Court filings ask a judge to rule Mon.; shopping center has been in receivership after loan default in 2021
Alamance Crossing, which is Burlington’s largest shopping center, could have a new owner next week.
A Colorado commercial real estate investor has offered $38.5 million to purchase Alamance Crossing shopping center, based on a motion to approve the sale that is scheduled for a hearing in Alamance County civil court 10:00 a.m. on Monday, January 13.
The property has been in receivership for the past two years, after the current owner, Alamance Crossing CMBS, defaulted on a nearly $51 million loan.
The leading bidder – Arsenault Holdings, LLC, a commercial real estate firm based in Louisville, Colorado – has offered $38.5 million, according to a motion that the receiver filed in superior court late last month.
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Read about the potential new owner of Alamance Crossing, Marcel Arsenault, Arsenault Holdings, and Real Capital Solutions. https://alamancenews.com/about-the-potential-new-owner-of-alamance-crossing/
The potential purchase price, $38.5 million, is about $12.1 million (24 percent) below the latest assessed value of $50.6 million, according to court documents and Alamance County tax records.
The receiver, Spinosa Real Estate Group, entered into a purchase and sale agreement with Arsenault Holdings on December 10, 2024, according to the court file.
The terms of the purchase agreement required Arsenault Holdings to: place an initial deposit of $1 million, plus an additional deposit of $2 million (i.e., “earnest money”), to be applied toward the purchase price; conduct its due diligence on the property within 45 days; and to complete the closing within 30 days of the expiration of the due diligence period.
Newmark, a commercial real estate firm headquartered in New York City, was subsequently hired to market the property and received inquiries from a total of 294 prospective purchasers. More than 118 investors and/or potential buyers executed confidentiality agreements to further review purchase documents, based on a motion filed late last month in Alamance County superior court by the receiver.
Arsenault Holdings emerged as the leading bidder following three rounds of sealed bids and interviews with prospective buyers, based on the motion that was filed December 20, 2024.
Spinosa Real Estate Group of Syracuse, New York was appointed as the receiver for the property in March 2023 to manage the operations of Alamance Crossing, pending final disposition of the property through a sale or foreclosure.
Since then, Spinosa has been actively engaged in managing the property and monitoring potential buyers, according to a motion that the receiver filed in superior court this past summer. The receiver noted in the same motion that Alamance Crossing CMBS, the defendant to the original lawsuit, had “attempted to intercede and control the timing” of the sale on several occasions.
A visiting superior court judge, Gale M. Adams, entered an order in late July 2024 directing the property to be listed for sale and directing the receiver to include in its monthly accounting a summary of progress made to sell the property.
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Meanwhile, the latest monthly financial accounting the receiver filed in superior court showed that Alamance Crossing had $18.1 million in assets and $74.1 million in total liabilities as of November 2024.
About a year earlier, Alamance Crossing CMBS had $20.1 million in assets and $74.1 million in liabilities as of December 2023, according to the court file.
Alamance Crossing CMBS originally obtained the $50.8 million loan from Regions Bank in 2011 and secured the note with a deed to the property, according to the initial court filings in Alamance County civil superior court. US Bank filed suit to appoint a receiver on November 17, 2022.
Subsequent filings indicated that Alamance Crossing CMBS defaulted on the loan in July 2021.
The owner, Alamance Crossing CMBS, is a subsidiary of CBL & Associates Properties, a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) that owns and manages multiple mall properties throughout the Southeastern and Midwestern U.S. Both companies are based at the same address, at 2030 Hamilton Place Boulevard, Suite 500, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to court files and Alamance County tax records.
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Alamance County tax records list the latest assessed value for the property at approximately $50.6 million. The county property tax bill for 2024 totaled $236,267.68 and was paid in full as of Monday.
Alamance County’s tax department later learned that Alamance Crossing CMBS had filed a bankruptcy petition in late 2020, and the account was subsequently flagged in the tax department’s records to indicate that post-bankruptcy debt had been incurred, according to the county’s former tax administrator.
The outdoor shopping mall opened to great fanfare in August 2007. The original anchor tenants – Dillard’s, Belk, J.C. Penney, which have been present from the outset – and newer anchors in some of its outparcels, such as Kohl’s, B.J.’s, and Dick’s Sporting Goods, have continued to operate, even amid bankruptcy in the case of J.C. Penney and Belk, while some smaller retailers have closed their stores at Alamance Crossing.
One outparcel sold off last summer
Last summer, a commercial real estate firm with an office in Raleigh purchased a 17,200 square-foot outparcel at Alamance Crossing that consists of approximately seven retail spaces, one of which the buyer said is currently vacant.
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That outparcel included a Vitamin Shoppe, Sprint cellular store, iSalon, Merle Norman, and several other retail spaces. It sold for $5.7 million last summer to Foundry Commercial (under the name of FOF II Alamance Property Owner LLC), which is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, based on documents filed with Alamance County’s Register of Deeds to consummate the transaction.
