Center Oak Properties Nears Ground-breaking for $30-Mil Transformation of Mall 205

PORTLAND-Center Oak Properties will begin a $30-million repositioning of Mall 205 in the next couple of weeks. Fred Bruning, chairman of the retail development company from Torrence, CA, says unworthy tenants have left on their own or been bought out of the “dead mall,” as he calls it, making room for national tenants that will draw shoppers.

Located at Southeast 99th Avenue and Washington Street near Interstate 205, Mall 205 was the first enclosed shopping center in Oregon when it was built in 1971. Center Oak bought the beleaguered property last year in a package deal last year from New York-based First Union Real Estate. “I used to joke that I found the last nickel spent there and it had a buffalo on it,” Bruning told GlobeSt last fall, when the project was originally scheduled to begin.

Center Oak plans to put up $15 million for a completely renovated shell and three new pads fronting Washington Street will add strong new retailers and restaurateurs. The tenants will put up the other $15 million in tenant improvements.