screen venue that opened in November 2008, about two years after the previous movie theater closed.

Pemberton Square opened in March 1985 and was last renovated in 1996. The building is on a 47-acre site with about 1,000 parking spaces. It centers a larger shopping area, which includes two strip malls, several freestanding retail shops and restaurants.

The other CBL malls revalued in the last quarter of 2009 were Hickory Hollow Mall in Nashville, which saw its value reduced from $107.4 million to $12.6 million, and Towne Mall in Franklin, Ohio, the book value of which dropped from $15.8 million to $1.4 million.

Hickory Hollow, for which CBL has outstanding loans, does not generate enough cash to cover its debt servicing and the company is exploring non-retail uses for some areas of the property, the report states.

CBL & Associates owns, holds interests in or manages more than 130 retail properties across the United States. In Vicksburg, the company owns other parcels in the Pemberton Square area, Agent said.

Contatct Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com