Fashion Mall in Plantation fetches $37.7 million bid in bankruptcy auction

Fashion Mall in Plantation and Art Falcone
Fashion Mall in Plantation and Art Falcone

An entity affiliated with Encore Housing Opportunity Fund made the winning $37.7 million bid for the vacant Fashion Mall in Plantation during a bankruptcy auction on Thursday.

Boca Raton-based Encore has several South Florida developments under way. It is co-developing Miami Worldcenter, a mixed-use development covering 10 blocks just north of Miami’s central business district; Platinum Residences, an 18-story condominium project at 700 North Ocean Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, and Aventura Isles, a master-planned community in North Miami.

Art J. Falcone, co-founder, managing principal and investment committee member of Encore could not be reached for comment Thursday.

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Four bidders competed in the court-ordered bankruptcy auction of the Fashion Mall, including Palm Beach Gardens-based Ram Realty, which made an initial, or “stalking horse,” bid of $24 million for the Fashion Mall. The winning $37.7 million bid was 57 percent more than the initial bid. The transaction is pending final approval by Judge John K. Olson at a hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Friday.

“We think it’s a great result for the bankruptcy estate, a great result for the creditors, and a great result for the city of Plantation,” Glenn Moses, a shareholder of law firm Genovese Joblove & Battista, which represents the trustee in the Fashion Mall bankruptcy case at the United States Bankruptcy Court in Fort Lauderdale, told The Real Deal.

“I think this property will finally be developed after almost a decade of non-use,” Moses said. The property is an enclosed shopping center with about 828,000 square feet of leaseable space on 32 acres of land at 321 North University Drive in Plantation.