If You Ever Wanted to Own Valley View Center, Well, Now's Your Big Chance

The place: the north side of the George Allen Courts Building, below the overhang. The date: February 7. The time: between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.That's your invite to the foreclosure auction for Valley View Center, which, since August 2010, has been in the hands of LNR Partners out of...

By Robert Wilonsky

January 26, 2012

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The place: the north side of the George Allen Courts Building, below the overhang. The date: February 7. The time: between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

That's your invite to the foreclosure auction for Valley View Center, which, since August 2010, has been in the hands of LNR Partners out of Miami, who took control of the mall when Arizona-based Macerich said it couldn't make the $125-million note due in 2011. LNR -- or, at least, the bond holders it's repping -- has decided enough's enough and is looking to get what it can for the 38 acres at LBJ and Preston. Though as a friend in the real estate biz reminds this morning, sure, the slate will be wiped clean, but the new owner will still have to contend with, say, the owners of the old Macy's space, whatever their plans may be.

This morning I asked Bruce Bradford, interim president of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, how the foreclosure auction affects those visioning plans we discussed last year. Says he: Not sure, but only because the owners of the mall property and the hundreds of acres around it have walked away from the table. The chamber's "level of engagement has been nil" in recent months, he says.

"Our understanding was the property owners group, the finance committee of that group, was going to step aside and arrange the capital for the next step -- the visioning document by HKS. And we've lost connection since then. ... It's a diamond in the rough, and the city has a strong focus on polishing that diamond, and I still think some day that'll be the diamond we need it to be. Just don't know when that'll be."

Valley View Foreclosure

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