EVERETT – The Everett Mall has sold for more than $50 million to a California-based development company, which becomes the third owner during the past four years.
The acquisition by Steadfast Commercial Properties means a long-planned improvement and expansion plan for the mall may finally proceed.
Steadfast, with headquarters in Newport Beach, Calif., bought the mall from Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. Equitable took over the mall three years ago this month after the former owner defaulted.
Steadfast paid $50.27 million, according to documents filed with Snohomish County officials.
“We’re thrilled,” said Linda Johannes, the mall’s general manager. “Equitable has been getting out of the real estate business for some time, and it was through less than positive circumstances they acquired us. So there’s excitement that we have an owner who likes the property and wants to improve it.”
With the sale, the management company Equitable used, Madison Marquette Retail Services, is no longer overseeing the mall. But Johannes and her staff will remain.
The Everett Mall is the second that privately held Steadfast has bought in Washington state. Last year, the company took over the former SeaTac Mall, renaming it The Commons at Federal Way. Since then, Steadfast has begun making changes at that center, including the additions of Target as an anchor store and a new movie theater.
“Steadfast is already doing great things at The Commons. I think they want to do similar things up in Everett,” said Tom Bayley, chief operating officer at CD Stimson Co. of Seattle, which owns The Bon-Macy’s building at the Everett Mall.
Bayley said he is hopeful Steadfast will want to continue renovating the mall in the near future. During Equitable’s tenure, the interior of the 673,000-square-foot shopping center was updated, but other planned improvements such as a new theater and the addition of several major tenants have been on hold.
Johannes said Steadfast will announce its redevelopment plans later this year.
The upbeat outlook surrounding the sale contrasts with the last time the mall got a new owner. That was in June 2001, when Equitable agreed to take over from Titanic Associates, a New Jersey partnership that defaulted in 2000 on its $55 million mortgage and $6 million in taxes. Equitable had been a lender to Titanic.
The shopping area, converted into an indoor mall 30 years ago, was enlarged in 1989, when Titanic took out its loan. In 1998 and early 1999, the mall was working with the city on expansion and renovation plans, but those were scrapped due to the owner’s financial troubles.
In 2002, the mall’s management team announced a new expansion and renovation plan and demolished Everett Mall Village, vacant strip mall buildings across the street from the main shopping center. While plans were filed with the city to build a new movie theater and replace Everett Mall Village with a collection of up to five large stores, that hasn’t happened yet.
During its negotiations with Equitable, Steadfast met with several city of Everett officials, who have been supportive, said J. Patrick Cox, a partner at Steadfast.
Wayne Laxson of Windermere Commercial Real Estate’s office in Everett agreed that Steadfast’s arrival is a good sign for the mall’s future.
“I think they should bring some excitement to the area,” he said. “My hope for Everett is they do some good things there.”
Everett Mall has about 130 shops, three movie screens, a food court and Sears, The Bon-Macy’s and Mervyns as its anchor tenants. It’s the second-largest mall in the county after Lynnwood’s Alderwood, which will have about 1.4 million square feet after its ongoing expansion.
After its ownership changes, the downturn in the economy and the Boeing Co.’s layoffs in recent years, the mall has kept tenants in most of its retail spaces and business has been picking up, Johannes said.
“Things are not robust yet, but with the announcement of the 7E7 being assembled here and the improving economy, it’s getting better,” she said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
