Atlanta firm buys struggling Town Center mall after latest foreclosure
A struggling regional mall northwest of Atlanta has a new owner after finding itself on familiar ground — the foreclosure block.
Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw was sold in a public auction last week to an affiliate of Atlanta-based Ardent Cos., according to state real estate records. Ardent paid nearly $51.8 million to buy the retail center, about one-sixth what the mall was worth a decade ago. It’s also a 27% discount from what the mall’s last owner paid only three years ago after the retail center’s last bout with foreclosure.
The mall’s latest ownership change, which was first reported by real estate outlet Bisnow, highlights the continued downward spiral of many regional malls battling changing shopping trends and dwindling tenant occupancy. Town Center is also a unique case, grappling with liens, unpaid taxes and a high-profile power shut-off last year because of late utility bill payments.
Neither Ardent nor the mall’s prior owner, Kohan Retail Investment Group, immediately responded Monday to requests for comment from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Town Center Community Improvement District, a quasi-governmental area around the mall where commercial property owners pay extra taxes to fund infrastructure improvements, said change is on the horizon for the area.
“Working closely with Cobb County and other partners, we are excited about the future of this area as a high-quality, mixed-use destination,” Town Center CID said in a statement to the AJC. “Redevelopment represents a meaningful opportunity to attract new investment, expand the tax base and create a vibrant community asset for generations to come. We look forward to advancing this vision alongside our partners.”
It’s unclear what Ardent plans for the property, but redevelopment has been on the table for Town Center at Cobb for years. Typically following a foreclosure sale, tenants do not notice any immediate changes, and the new owner has a vested interest in keeping operations running smoothly.
Danny Finkle, a senior managing director for real estate services firm JLL, said traditional shopping malls used to dominate the retail landscape across America. By the 1980s, which he described as a peak “mall era,” about 580 regional malls were built across the country, following in the wake of the successes of properties like Town Center at Cobb.
“Once upon a time, there were over 1,500 malls,” Finkle said in June during the National Association of Real Estate Editors conference. “Today, we’re probably down to 750, and that number is probably going to continue down to 600.”
Built in 1986, Town Center features 1.3 million square feet of retail space across a 92-acre property, located between I-75 and I-575. The core 560,000 square feet of the mall was the focus of the foreclosure, while other segments and big box stores have different owners, including Macy’s and JCPenney.
Valued at about $300 million in 2016, declining sales led to the mall’s first foreclosure in 2021. Simon Property Group, the owner of Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza in Buckhead, defaulted on its loan backed at the time by Town Center. That led Kohan Retail, a New York firm that specializes in distressed malls, to pay $71 million in 2023 to buy the retail center.
Evolving shopping tastes coupled with the popularization of e-commerce have taken their toll on malls, including many in the Atlanta area.
North DeKalb Mall, which became so deserted it turned into a filming location, has been torn down to make way for a mixed-use project called Lulah Hills. North Point Mall in Alpharetta is being evaluated as a site for a potential sports and entertainment center, aiming to snag a professional hockey team. Northlake Mall in Tucker was recently sold to a nonprofit that is expanding office space at the property for Emory Healthcare, which involves evicting most tenants.
Town Center’s problems have been unique, even among its peers.
Kohan owed more than $1 million in back taxes by 2024, and the mall’s power was temporarily shut off in January 2025 over unpaid bills. A month later, a Gwinnett County Superior Court judge placed Town Center under receivership with an affiliate of Ardent, which paid the owed taxes and worked to stabilize operations. Kohan’s $46.7 million loan to Ardent matured in mid-February this year.
Even malls that remain full and popular with shoppers, such as Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza, have invested in mixed-use additions. Perimeter Mall in Dunwoody, another bustling shopping center, unveiled a revamped food court last month to keep up with modern trends.
“One or two malls, depending on the size of the market, are performing at a different level,” Finkle said. “You go there and can’t find a parking space, and it’s busier than ever.”
“This notion that malls are dead … half of them are,” he continued. “But the other half are performing at an amazing level.”
— Staff writer Taylor Croft contributed to this report.