By Joshua Burd
The ailing Woodbridge Center is seemingly poised to remain a mall under its new owner, but its exact future is still unclear after the recent sale of the property for $70.4 million, in a deal that was reported to be a massive loss for its bondholders.
Published reports say the 1.7 million-square-foot complex, which sits at the junction of routes 1 and 9, changed hands in February as part of a liquidation sale. The buyer’s name remains undisclosed, but Woodbridge Mayor John E. McCormac recently told TAPintoWoodbridge/Carteret that the new operator “has a terrific track record across the country for revitalizing troubled assets” and has pledged to maintain the mall’s current use, although details about how it may update the property have yet to be revealed.
“We are thrilled that they want to keep Woodbridge Center as the iconic shopping and entertainment destination that it should be,” McCormac told the website.
JLL’s Jose Cruz Kevin O’Hearn, JB Bruno and David Monahan brokered the sale of the mall, which Brookfield had owned since acquiring the property in 2014. According to CoStar News, which cited disclosures from Kroll Bond Rating Agency, a loan for the asset was transferred to special servicing in June 2020 for payment default, while the borrower’s last debt service payment came two years later.
Brookfield consented to the appointment of a receiver on the property in October 2021, CoStar noted. With the sale of the mall, bondholders in two commercial mortgage-backed securities deals lost $155.7 million in the transaction.
The report also noted that Woodbridge Center was appraised at $366 million when Brookfield acquired the mall as part of its acquisition of General Growth Properties in 2014. But it’s among countless aging suburban malls that have struggled in recent years with the growth of e-commerce, shrinking foot traffic and the decline of department stores.
McCormac said in his recent State of the Township Address that the mall “has done an admirable job of diversifying outside of basic retail by attracting new tenants but it has just not been enough.” He noted that the township “made crystal clear … to the center’s realtors that we would not accept any housing or warehouse components no matter who purchased the property.”
“A winning bidder has been selected and contract negotiations are underway but we are prohibited from disclosing any other facts about this transaction until everything is finalized,” McCormac said in the Feb. 23 speech. “However, we are quite thrilled to learn that the purchaser has every intention of keeping Woodbridge Center as a shopping, dining and entertainment destination though with changes. The Lord & Taylor store, which like Macy’s is separately owned from the mall owner, is closing in on a sale of that building which will also provide a spark to the new mall owners with people working in high end jobs on site to shop and dine on a daily basis. As usual, we cannot say any more about those plans yet.”
