Northwest Arkansas Mall is sold for $39.5 million, well below 2006 purchase price

The bank-owned Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville was recently sold for $39.5 million to a group of investment bankers out of New York at less than one-third the $150 million price that former owners Midwest Mall Properties paid for the retail asset in 2006.

The deal was confirmed Tuesday (Jan. 12)  by the office of Elliott Nassim, president of Mason Asset Management and one of the purchasing parties.

Midwest Mall Properties, a partnership between John Flake, the late Doyle Rogers and Sam Mathias, turned the asset over to CWCapital/Citigroup in lieu of foreclosure in 2009. Nassim’s office said the new owners include Namdar Realty Group, Mason Asset Management and CH Capital Group.

This is not the partners first retail mall purchase as they acquired malls in the Jacksonville, Fla., market in 2014 and 2013 from General Growth Properties, who owns roughly half of the Pinnacle Promenade Mall in Rogers.

The Fayetteville shopping mall was appraised at just $57 million by CW Capital who slashed the value in 2015 to try and sell the asset. Commercial real estate experts say retail malls across the country continue to suffer as more retailers are shuttering physical stores and more consumers are shopping online.

The fully enclosed Northwest Arkansas Mall has 820,581 square feet of lease space and is anchored by Dillard’s, J.C. Penney and Sears. Mall officials did not respond to a request for comment, nor provide an update of how much space in the mall is vacant.