That's all she would say about the deal. There's a confidentiality agreement surrounding the sale, Roepsch says.
However, Farmington Hills developer Barry Klein tells GlobeSt.com he's privy to the inner workings of the sale. Klein says an Iranian-American from California has signed a purchase agreement for the mall. Klein declined to disclose the name.
"That's what I have heard from a source close to the deal," Klein says. "I know he has amassed a portfolio of several properties of varying size and character, and not all shopping centers, but also apartments and strip centers."
He says the buyer does not plan to make radical physical changes to the 40-year-old mall, which suffers from low vacancy, especially due to the pull-out of the Montgomery Ward because of bankruptcy.
Klein says any changes should have come long ago.
"Summit has had some problems. It's all one story, where it should have been two stories. Instead, they kept expanding out. The Sears was formerly a free-standing store, but when it expanded it went all the way until it engulfed the Sears," he explains.
The new buyer is getting the building on favorable terms, Klein adds.
"He's apparently just going to try to improve the status quo and concentrate on filling the vacancies. This man apparently can handle the mall being 90% or lower percent leased," Klein says. "I understand the terms of the purchase contract is to close the sale within the next 30 days."
Klein says the property was quite unique in the area, as it was one of the last large, indoor malls in Michigan to be independently owned until it was taken over by lender Northwestern in late 2000.
"There's so much consolidation going on in the last decade for regional malls, with fewer companies owning these size malls across the country," Klein says.
Many of the area's malls have changed hands, or are going through sales, in the last couple years. Northland Mall in Southfield, at 85% leased, was picked up in October 2000 by GP Northland Center LLC of Maple Shade, NJ for an undisclosed amount.
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