Kushner Companies has been razing zombie stores at New Jersey’s Monmouth Mall. Now, the firm has the financing to raise the property back from the dead.
Fortress Investment Group and Rithm Capital provided $415 million in financing for Kushner’s project in Eatontown, the company announced on Tuesday. Kushner broke ground on the redevelopment, dubbed Monmouth Square, in May.
Fortress affiliate funds provided $303 million for the residential portion of the project. The complex is slated to deliver 1,000 apartments, 125 of which will be affordable. There will also be a 40,000-square-foot clubhouse and amenities including a fitness center, cafe, coworking space, pickleball and basketball courts and a golf simulator.
The rest of the financing came in the form of a loan from Rithm, debt being managed by the company’s operating partner, GreenBarn Investment Group. The debt will go towards the 990,000-square-foot retail component of the project, which will be anchored by a Whole Foods Market. The grocery store is displacing a Barnes & Noble, which will relocate to a different building in the town center.
In a statement, Morali said the project will “serve as a model for future mall redevelopments across the country.” Designed by Minno + Wasko Architects and Planners, the retail portion of the project is already 82 percent preleased.
A representative for the developer told The Real Deal that the project is scheduled to be completed in 2028.
Kushner has been hard at work tearing down vacant stores at the property and “de-malling” it in favor of an open-air layout. A 150,000-square-foot Lord & Taylor closed in 2018 and a JCPenney shuttered in 2022 are among the stores being razed as the mall shrinks by 40 percent from 1.5 million square feet.
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At one point, the Monmouth Mall was one of the country’s 10 largest enclosed shopping centers. But things became so bleak on the retail front that it became the site of filming for a spinoff of “The Walking Dead.”
Kushner bought a $110 million loan collateralized by its mall at auction three years ago; a joint venture between Kushner and Brookfield Property Partners defaulted on the Royal Bank of Canada loan at the start of the pandemic.