TOWN OF SAGINAW, MI – If an investor wins the online auction to buy Fashion Square Mall, the public may not learn the fate of the indoor mall until late September.
The online auction for the Saginaw Township-based property — which remains open for business — will begin at noon Monday, Aug. 22, according to officials managing the event.
While the auction is scheduled to end Wednesday, Aug. 24, officials representing the mall’s current owners said the resulting transaction could close up to 30 days later. The auction winner must sign a purchase-sale agreement by Thursday, August 25. The legal transactions necessary to close such a deal must be completed by Friday, September 23.
Investors interested in entering the auction must bid at least $2.3 million.
If the auction ends with no qualifying bids or the auction winner fails to close the sale, the mall’s owner — Wells Fargo — will continue to operate the mall, officials said.
Southfield-based real estate firm NAI Farbman will serve as one of the online auction managers, along with Ten-X, an Irvine, Calif.-based real estate firm.
The mall’s previous owner — Great Neck, New York-based Namdar Realty Group — in 2020 defaulted on a $34.8 million mortgage owed to Wells Fargo, prompting the lending giant to foreclose on the property last year as part of a foreclosure auction.
Officials with NAI Farbman said last year that the company expected to auction the property in 2022 on behalf of Wells Fargo. Now that auction date is approaching.
If an investor wins the mall for the entry-level auction bid of $2.3 million, it will represent a substantially cheaper purchase than previous Fashion Square Mall purchases.
In January 2001, CBL & Associates Property Inc. Chattanooga-based purchased the complex along with 20 other regional centers and two malls from the mall’s original developer – Richard E. Jacobs Group Inc. based in Cleveland – for $1.2 billion.
The center was sold again in July 2016 to Namdar Realty Group – along with The Lakes in Muskegon – for a total price of $66.5 million, including the assumption of a $38.2 million loan secured by Fashion Square Mall.
Not all of the 529,944-square-foot mall is available for sale this time.
While most of the stores in the 100-unit mall are tenants, Macy’s has its own box there.
Sears also owned its own box on the northernmost corner of the facility, though the store closed in 2019. Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Transformco — which now owns Sears and its former space in the center — hired Stokas Bieri Real Estate for sold old Sears Unit. The property remains for sale.
Fashion Square Mall opened on October 4, 1972, when shoppers first walked through the doors of the facility built on 71 acres of farmland.
At the time, anchor tenants JCPenney and Sears were the site’s main attractions. Other inaugural vendors included Town & Country Fashions, William C. Wiechmann Co., Bintz Sports, Carter Shop, Seitner’s, Alfano’s Stride Rite and Tait’s Hobby Shop.
Fashion Square Mall was filled with customers during the mall boom that helped define American culture in the 1970s and 1980s. In turn, the mall fed a starved commercial district in Saginaw Township, attracting business growth to Bay Street. and Tittabawassee during those early decades.
In 1993, a new food court was added, keeping customers fed during long sessions spent browsing the stores.
Eight years later, the facility underwent a $10 million facelift that applied a 21st-century sheen to its 1970s-built hull.
However, foot traffic has weakened in recent decades, as a result of the region’s declining population, as well as a shift in consumer shopping habits to online stores.
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