BET Investments Inc. has acquired the Granite Run Mall in what could be called one heck of a deal.
The Horsham, Pa., real estate company paid $24.25 million for the 1-million-square-foot regional mall off Baltimore Pike in Media, Pa. The property was weighed down by more than $115 million in debt. BET Investments is owned by Bruce E. Toll.
The transaction highlights how owners of commercial real estate properties ran into problems during the recession when they couldn’t make loan payments or were unable to renegotiate the terms of loans backed by everything from office buildings, malls and retail centers. Another regional mall, the Coventry Mall, was sold at an auction Thursday for $49.5 million to U.S. Bank National.
Though the loan was being paid by the Granite Run’s owners — a joint venture consisting of Simon Property Group and Macerich Group — it was put in special servicing Oct. 25, 2010, because the mall wasn’t generating enough monthly profit to cover its debt service. In fact, it covered 97 cents for every $1 of debt.
A special servicer is a firm that will work with the financial institution that made the loan and the borrower to determine what should be done with the loan. Some financially stable and astute companies will enter into negotiations with a special servicer to get new financial terms placed on them. Some borrowers have deliberately defaulted on a loan placed on one of their properties just to buy it back at a discount.
It appears in the case of Granite Run that the lender and the partnership couldn’t reach a compromise. In April 2011, the special servicer overseeing a $115.1 million loan on the property took the mall over from the partnership that owned it. It eventually foreclosed on the mall. The property was marketed for sale in a competitive bidding process overseen by Rockwood Real Estate Advisors.
That’s when BET made its move to buy it.
“We felt that the property is in an excellent location and has the capacity to serve as a great redevelopment opportunity,” said Michael P. Markman, president of BET Investments. “The property is extremely well located from both access and visibility standpoints.”
The mall sits at Route 1 and Route 352 and the average daily traffic county for Granite Run is more than 58,000, Markman said.
The site is zoned for a major shopping center and BET plans to develop a project it believes will “compliment” the area and have the ability to attract new tenants.
“We plan to create a mixed-use, walkable project with a well-planned combination of residential, business and retail uses,” Markman said.
Granite Run was constructed in 1974 and renovated in 1993. Some of its anchor tenants include JCPenney, Boscov’s, Sears and an AMC movie theater. The property, just as in the case of the Coventry Mall, has suffered as newer shopping centers competed with it and siphoned shoppers away. Retailers have also closed at Granite Run leaving empty storefronts that haven’t been released to new tenants. The mall’s occupancy rate is 85 percent.
Source: Philadelphia Business Journal
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