The project to convert the old Leigh Mall into Columbus Place, an outward-facing shopping center, will be finished by December, and new tenants could locate there in early 2024.
Hull Property Group Vice President of Government Relations John Mulherin told The Dispatch Tuesday the shopping center project is nearly complete, with only a small portion of the facade work left on the front of the building and parking lot upgrades to be finished a few days after Thanksgiving.
“We are doing some individual work for individual tenants to be outward facing and things of that nature,” Mulherin said. “That phase is finishing up, and the next phase is going to be the rebuilding of the asphalt of the parking lot. That’s going to start maybe next week.”
Mulherin said Hull is also working on drafting lease agreements with several companies in home goods, fashion and several other retail industries, though nothing has been finalized. Once the center is complete, there will be 13 new outward-facing spaces and a few interior ones for tenants to locate, bringing the total number of spaces in the shopping center to 37.
“We have been approached by several companies, and our leasing team is working feverishly on the new leases,” Mulherin said.
Georgia-based Hull Property Group purchased the mall for $3.5 million via online auction in October 2019 and obtained $3.1 million in tax incentives from the city and county in May 2022 to start renovations.
Mulherin previously told The Dispatch the money would be needed to recover the approximately $3.125 million cost of engineering work to “flip the building inside-out” and demolish the old Sears Automotive building.
Per the agreement, Hull will pay taxes on the mall at its current assessed value of $3.5 million for 15 years. The ad valorem value of any additions made will be repaid to the company, along with 75% of the net sales tax collected on non-grocery sales. If a grocery store is located there, 50% of the sales tax generated by grocery sales will return to the company. The incentives will not include ad valorem tax collections for schools.
Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews told The Dispatch Hull Group had invested $711,160 at the property as of Jan. 1, reflecting work done in 2022 and the addition of Five Below, which opened in December. He expects the company will submit 2023 investment records by Dec. 31 to reflect additional work done on the property.
Mulherin declined to give an exact dollar amount invested but said several millions have been spent on the redevelopment project.
Based on the addition of Five Below, Andrews estimated the property’s sales-per-square-foot to be about $63. If all new tenants commercially produced near that figure, the property could be worth $10.6 million or more based on sales, he said, putting it less than $1 million away from the mall’s previous value of $11.4 million before it was appraised for sale.
“Before it was sold (the appraised value) was way up here, and when it was sold it was way down (where it is now),” Andrews said. “We think it’s going to go way up.”
Mulherin declined to comment on what range the company was looking for in tenants’ sales per square foot but said it would look at all tenants’ prospects to see what would fit in the local market.
“It’s a tenant-by-tenant kind of decision,” Mulherin said. “Everybody is different. A certain tenant like a grocery store is going to have $150 per square foot in sales, say, and then you’re going to have a high-end beauty shop that’s going to have $150 in sales per square foot, and then you’re going to have somebody else that’s going to do $75 per square foot, and that’s perfect for them. If you’re fully inventoried with the right looks, and you’re conducive to everybody else around in the shopping center, your sales per square foot will be what you need to be successful.”
Mayor Keith Gaskin said he has been happy to see Hull progress the redevelopment along, and he is looking forward to new businesses locating there in the future.
“The Hull Group has been great to work with,” Gaskin said. “I stay in contact with them about the mall, and we are excited about the changes that are already happening there and look forward to future retail and stores that will be coming our way.”
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