Southland Mall, seized by lender, remains open. But it could be redeveloped
Southland Mall in Cutler Bay has been seized by its lender and could be redeveloped.
Miami-Dade County records show a commercial mortgage-backed securities trust bid $2,600 on Feb. 10 to take control of the nearly 100,000 square-foot complex. Its owner, Southland Mall Properties, had been subject to a $68.7 million foreclosure judgment filed last summer. The February auction was first reported by the South Florida Business Journal.
An attorney for Wells Fargo, the bank representing the CMBS trust, did immediately not respond to a request comment. Representatives for Southland Mall Properties could not immediately be reached for comment.
For now, stores remain open. Brick-and-mortar retail has struggled as consumers increasingly turn to e-commerce — a trend that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Still, Jeremy Larkin, co-chairman of commercial brokerage NAI Miami, told the Miami Herald that the trustee presumably liked what it saw in the property’s redevelopment potential for a future new buyer. The trustee was likely able to make such a low bid, he said, because it would have signaled to other interested parties that it would outbid them. Cutler Bay’s population has grown 15% over the past decade according to Census data. NAI Miami is not affiliated with the lender or the property owner.
“Whatever is new there may not have the affluence of a Dadeland Mall, but here you have a very strong middle-class area,” Larkin said. “There’s always going to be retail there, and it will be oriented towards needs of region.” He speculated it is likely to be transformed into a mixed use development.
The property began life as the Cutler Ridge Shopping Center in 1960 before being renamed the Cutler Ridge Mall in 1978. It was devastated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, reopened the following year and was renamed Southland Mall in 2003.
