Aug. 22–BRADENTON — The deadline to close on the pending sale of DeSoto Square mall has come and gone, according to the real estate analytics firm that first reported the deal.
Torchlight Loan Services LLC, assigned to handle the foreclosure, said in early July the unidentified buyer had 45 days to close. That deadline was Monday.
As of Tuesday, the Trepp real estate information database had received no confirmation that a sale was successful.
An unnamed buyer in May signed a letter of intent to acquire the mall from Simon Property Group Inc., along with a negotiated debt agreement.
Officials at Simon, who acknowledged the property was listed for sale, declined to comment on the stalled transaction.
Patrick Berman, senior director of the retail brokerage at Cushman Wakefield of Florida Inc., also won’t comment. Berman in June said the DeSoto Square buyer, who has yet to be identified, planned to renovate the facility into a discount oriented shopping center.
“We do not comment on our sales or purchases,” Simon spokesman Les Morris said Tuesday. “If a sale had gone through, we would report it in our 8K at quarter’s end.”
Simon’s $61.9 million loan on the 492,997-square-foot portion of the shopping center it owns slipped into danger of imminent default in 2010. At that time, Simon hired legal counsel and offered to hand the property back to the bank, according to records from the Trepp.
Simon, which has since listed the property with the Tampa brokerage CBRE, has been delinquent on its payment 10 of the past 12 months. The mall slipped into full foreclosure in March.
The 639,094-square-foot mall on Cortez Road was first built in 1973 and later expanded in 1997. Simon Property, the largest U.S. shopping mall owner, acquired the property in August 1996.
DeSoto Square was appraised at $80.2 million during the height of the real estate boom in 2004. The mall is worth an estimated $43.1 million today, falling $24 million
May 5, according to Trepp.
The special servicer also has ordered a new appraisal on the property, according to documents.
Josh Salman, Herald business writer, can be reached at 941-745-7095. Follow him on Twitter@JoshSalman.