Southlake Mall in Morrow, foreclosed on last year, was purchased by a Los Angeles real estate company that has been buying malls across the country.
Vintage Real Estate plans to spend millions of dollars to develop an adjacent building left empty by JCPenney in 2011, according to an emailed statement. The company will also work to add fashion retailers and popular restaurants to “bring in tenants currently missing” from the mall, the statement said.
“We have the capital and experience to transform it into a thriving and popular destination for the Atlanta metro area,” Vintage chairman Fred Sands said in the statement.
Southlake is 90 percent occupied, according to Vintage, and has annual sales of more than $100 million.
The mall had been owned by General Growth Properties before it was foreclosed on. Across metro Atlanta, it was one of several troubled malls. Union Station Mall — formerly known as Shannon Mall — closed in 2010, and will be demolished to make way for a business park. Gwinnett Place Mall was foreclosed on in 2012, and is now under new ownership. Malls in Macon, Gainesville and Rome were foreclosed on in recent years and remain open.
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