As expected, the Shops at Fallen Timbers mall in Maumee was sold on Tuesday to two New York-based real estate investment firms, Lucas County Auditor’s office records confirmed.
Mall development and management firm GGP Inc., of Chicago, which has owned Fallen Timbers since its 2007 opening, sold the 13-parcel, 108-acre property for just $21 million to Mason Asset Management and Namdar Realty Group, both of Great Neck, N.Y. When the property opened 10 years ago, its estimated cost was $125 million.
Mason purchased the mall under the name Fallen Timbers Nassim LLC, and Namdar purchased it under the name Fallen Timbers Ohio LLC.
The two buyers, who are headquartered in close proximity to each other, have partnered the past several years to scoop up dying or under-performing malls and shopping centers. Namdar, which is owned and run by Igal Namdar, and Mason Asset Management, which is run by Elliot Nassim, co-own four mall properties in Ohio, but Mason manages several additional properties owned solely by Namdar.
In April the two bought a trio of shopping center properties in suburban Chicago, and in August Namdar bought the Midway Mall in Elyria, Ohio, with Mason agreeing to manage that property.
It is unclear if Mason will manage Fallen Timbers. A week ago, Mason listed Fallen Timbers as one of its properties on its website portfolio. But the Maumee mall has since been removed from the list.
County records show the two firms paid GGP about $6.1 million in cash for the mall and financed the remaining $14.9 million. First Financial Bank, of Cincinnati is believed to have secured the loan.
Mall tenants said a week ago they were notified by a mall official that the property was in the process of changing owners and that in the near future it would be owned and managed by Mason Asset Management. The Namdar name was not included in an email sent out. GGP refused to comment on the report then.
Fallen Timbers, which is an open-air “lifestyle center” with two anchor department stores and a theater, has about 1 million square feet. It is located just west of the U.S. 23/I-475 interchange and is near Fallen Timbers battlefield, for which the mall was named. It now has about 59 tenants.
Fallen Timbers previously was listed for sale in 2014 at a price tag of $30 million, according to industry newsletter Commercial Real Estate Direct.
GGP has been in the process of rejecting an unsolicited bid by Brookfield Property Partners LP, one of the world’s largest commercial real estate firms, to buy the Chicago mall developer. Brookfield last month offered $14.8 billion to buy a 66 percent stake in GGP. Brookfield already owns 34 percent of GGP.
Some analysts have speculated that the deal eventually will take place, but not until GGP sells off several properties that Brookfield does not want. Fallen Timbers was thought to be among those properties that was to be excluded from Brookfield’s offer.
Contact Blade Business Writer Jon Chavez at jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.
First Published December 20, 2017, 12:35 a.m.
