Commercial Real Estate Reporter - Southeast

Compass Retail chosen to manage, lease enclosed mall

Atlanta-based Compass Retail has been chosen as manager and leasing agent for The Orchards Mall in Benton Harbor, Mich. Anchored by Sears, J.C. Penney and Elder-Beerman, the 525,000 sq. ft. enclosed center was developed in 1979 by DeBartolo Properties, Youngstown, Ohio, and Equitable Real Estate Investment Management, Inc., Atlanta.Shopping Mall Sale is Country's Largest This Decade (So Far)

OTR Limited Partnership, an investment arm of the $29 billion State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio pension fund, has purchased the Silver City Galleria in Tauton, Mass., for $158.14 million ž the largest single acquisition of a shopping mall in the country so far this decade.

Pyramid Cos. of Syracuse, N.Y., and its subsidiary, Silver City Galleria Group, sold the 1.1 million sq. ft., 150-store mall in an all-cash transaction in late April.

O'Connor Group, a New York-based real estate investment and management firm, advised and represented the buyer. The Pyramid Cos. was represented by Boston real estate investment banking firm Fowler, Goedecke, Ellis & O'Connor Inc. in the transaction.

"This is an example of the appetite of pension funds to own real estate equities in Massachusetts," says John Fowler, a principal at Fowler, Goedecke.

"We were in the market to refinance a construction loan whose term was expiring, and the buyer came along," says Dan Lugosch, Pyramid's general partner. "Rather than financing, we decided to sell it."

Anchor tenants at Silver City Galleria, located on a 120-acre site, include Sears, J.C. Penney, Bradlees, Lechmere, T.J. Maxx, Filene's and Filene's Basement.

A source familiar with the deal, who asked not to be identified, said Pyramid developed the mall at a cost of approximately $100 million. It opened to the public in March 1992.

Upendra Mishra