Requiem for the Greendale Mall
Greendale Mall is set for a foreclosure sale in June.
The Greendale Mall is set to be sold in a foreclosure auction on June 26, after the original date of that potential sale was delayed by a month. Whoever buys it – if anyone does – they could well get it on the cheap, allowing for a strategic reinvestment and new life into the moribund space. Given its smaller size – it stands at 309,000 square feet – history and location in the north side of the city away from the growing downtown, Theatre District and Canal District – it will be a formidable challenge.
The Greendale Mall has been in financial trouble for some time, with an occupancy rate below 80 percent and the leases for anchor tenants like TJ Maxx, Big Lots and DSW Shoes near their end. The mall owes $45 million in mortgage-backed securities, and its value has dropped to $15 million, a significant plummet from the $65 million it was valued at 10 years ago, according to commercial real estate data provider Trepp.
The Simon Property Group – one of the last major owners of malls nationwide and proprietor of the Auburn Mall and the Solomon Pond Mall in Marlborough – pulled up its stakes in the Greendale Mall, with the structure in need of repairs to the roof, in addition to a needed reinvention.
Whatever happens with the auction, the Greendale Mall will not succeed by returning to what it once was. It's too small to be a major attraction and cannot efficiently be turned into an outdoor mall. Traditional malls are struggling, and the successful ones are either huge destinations - like the Natick Mall – or outdoor malls, like the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley or the Wrentham Village Outlets.
We hope the auction attracts a buyer with a vision for the space and that the city of Worcester will be creative in working with them to reinvent a tired property.
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