Easton Group bought Miami International Mall’s shuttered Sears for $17.1 million, with plans to develop up to 500 apartments on the site.
The firm joins a growing number of investors that are seizing on floundering shopping centers in South Florida. Their plans include revamping the retail, as well as building new mixed-use projects on parking lots or on the site of existing buildings.
Easton bought the two-story, 190,000-square-foot building and adjoining parking lot on a 13-acre site at 1625 Northwest 107th Avenue in Doral from Seritage Growth Properties, according to records and real estate database Vizzda. The buyer took out a $12 million loan for the purchase from North Miami-based New Wave Loans.
Easton plans a large one-story building that will have 450 to 500 market-rate apartments, said Ed Easton, chairman of the eponymously named Doral-based firm. Project approvals are expected to take up to a year, with construction expected to start afterward, he said.
The Sears purchase marks Easton’s second investment at Miami International Mall this month. Easton dropped $12.2 million for the JCPenney building and adjoining parking lot that sit on a 10.3-acre site at 1603 Northwest 107th Avenue.
That site isn’t slated for redevelopment, Ed Easton said. JCPenney will remain open and has a lease until 2040.
As a whole, Easton now owns 23.3 acres at Miami International Mall.
The family owned company, which Ed Easton founded in 1974, has development, investment, property management and brokerage divisions across asset classes, according to its website.
The firm has been on a retail shopping spree. This month, Easton and Cayon Development Group picked up a Walmart Neighborhood Market-anchored shopping plaza at 14325 Southwest 268th Street in Homestead for $16.8 million.
New York-based Seritage, led by CEO Andrea Olshan, has been selling some of its retail properties. The publicly traded firm spun off from Sears in 2015, acquiring Sears and Kmart stores as part of the deal. Last year, it shed a closed Sears at 1625 West 49th Street in Hialeah for $16.5 million.
Miami International Mall has struggled this year. Simon Property Group owns the 303,000-square-foot main portion of the mall that excludes the Sears, JCPenney, Macy’s and Kohl’s buildings.
Indianapolis-based Simon failed to pay off a $159 million debt on its mall holdings at maturity in February, landing the loan in special servicing, according to Morningstar Credit. Under a forbearance agreement, the maturity date was extended by a year with an option for an additional one-year extension. In exchange, Simon has to pony up more equity and pay down the debt by $2 million, and potentially by another $3 million if it opts to extend the maturity to 2026, Morningstar Credit shows.
In August, the market value of Simon’s Miami International Mall holdings dropped by 59 percent to $159 million, according to Morningstar Credit.
In other mall redevelopments, Electra America and BH Group plan a $1 billion remake of Cutler Bay’s Southland Mall into Southplace City Center with 4,395 apartments and condos, a 150-room hotel, 60,000 square feet of medical office space, 150,000 square feet of retail outparcels and a community amphitheater. The new buildings would surround the existing 808,776-square-foot retail facility, which is undergoing a major renovation.