Will Plantation mall's new owners get it right, and make it a viable retail center? What's wrong with it now? What can they do?

Chinese firm buys struggling mall
Plantation's Fashion Mall, once set to become a design center, has been sold for $37 million to an Asian investment group.
BY PATRICK DANNER
pdanner@herald.com


An Asian investment group has acquired the perpetually struggling Fashion Mall at Plantation for $37 million.


US Capital/Fashion Mall bought the 16-year-old mall from a corporation controlled by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. of Manhattan and Cameron Group of Syracuse, N.Y., on Sept. 30, real estate records show.


US Capital becomes the latest group to try to turn around the Fashion Mall. The last three ownership groups, including Ashkenazy and Cameron, have unsuccessfully tried to revive the property.


US Capital's plans for the mall couldn't immediately be determined. Howard Rosenthal, a Clearwater property manager working with US Capital, could not be reached for comment.


State corporate records list Guang Yang and Liang Wang as managers of US Capital, which is owned by US Capital Holdings LLC. The companies maintain an office at the mall, located off University Drive and Broward Boulevard.


Efforts to reach the sellers were unsuccessful. Cameron principal Tom Valenti told The Syracuse Post-Standard in June that the mall was going to be sold to US Capital Holdings, which he described as a partnership out of mainland China. Cameron would continue handling the leasing at the Fashion Mall, he said.


Direct investment in U.S. real estate by Chinese investors is unusual, but the Fashion Mall deal could be part of a new trend, said Donald H. Straszheim of Straszheim Global Advisors, a Los Angeles-based research firm that tracks financial markets.


''China has grown a lot, so they are increasingly looking for other [investment] opportunities around the world'' -- if for no other reason than to diversify the country's holdings, Straszheim said.


US Capital financed about 95 percent of the mall's purchase price with a $35 million loan from Secore Financial Corp. in Washington, records show. The loan was simultaneously transferred to the New York branch of French bank Société Générale.


The mall's selling price ends a downward spiral in the property's value. The Ashkenazy and Cameron group paid $21.4 million for the 650,000-square-foot mall and adjoining 115,000-square-foot office building in February 2002. The purchase was financed with a $23 million loan.


In 1997, a Tulsa, Okla., development company bought the mall for $39 million and saddled it with $68 million in loans. In 1989, the mall changed hands for a consideration of $112 million.


Through the years, the mall has been hampered by high vacancy rates and not enough anchor tenants to attract shoppers. Lord & Taylor, which had been one of mall's two anchors, closed last year. Burdines-Macy's remains, but it also is an anchor in the nearby Broward Mall.


Ashkenazy and Cameron had planned to reinvent the Fashion Mall as the Design World Center, a destination for home furnishings and accessories.

build parking towers and condos and remodel the mall and bingo you have success...

miamis got enough malls, theres not demand for any more, i think this is just gonna b another flop like before

suburbia isnt acceptable anymore... malls r out... i dont see them coming bak in miami as urbanism spreasds...

then again this is broward, the greatest child or suburbia in the nations (well except for maybe la)... well c wat happns, i just dont think thd emand is there for anything else

I thought I had previously read that a chinese group was buying it in order to showcase chinse stores and products.

Is that a different mall or the same?

No, that's North Hills Mall near Dallas. Strange how Chinese investors are buying dilapidated malls in the US.



North Hills Mall's tenants told to clear out

By Andrea Jares
Star-Telegram Staff Writer


NORTH RICHLAND HILLS - North Hills Mall tenants have been told to leave by Oct. 15, a move management told them is for renovations.


Mall management and the owner, California investor Michael Kest, did not return phone calls Monday.


The mall has lost tenants in recent years as several development plans have been touted but never materialized, and competitors such as the nearby North East Mall have taken away business.


"When everybody is out of here, this place is history," said Jim Scoggins of Artisan Glass Works, which has been leasing month-to-month at the mall for a year. "Who knows what they're going to do?"


Some tenants and others in the community have speculated that part of the reason the mall is closing is to cut operating costs while the owners hammer out a new direction for the property.


The mall has long advertised that it would one day become an entertainment center with an ice rink and a movie theater. Today, most of the mall is vacant, with Mervyn's as the only anchor and a couple of dozen small tenants.


Limited Brands, the Ohio company that owns The Limited, Victoria's Secret and Victoria's Secret Beauty, said they are closing their stores by the end of the month and will give employees the option to relocate to other stores.


Mervyn's owns its site at North Hills Mall. It isn't affected by the mall owner's announcement.


Dee Ann Blair, a founder of the Artisan Center Theater at the mall, said the community theater plans to stay until the end of the year and is negotiating to stay longer.


"We've got a whole season planned for next year, so whether it's here or somewhere else, we will be going on," Blair said.


Critter Connection, a city adoption site that is open every other weekend, will look for other places to show its animals, said Tommy Miller, supervisor for the humane division.


"There has been a steady decline in the number of people who frequent that mall, so it's not a large impact to our adoption," he said.


Jack Lawrence, who heads a group of Chinese investors who have been eyeing the mall as a possible site for an Asian shopping center, had no comment Monday about North Hills' announcement.


North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino said the city has had no talks with the mall leadership about construction or other plans.


"If they were going to remodel, you'd think they'd already have plans in place, but they haven't submitted any plans to us as far as what they want to do," Trevino said. He also said the mall management's announcement could be a sign that a deal is close.


The city has earmarked $1 million in its 2004-05 budget for road and other infrastructure improvements to the North Hills Mall area if needed, Trevino said. The economic development incentive package once approved for the mall expired.


The mall may have trouble finding a buyer because of a legal fight over ownership between Kest and Hurst developer Burk Collins. The suit has put a mark on the title that will make it difficult for anyone to finance the property until the matter is resolved, Collins said.

Two condo towers planned for revamped Fashion Mall
The Fashion Mall's new owners intend to bring the retail complex 'back to life' with a redevelopment plan that includes two residential condominium towers.
BY PATRICK DANNER
pdanner@herald.com


The Chinese investment group that two weeks ago paid $37 million for the Fashion Mall at Plantation plans to redevelop the ailing center and build two residential condominium towers.


US Capital Holdings LLC also wants to increase the mall's occupancy and find a tenant to fill the space vacated last year by Lord & Taylor, said Harold Rosenthal of Clearwater's Colliers Arnold, which is handling management and leasing of the mall for US Capital.


''Our goal is to give it an identity that's different from any other property in South Florida,'' Rosenthal said. He added the new owners want to ``bring it back to life.''


Longtime tenants heard similar promises from past owners who never followed through on plans. The last ownership group envisioned a design center selling home furnishings and accessories, but it didn't come to fruition.


`DEAD RIGHT NOW'


''We need this mall to be alive, because it's dead right now,'' said Jeannette Sosa, owner of Caress Lingerie, a mall tenant. ``Hopefully, these people will do something.''


A US Capital company acquired the 650,000-square-foot mall and an adjoining 115,000-square-foot office building from a partnership of Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. of Manhattan and Cameron Group of Syracuse, N.Y. The partners bought the mall 2 ½ years ago for $21.4 million.


The mall has struggled over the years with high vacancy rates, a shortage of anchor tenants, ownership turnover, little promotion and increased competition from newer malls.


The Fashion Mall marks what US Capital Holdings hopes will be the first in a string of real estate acquisitions in Florida, Rosenthal said. Parent company US Capital Holdings Group, which isn't owned by the Chinese government, is a diversified investment group based in Hong Kong, he said. Its holdings include manufacturing plants and other commercial properties, primarily in Beijing, China.


Rosenthal said he didn't know how much US Capital intends to invest in Florida or what it what will spend on the Fashion Mall's redevelopment.


Rosenthal and representatives for the new ownership group are slated to meet with Plantation economic-development officials today to go over plans for the mall.


''I think it's really exciting that they want to do something that's mixed-use,'' said Rachel Bach, the city's economic-development coordinator. ``It fits right in with our plans for the midtown district.''


The city aims to create a more urban, town-center environment in the area surrounding the Fashion Mall, located west of University Drive and north of Broward Boulevard. The city has rezoned the area to allow for more residential development, Bach said.


It has a reservoir of about 1,700 units available to be allocated to developers.


US Capital is waiting to see what the city will allow at the Fashion Mall before revealing how many condo units it will build, Rosenthal said. It intends to build a condo tower on each end of the mall.


Caress Lingerie's Sosa expressed concern about a rumor circulating among mall tenants that the new owners want to lease to wholesalers from China. Wholesalers wouldn't mix in a retail environment, she said.


NO WHOLESALERS


Rosenthal denied such a plan is in the works. Rather, US Capital will seek to attract restaurants and high-end retailers that would appeal to surrounding residents, he said. The mall is about 70 percent occupied, he added.


US Capital will move the mall's food court from the third floor to the first floor, something the previous owners intended to do. The third floor has been converted to office space. The Social Security Administration has leased 25,000 square feet and Cigna Dental Health is increasing its presence by 50 percent to 60,000 square feet, Rosenthal said.


US Capital also is in talks with May Department Stores, the owners of Lord & Taylor -- one of the mall's two anchors before its closure last year. US Capital wants another store to take over the 102,000-square-foot space, Rosenthal said.


Burdines-Macy's has indicated it will stay in the mall despite operating another store in the nearby Broward Mall, Rosenthal said.