Steeplegate Mall Sold for $10.3M

CONCORD, N.H. - The capital city’s troubled mall and one of its largest commercial properties has been purchased by a New York company with other mall and commercial space assets, according to documents online.

Namdar Realty Group purchased the Steeplegate Mall last week for $10.3 million, under the name of Steeplegate Mall Realty LLC, according to the city’s assessor’s database, a bargain basement price for an asset that was once presumed to be worth nearly $50 million and assessed at $65 million in 2012.

The current assessment is around $25.3 million, which has, in turn, hurt tax collections for the city. Just last month, according to the Concord Monitor, the bank owners of the mall were requesting an abatement to that $25 million, stating that the value of the mall was more in the $15 million range.

The Steeplegate Mall has been in trouble for many years and hasn’t really recovered from the retail and real estate crash during the Great Recession. The mall lost a number of key tenants at the property, and then, in 2014, the previous owner, Rouse Properties, couldn’t make a balloon payment of nearly $47 million that was due that August. Rouse ended up walking away from the payment, according to Bloomberg.com.

It is unknown what plans the company has for filling stores in the mall. An email was not returned by press time from interests at the company, and the news section of the company’s site hasn’t been updated since 2015.

Namdar, according to its website, is a privately held commercial real estate investment and management firm with more than 15 million square feet of commercial real estate. The company's portfolio includes a number of retail strip centers and medical and/or office buildings all around the United States, according to the site. The Steeplegate Mall appears to be the company’s first purchase of property in the New England, according to a Google News search and a scan of the company’s portfolio page.