Purchase of Macy’s lease signals changes ahead for CityPlace

New York-based Related Companies paid $7 million to buy out a lease that Macy’s held on 186,000 square feet at the CityPlace retail center in downtown West Palm Beach.

Macy’s vacated the space in January, part of a nationwide reduction in the size of the retailer’s chain of department stores, and Related wanted control of the former department-store space as it pursues a new version of CityPlace.

Kenneth Himmel, who heads a unit of Related Companies called Related Urban, told the Palm Beach Post the company is creating “CityPlace 2.0” and bought out Macy’s lease to ensure the space “doesn’t go into somebody else’s hands.” Related plans to propose “something very exciting” for the 186,000-square-foot space, he said.

Himmel also told the Post that Related resolved issues with a lender that has a mortgage loan secured by CityPlace and now intends to reposition the 17-year-old property, a plan that may include developing office space there. The mortgage loan was placed last year with a special servicing firm, C-III Asset Management, to determine whether a foreclosure was necessary or if problems with the borrower could be worked out. [Palm Beach Post] – Mike Seemuth