Mystery Buyer Interested in Money-Strapped Pompano Square Mall

POMPANO BEACH, FL-The one million-sf, 90-store Pompano Square Mall, 40 miles north of Downtown Miami, could have a new owner by New Year’s, industry sources familiar with the deal tell GlobeSt.com.

The transaction hinges on the current owner, Heritage Pompano Square Ltd., settling its $14.2 million debt with New York lender CDC Mortgage Capital. Both sides are talking, trying to avoid a protracted foreclosure lawsuit by the lender.

Lender and borrower have agreed to a six-month cooling-off period in which Heritage will either sell the asset or try to restructure the loan.

Heritage principal Lawrence Krause and his late partner, Dennis Bass, bought the shopping center from the California Public Employees Retirement System in 1997 for $21.75 million or $21.75 per sf.

When Bass, the promoter half of the partnership, died three weeks after buying the property, Krause, the inside principal, was left without a marketing fullback.

The 30-year-old mall at US 1 and Copans Road carries a heavy-hitting retail backfield of J.C. Penney Co. Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co., Burdines Department Store Inc. and Dillard’s Inc. Each retailer owns its own building. That’s what complicates the property’s sale. The anchors must approve mall improvements, a factor that often slows or kills financing deals.

Principals at Lefmark Florida Inc., a Miami developer with a track record for completing successful shopping center workouts, are eyeing the posturing of Heritage from a distance but don’t deny they are interested in acquiring the asset.

Lefmark tried unsuccessfully to buy Pompano Square Mall last year.