BRADENTON – After just a year and a half of ownership, DeSoto Square Mall’s owner is taking a shot at selling the dilapidated retail center at auction.
The 680,271-square-foot mall in Bradenton, anchored by Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Sears, is listed on websites like auction. com with a starting bid of $9 million for the entire 73.5-acre parcel.
In February, Hudson’s Furniture took over the former Dillard’s two-story, 110,000-square-foot space.
The auction advertisement from Great Neck, New York-based Mason Asset Management claims that DeSoto Square Mall is 30 miles south of downtown Tampa and “services a dense and mature trade area in excess of 500,000 residents who possess above average income levels.”
The auction is scheduled to begin in about a month.
“The word ‘auction’ denotes a certain amount of desperation,” said Barry Seidel, the president of American Property Group of Sarasota Inc. “It means they weren’t able to sell the center in a traditional method, so this is the alternative.”
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Additional Desoto Square Mall coverage:
Desoto Square’s future in flux, Aug. 1, 2014
The future of DeSoto Square Mall was up in the air, a day after an online auction closed and Macy’s, the property’s premier tenant, announced an exit plan.
Highest bid for Desoto Square Mall: $33.75 million, July 31, 2014
An auction to sell off Bradenton’s DeSoto Square Mall closed Thursday with the highest bid at $33.75 million — on the same day the retail center’s premier anchor, Macy’s, announced it would be vacating for good.
$10 million bid for Desoto Square Mall, July 30, 2014
DeSoto Square Mall may have attracted a potential buyer two days into its three-day online auction. The Bradenton mall had a current bid of $10 million at the end of the second day of the auction period, which began on Tuesday.
Hudson Furniture moving into Desoto Square, Feb. 15, 2014
A Florida-based furniture chain will take over the former Dillard’s department store anchor space at DeSoto Square Mall in April.
Hudson’s Furniture, an Ormond Beach-based furniture-and-home-furnishings retailer with stores in the Tampa Bay, Orlando and Ormond Beach markets, will open a two-story, 110,000-square-foot store in DeSoto Square Mall.
Desoto Square changes little after sale, Nov. 12, 2013
It’s been nearly a year since Simon Property Group sold the ailing DeSoto Square Mall in Bradenton.
And in a year’s time, new owners Mason Asset Management hasn’t done a whole lot to update the mall and its perception in the community, despite a successful track record of taking older properties similar to DeSoto Square and giving them a facelift.