Cushman & Wakefield advised Snowball Developments in obtaining acquisition financing of $23,700,000 for 301 Governors Hwy., a 507,733-square-foot industrial property in South Windsor, CT, within the Hartford metro area. The loan was provided by Prime Finance.

A Cushman & Wakefield Equity, Debt & Structured Finance team of John Alascio, Jeff Dybas, Alex Lapidus and Meredith Donovan represented the borrower. The property, previously owned and fully occupied by Macy’s, has been leased back to Macy’s by Snowball Developments in a sale-leaseback.

“This transaction underscores the strategic value of 301 Governors Highway within the Eastern Hartford submarket,” said Dybas. “With its single-tenant absolute net lease and sale-leaseback rent, the property presents significant upside potential. The extensive 38-acre site and ample trailer parking further distinguish it in a supply-constrained market.”

According to Cushman & Wakefield, the Eastern Hartford submarket boasts a low vacancy rate of 1.4%, with no speculative developments on the drawing board.

The Macy’s Inc. department store at WestShore Plaza in Tampa is closing. The department store said Thursday that it will close 66 stores across the U.S. Seven of those stores, including WestShore Plaza, are in Florida. A time frame for the store closures was not disclosed.

The Tampa Business Journal reports WPG, the mall owner, has been planning for the moment for a few years now and has been exploring redevelopment options. In late 2024, WPG paid $10 million for Macy’s real estate — the last remaining piece of WestShore Plaza that it did not own.

Macy’s (NYSE: M) is the second major retailer to close at WestShore Plaza in less than four months. Dick’s Sporting Goods left the mall to move down the road to International Plaza, where it opened its new concept Dick’s House of Sport in October.

WPG’s redevelopment plans include up to 3.5 million square feet of mixed-use development including entertainment, retail, dining, office, wellness, medical, hotel and residential components.

Gwinnett County is expanding its control over the Gwinnett Place Mall as it works to redevelop and resuscitate the aging property.

Courtesy of Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners

Gwinnett Place Mall in Gwinnett County that is set for a total redevelopment.

The Gwinnett County Commission voted Tuesday to spend $16.5M to acquire the Macy’s department store and furniture store at the mall, a property that includes parking lots and spans 23 acres.

The purchase is being conducted by the Gwinnett County Urban Redevelopment Agency, which earlier this year tapped CBRE to plan the property’s total redevelopment.

The purchase means that the county now controls a total of 76 acres of the former mall property, including the central 526K SF indoor mall portion that was previously used as the set for the third season of Netflix’s Stranger Things. Gwinnett purchased the inline stores, food court and former Belk anchor for $23M in 2020 from Moonbeam Capital, whose previous ownership had become a frequent source of frustration for county officials for failing to initiate any redevelopment efforts of the now-defunct mall. 

But the purchase now means Gwinnett has more real estate to accomplish the transformation of the mall into its Global Village plan first unveiled in 2022. The vision calls for 3,800 new residential units, 50K SF of office space, 55K SF of retail and a 50K SF cultural center surrounding a 13-acre public park. 

“The acquisition of the Macy’s site marks a pivotal step forward in the redevelopment of Gwinnett Place Mall, setting the stage for Gwinnett County to establish a national — and possibly international — model for equitable and impactful transformation,” Gwinnett County Chairwoman Nicole Love Hendrickson said in a statement.

Remaining anchors Beauty Master and Mega Mart own their stores, and Charlotte developer Northwood Ravin owns the shuttered Sears store, which it plans to convert into an apartment tower.

The Macy’s is expected to remain open until early 2025, officials said. CBRE is expected to issue a request for proposals early next year for developers to tackle the redevelopment project.

Gwinnett officials are betting that the redevelopment of the mall would drive an economic boom in the county. A 2023 study by the Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District, which includes the mall property and surrounding 5.6M SF of office space and 15.7M SF of industrial properties, warned that significant delays to the redevelopment could mean the county could lose the potential for millions of new dollars of public revenue and thousands of jobs.

“Gwinnett Place CID is already punching above its weight,” Gwinnett Place CID Joe Allen told Bisnow earlier this year, citing its estimated economic impact to the county. “By creating a new urban core at the old mall site, we could blow that $15.9B economic impact out of the water, elevate property values and spread a halo of benefits to surrounding areas in the county.”

One of Macy’s 150 underperforming stores is on the block in Atlanta. SRS Real Estate Partners has listed the Macy’s at Northlake Mall. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports he Northlake property includes the three-story store, which spans more than 190,000 square feet, and a parking lot with more than 950 spaces.

Fifty Macy’s stores are expected to close by the end of 2024, with the remaining expected to shutter by 2026. To determine which stores will close, Macy’s is evaluating potential real estate value and future sales growth. After the closures, Macy’s expects 350 stores to remain open in the United States and plans to upgrade those stores. The company plans to focus on its more luxurious offerings by opening 15 Bloomingdales and 30 Blue Mercury stores.

Scott Tiernan and Karla Smith of SRS Real Estate Partners are marketing the store.