Marley Station mall in Glen Burnie has been sold to a New York-based partnership that says it plans to move quickly to fill vacancies.
The ownership group includes Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group. The partners, based in Great Neck, New York, manage shopping centers across the country.
To read more, please visit The Baltimore Sun
2020 has been a devastating year for retail. The COVID-19 pandemic pummeled an industry that was already struggling to adapt to the rise of online shopping, leading to the announcement of 11,157 store closures for the year — a record, according to CoStar Group, a provider of commercial real-estate data. Nearly 40 major retailers and restaurant companies filed for bankruptcy.
But that’s not the full story.
Smaller mall landlords are also thinking like the major players.
Mason Asset Management, a commercial real-estate investment company that specializes in buying distressed malls, owns 60 enclosed malls around the country. This summer, it purchased its first retail company, Jennifer Furniture, along with a movie-theater chain, Goodrich Quality Theaters.
Elliot Nassim, the owner and president of Mason Asset Management, said the company saw an opportunity “to go vertical” during the pandemic by investing in distressed brands that had promise. Nassim said the rise of home renovation during the pandemic bolstered the company’s choice to purchase Jennifer Furniture, but he also cited the potential for a brand’s longevity beyond its distressed period. Mason Asset Management has six Jennifer locations open.
“The way we see it is there’s a value to these companies that maybe the business world doesn’t appreciate the long-term value of,” Nassim told Business Insider in an interview. “While today maybe the values are depressed and people are calling it quits, as mall operators and landlords, we understand the value of these brands.”
In the case of movie theaters, Nassim said that though the pandemic had essentially halted moviegoing, it would resume its place in American culture once the pandemic passes.
Nassim added that the company wasn’t just buying up brands so that its properties would have tenants.
The theme of brand longevity and history underpins the strategies of many brand-management companies choosing which bankrupt brands to buy.
“It’s not necessarily to sustain the mall — it’s believing in the long-term viability of a Brooks Brothers, a Forever 21, where these things have a place in society,” he said. “Maybe today they just need to be redirected.”
To read more, please visit Business Insider
Lauren Thomas recently interviewed Elliot Nassim, Mason Asset Management, for her story “A risky bet by America’s mall owners: Plucking retailers out of bankruptcy to salvage a pandemic-hit industry”
Two family-owned investment firms that have made a name for themselves in the mall world, Namdar Realty Group and Mason Asset Management, are taking a similar view on investing in retail.
The two have come together over the years to amass a portfolio of dozens of suburban shopping malls. Their business strategy, in sum, is to acquire distressed assets from either banks or other owners, and refurbish them enough to keep them running.
Even during the pandemic, they have acquired three malls — Belknap Mall in Belmont, New Hampshire; Mesilla Valley Mall in Las Cruces, New Mexico; and Meriden Mall in Meriden, Connecticut, Mason Asset Management President Elliot Nassim said.
And they’ve also acquired a local furniture chain, Jennifer Furniture, out of bankruptcy, along with the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based movie theater chain Goodrich Quality Theater, Nassim said, not disclosing the financial terms of those deals.
“We are looking at investing in more retail chains to become a little more vertically integrated,” Nassim explained. “We believe in the future of brick and mortar.”
“We look at it as a wonderful opportunity to be involved in a new sector with promising returns,” he added.
To read more, please visit CNBC.
Bankruptcy documents identify the purchasers as “Goodrich Theater Newco, LLC,‘ with Elliot Nassim of Mason Asset Management in Great Neck, New York as the contact person.
The Cadillac News reached out to Mason Asset Management’s public relations team, who confirmed that Nassim, Igal Namdar and VIP Cinemas have partnered to acquire the Goodrich Quality Theaters chain.
Nassim and Namdar are frequent partners in shopping malls, Reuters reported in June of 2018. Indeed, Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty operate several in Michigan, including Flint, Jackson, Muskegon, Saginaw and West Branch.
And now they’re buying into the movie business.
“The plan is to continue operations of the existing theatres and grow the brand’s footprint,‘ said Nassim, founder of Mason Asset Management.
To read more, please visit Cadillac News.
The owner of Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights has taken a step that could make redevelopment of the site more likely.
“The mall’s owner, New York-based Namdar Realty Group, bought a Macy’s store building on the east side of the mall,” says Sonya Sorich of the Sacramento Business Journal. “The purchase also included about 10 acres of parking on the mall’s east side.”
The move comes as Citrus Heights city officials are crafting a new site plan for the 100-acre mall property, with participation from Sunrise Mall’s owners. Anchor stores at a mall typically own their own properties, and that can pose a significant barrier to any possible redevelopment plans.
To read more, please visit Capradio.
Welcome to Tuesday, loyal readers. Here’s what you need to know today.
Big Sunrise Mall update
Owners of Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights have acquired the property for one of the mall’s anchor stores, increasing the chances for eventual mall redevelopment. Property records show that earlier this month, Great Neck, New York-based Namdar Realty Group acquired the Macy’s store building on the east side of the mall, at 6000 Sunrise Mall Road, for $3.5 million.
To read more, please visit the Sacramento Business Journal.
The largest mall buyer in the country recently snapped up one of Alabama’s oldest malls.
Montgomery’s Eastdale Mall, which opened in 1977, was bought last week by Mason Asset Management, Namdar Realty Group and CH Capital Group.
“Acquisitions are a direct reflection of our evaluation of the potential of a given property and redeveloping those properties to optimal performance is always the goal,” said Elliot Nassim, president of Mason Asset Management. “When it comes to that redevelopment, the partnership works diligently to determine what use for the property will best benefit the surrounding neighborhood and reinvigorate the local community that these malls call home.”
To read more, please visit Business Alabama
South Side leaders hope South Park Mall’s new owners can help reverse the national trend of customers shopping online rather than in person.
Namdar Realty Group – and partners Mason Asset Management and CH Capital Group – closed on the mall deal Monday.
“We are excited about the opportunity to continue adding value to this successful property, really taking it to the next level,” says Elliott Nassim of Mason Asset Management. “Our goal is always to add value to our properties.”
To read more, please visit News 4 San Antonio
San Antonio and Amarillo, Texas — A partnership between Mason Asset Management, Namdar Realty Group and CH Capital Group has acquired South Park Mall in San Antonio and Westgate Mall in Amarillo. South Park Mall spans 663,978 square feet across 48.5 acres. The mall was originally built in 1968 and has been renovated several times, most recently in 2018. The asset was 95 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including anchors JC Penney, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Beall’s, Old Navy, Ulta Beauty and The Vitamin Shoppe. Westgate Mall was built in 1982 and has also been renovated several times, most recently in 2017. The mall was 80 percent leased at the time of sale to tenants including Dillard’s, Beall’s, Premiere Cinema, Shoe Dept. Encore and Forever 21.
For more information, please visit Shopping Center Business