Mall on the Auction Block

The Fredericktowne Mall on U.S. 40 will go to the highest bidder, with a minimum bid of $2.5 million. The sale of the 38-acre property on the Golden Mile in Frederick was posted on ten-x.com, a website devoted to buying and selling real estate online.

The auction, according to the website listing, starts Dec. 6 and ends Dec. 8. Interested buyers should be prepared, with financing intact, to purchase the property if their bid is accepted, according to local attorney Dave Severn.

Severn, who represents the mall’s owner Rockwood Capital of White Plains, N.Y., said his clients put the listing online shortly after Walmart pulled out of a plan to serve as anchor store on the property.

If the property is purchased, new owners will have to contend with 20 zoning conditions that were placed on the property by city officials when they approved the rezoning in 2013. The plan then was to demolish the existing mall, and add a shopping center with several retail businesses and restaurants.

To accommodate Walmart’s plans, Frederick’s board of aldermen approved a zoning change from mixed use to general commercial, and added several conditions on the approval, including pedestrian and bike paths and community spaces.

Those conditions can be reevaluated if and when a new owner submits a site plan, according to Joe Adkins, Frederick city’s planning director.

The conditions attached to the property are not as problematic as the configuration of the property itself. The mall would be an easier sell, said Severn, if the entire parcel was free and clear. Home Depot, which anchors the east side of the mall, is not part of the deal, and is owned by Ed Scott of Kline, Scott Visco Commercial Real Estate. Casa Rico is also owned separately. Businesses housed on the property, including Boscov’s and Ollie’s Bargain Center, have long-term leases.

It’s unclear how much Rockwood paid to acquire the Fredericktowne Mall in 2007. The Fredericktowne Mall Associates bought the mall for $28,425,000 for in 2000, according to the Maryland Department of Taxation and Assessments. The Fredericktowne Mall LLC purchased the mall for $50 million in 1989.

For a look at the mall as it is today, check out https://youtu.be/wKkzLBzfgX8