The new owners of Leigh Mall say they hope to have a plan in a place for the property by late February — a plan which may include major upgrades and renovations.
Hull Property Group, a retail firm based out of Augusta, Georgia, purchased the mall for $3.5 million in an online auction in October, and since then it has been conducting analyses for the property, owner James Hull said. While initial plans included demolishing much of the mall — a possibility that has not been totally ruled out — the group is now leaning toward some sort of renovation.
“We’re now concluding that if the economics can be made to work, the community can be better served by keeping the property as an operating mall,” Hull said.
He stressed there are no concrete plans in place as of now and that any investment the company would make in the mall would be “sacrificial,” meaning the payback on that investment would depend largely on a successful recruitment effort afterward. He said members of Hull PG’s leadership team have met with city and county leaders, as well Golden Triangle Development LINK, and would like to come up with a plan that suits the community, the existing tenants and Hull PG.
Hull PG owns retail properties, including traditional malls which they’ve renovated, in 15 states. Leigh Mall is the first property Hull has purchased in Mississippi.
Leigh Mall, built in 1973 off Highway 45 North, is only 57-percent occupied, with original anchors JCPenney and Sears both vacated. Hobby Lobby, Planet Fitness, Books-a-Million and other tenants remain.
Hull said whatever renovations Hull PG did would be a “sacrificial investment” on the company’s part.
“At this point in time, new ownership’s financial models do not justify a large investment in Leigh Mall,” he said.
However, that kind of investment may be the only way to attract new tenants.
The renovations that “may be the best path forward for the community,” Hull said, would include new roofing, lighting, carpeting and — for the vacant retail spaces — new sheetrock, as well as upgrades to the exterior. He also floated the possibility of installing community and tenant promotional murals to spruce up the interior and “have a good atmosphere within the mall.”
“We think that this work that we’re contemplating would be necessary to transform the mall and change the perception of a failed mall, which we think is very important,” he said. “Once the transformation would be completed, it would allow us to be in a position to attract new tenants and to then institute our programmatic operational approach. But … everything’s a little bit fluid due to the sacrificial nature of the required monetary investment. And the fact is, … we don’t have a new tenant at this time, and we would be betting on them to come.
“But the fact of the matter is, if we don’t make a sacrificial investment, what tenant would be interested?” he added. “It’s sort of a vicious cycle.”
Another factor in play is the current retail trends nationwide, of changing shopping patterns and the declining popularity of traditional malls.
All that said, Columbus has a major factor going for it, according to Hull.
“Columbus has got a good retail corridor. A lot of these retail corridors are a good three, four miles long. In Columbus, everything’s tight right there within a mile or a mile and a quarter,” he said, referring to the stretch of Highway 45 North which includes Leigh Mall, Walmart, Belk and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Ultimately, Hull PG’s leadership has to decide whether to conduct demolition, renovation or some combination of the two, Hull said.
LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said he met with Hull PG’s leadership team just before the auction and the LINK is planning to work with them going forward. Members of LINK’s leadership are planning on touring some of the Hull PG’s other malls out of state, probably in late January, to get an idea of what the company has done before and what could be done with Leigh Mall.
“That’s the most valuable piece of real estate in Lowndes County,” Higgins said. “It’s kind of the heartbeat of the community.”
While he said right now they are “throwing ideas on the table,” he doesn’t anticipate Hull PG to demolish the entire property.
“In our meetings with them, everything’s on the table. … Do you do a demolition? Do you do a de-malling (convert it to a retail center that isn’t an enclosed mall)? Do you do a partial de-malling? There’s one, two, three, four options, any of which would work,” he said. “… I don’t see all of it getting torn down.”
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