From left: Delray Marketplace, Promenade at Coconut Creek and the Shops at Pembroke Pines

Both shoppers and retail developers throughout the U.S., and especially in South Florida, are increasingly eschewing indoor malls for outdoor shopping centers, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

Outdoor centers allow consumers to drive through and scan stores quickly, rather than walking through a maze of outlets, and they can park nearest the stores they choose to frequent. Parking is usually easier in outdoor malls because of the series of small lots they utilize over the large garages favored by malls. Further, consumers like the fact that outdoor complexes provide a “downtown” setting to suburban communities and developers prefer the flexibility they offer to attract an array of tenants. [more]

From left: New England Development Chairman Stephen Karp and the Palm Beach Mall

Rather than redevelop Palm Beach County’s oldest mall into a new outlet center, the partnership that bought the Palm Beach Mall in October has decided to demolish it and build a sparkling new facility, the Palm Beach Post reported.

Now, the $35.5 million New England Development, Eastern Real Estate and Lubert-Adler paid to buy the firm doesn’t seem like such a bargain price, the Post noted, as the cost of planning, preparing and constructing the Palm Beach Fashion Outlets, as they will be known, likely brings the total price north of $100 million. [more]

The Palm Beach Mall has been sold for $25 million, a $28 million discount on its foreclosure judgment, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The property was sold by Orix USA, the special servicer representing a CMBS fund, to buyer Palm Beach Mall Holdings, a Boston-based group, along with a partner out of Philadelphia. [more]

Palm Beach County’s oldest mall is officially getting transformed into an outlet mall, WPBF 25 News reported, the only one between Vero Beach and Sawgrass. Developers New England Development, Eastern Real Estate and Lubert-Adler acquired the site for $40 million in June, and confirmed previous reports today that they will redevelop the 80-acre, vacant site on Palm Beach Lake Bouelvard in West Palm Beach, and call it Palm Beach Fashion Outlets. They expect to open in 2013 and land Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus’ Last Call and Nordstrom Rack, among others, according to West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio. [more]

The developers buying the struggling Palm Beach Mall are envisioning a high-end fashion outlet center in the property’s future. According to the Palm Beach Post, the joint venture of New England Development and Eastern Real Estate has unveiled its plans for the 1 million-square-foot Palm Beach Fashion Outlets, which would open in 2013. The marketing materials and rendering of the property include department store outlets like Nordstrom Rack, Bloomingdale’s Outlet Store and Neiman Marcus’ Last Call, as well as outlets for the Gap, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren and Nike. In addition, TJ Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond and the Burlington Coat Factory are also listed. [more]

The Palm Beach Mall, which is now under contract to a Luxembourg-based
firm, could become part of a battle over property rights, pitting West
Palm Beach against a private investment company. ORIX, a Japanese
financial services firm, is seeking to turn the mall into a shopping
center of big-box retailers, and has control of all the mall property
except the Dillard’s building. The Dillard’s property is crucial to the
plan because it has the best visibility along I-95, and the city is now
threatening to seize the Dillard’s site using eminent domain. But Turbo,
which is the Luxembourg company that controls it, says it will fight
any action using new state laws that limit the use of eminent domain. [Palm
Beach Post]

[more]

From left: the Royal Palm hotel in Miami Beach and Rivergate Plaza in Brickell

Five additional properties made the list of South Florida’s highest-priced distressed properties, although the Shore Club remained number one, according to data compiled by commercial loan tracking firm Trepp for April (see list after the jump). The highest-priced update to the list is the Royal Palm hotel building at 1545 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, which is in foreclosure on a more-than-$74 million loan. The next-highest is Rivergate Plaza, an office tower at 444 Brickell Avenue in downtown Miami that is now delinquent on a $58.5 million loan. [more]

The commercial mortgage-backed securities fund that foreclosed on the 42-year-old Palm Beach Mall retained its shuttered property today after putting in the winning bid at its foreclosure auction. Simon Property Group lost a $53.2 million foreclosure suit brought in April 2009 by the fund, led by Wells Fargo Bank as a trustee. The fund bid $1.75 million for the 1.2 million-square-foot mall, which closed Jan. 31 and is nearly empty, save for JCPenney and George’s Music, which have separate entrances and remain open. Three other parties bid on the property. Nicholas Arsali bid just $100 less than the owners, Citi Investments bid $99,2000 and Nazar Osman bid $9,000. [Palm Beach Post]

A West Palm Beach development site that went into foreclosure is now back on the block for less than a third of its 2006 purchase price of $34.8 million. The 21.49-acre real estate owned waterfront property on Hank Aaron Drive, around the corner from the foreclosed Palm Beach Mall, is listed at $10,992,000, or $16,000 per buildable unit. The seller, a Minnesota-based financial institution, originally planned to build Mizner Lakes, a 677-unit residential and retail complex, with 20,900 square feet of retail space, according to Evan Kristol of Marcus & Millichap in Fort Lauderdale, who is representing the seller along with Still Hunter, also of Marcus & Millichap. “Due to the downturn in the market, the development never broke ground,” Hunter said. “There is an approved development order in place with the City of West Palm Beach. Retail use is no longer permitted in this underlying zoning district,” he added. TRD

The Palm Beach Mall is preparing to celebrate its last Christmas before Japanese financial services firm ORIX, the mall’s mortgage servicer, takes control of the property next month. The mall’s current owner, Simon Property Group, was hit with a foreclosure lawsuit after it allegedly failed to repay $55.4 million in loans from JPMorgan Chase, and now the mall’s site is slated for development. The mall will be shuttered Jan. 30, with the exception of J.C. Penney, the Firestone automotive center, and George’s Music, all of which have outside entrances, and therefore, longer-term leases which require longer notice before termination. The city expects to hold community meetings to hear ideas for the site, where the current structure will likely be torn down, said West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel. “The day of the indoor mall is probably passe,” Frankel said. “We’re looking for a new venue more appealing to today’s shoppers.” [Palm Beach Post]