Fracking Attracts Investors to Giant Mall

BISMARCK, ND—Thousands of oil and natural gas workers have begun flowing into North Dakota to help exploit the vast underground shale formations through the technique of hydraulic fracturing. This oil and gas boom has created the need for every type of real estate imaginable and investment has also just begun flowing in.  

A partnership between affiliates of New York-based Edge Principal Advisors, LLC, Radiant Partners and an undisclosed private investor, for example, just sold the 850,000-square-foot Kirkwood Mall in Bismarck to CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. First developed in 1971, the Kirkwood Mall remains the second largest mall in North Dakota. The sellers acknowledge a direct connection between their original investment in the property and its proximity to the new oil fields, also known as the Bakken Shale Formation.