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Shopping Malls on the Block in Record Numbers: Wall Street Journal

Across the U.S. commercial real estate developers are trying to shed their low performing mall properties.MacRo_OldSize_BlogPlaceholder

Last week the MacRo Report Blog published an article entiltled An Ill-Lustrious Future for Frederick’s Golden Mile?  It discussed the process that the City of Frederick is following to revitalize the once retail gem of the region.  In the center of the strip sits the Frederick Towne Mall, which has seen better days.

In an April 20, 2011 Wall Street Journal article by writers A. D. Pruitt and Kris Hudson it is clear that Frederick County, Maryland is not the only community across the nation that is dealing with commerical real estate that is covered by acreas of under performing shopping malls:

“It is spring selling season for U.S. mall landlords.

 “Mall giants Westfield Group, Simon Property Group and General Growth Properties are marketing 40 malls across the country, an unusually large number for any one time. The sellers are hoping to take advantage of the slowly improving economy and commercial-real-estate market.

 “But the deals also might pose challenges. Most of the properties on the block are among the lower quality properties owned by the sellers and companies are hoping to sell them at a time that the retail sector is facing changes due to an oversupply of product and competition from Internet shopping.

 “Malls were among the most battered sectors during the commercial-real-estate crisis. Vacancy rates for malls in the top 80 U.S. markets rose to 9.1% in the first quarter, the highest rate that research company Reis Inc. has tallied since it began tracking mall figures in 2000” … MORE

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