It is common practice for Namdar mall properties to be subdivided, with smaller parcels like stand-alone restaurants or strip malls sold for profit.
That’s what happened in Beaver Valley, Sisk said.
“They subdivided the outparcels when they first bought the property and sold off the Burger King and the little strip,” he said. “But you don’t see much action with them trying to attract anything inside the mall.”
Namdar bought Enfield Square Mall in Connecticut, and several outparcels, for $11.4 million in 2018. The declining property was dubbed the deadest mall in the state by the YouTube series “Fleabitten Adventures,” but it remained open as Namdar raked in nearly $18 million for selling the adjoining Target and several self-standing restaurants.
In Wyomissing, leaders are biding time until the entire mall is sold. It is under contract with Motus Development. left a message
In the meantime, Bare said, Namdar was slapped with a 20-page Uniform Construction Code violation for the cratered parking lot, peeling paint and unsafe building equipment.
“Even though BonTon is condemned, they didn’t seal it,” Bare said. “We have been in there and found graffiti, so somebody is getting in.”
At Voorhees Town Center in New Jersey, Namdar has entered into a sales agreement that calls for part of the property to be reimagined as a mixed-use residential and commercial development, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported last week. Namdar purchased the mall in 2015 for $13.4 million.
Voorhees Town Center “is clearly in need of resuscitation,” township Mayor Michael Mignogna told the newspaper.
“Our hands are tied. We can’t force them to sell it. They just take, take, take.”
— Frazer Supervisor Lori Ziencik
In Elyria, Ohio, when Midway Mall became a ghost town, the Lorain County Port Authority stepped in and purchased it. Opened in 1966 and accessible from the Ohio Turnpike, it thrived for more than 50 years. Namdar bought it in 2017 for $4.25 million. The company sold it six years later for nearly $14 million.
By then, “there were a lot of empty storefronts, a handful of small churches and just a couple name-brand stores,” said Dawn Calvert, who runs the Elyria Department of Economic Development. “The county commissioners realized that where the mall sits, halfway between Sandusky and Cleveland, is one of the most-trafficked corridors in the state. They saw the site as an opportunity, not only because of the traffic but because it represents Lorain County.”
Anthony Gallo, president and CEO of the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce, said the site will transition to light industry, which will create jobs and spur redevelopment. However, the loss of the mall caused a slight uproar.
“People remember it in its heyday with four department stores, a big food court and specialty shops,” Gallo said. “With access to three major highways, your mindset would say retail would thrive there but, once the anchors closed, there wasn’t any way to attract people to these huge empty buildings.”
Back at Pittsburgh Mills, Ziencik said Frazer officials don’t have the means to step in and buy the mall. Instead, they are left to shoulder the burden of angry shoppers who bombard Ziencik’s phone to complain about potholes and ask whether the township is “getting rich” off the property.
“Our hands are tied,” she said. “We can’t force them to sell it.
“They just take, take, take.”
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