PREIT, Willow Grove Mall Owner, Exits Bankruptcy With New Leadership

ABINGTON TOWNSHIP, PA — The owner of the Willow Grove Park Mall, has emerged from its second bankruptcy in three years.

The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), which owns Willow Grove and the Plymouth Meeting Mall, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December. PREIT has exited the restructuring process as a private entity managed by a small group of investment firms, the company announced Monday.

PREIT also owns the Cherry Hill and Moorestown malls.

PREIT has also changed CEOs, with Joseph F. Coradino's 12-year tenure in the position ending Monday. He will serve as a consultant during the transition to new leadership. PREIT also has a new board, relieving its former board members of their duties, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

PREIT thrived in the mid-2000s, hitting more than $700 per share. But its stock values cratered during the Great Recession and totaled $42.75 per share in early 2009.

Despite the financial turmoil, Preit has expressed confidence in its local assets. Cherry Hill Mall has long been its top performer, while executives have touted the redevelopment of Plymouth Meeting and Moorestown malls as company bright spots.

Willow Grove Park, meanwhile, has seen massive investment in recent months, including the opening of a massive indoor amusement park and groundbreaking on an adjacent apartment complex.

Preit's assets include 18 malls all told, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic. With the debt maturity looming, the company expressed doubts last month that it could repay the debt or continue operating within the next year, according to financial disclosures.

The company rebuilt some of that value, reaching about $350 per share in 2016. But thereafter, stock values steadily declined, with the pandemic dealing the final blow before PREIT filed for bankruptcy in November 2020.

PREIT emerged from the first bankruptcy several months later, but the turmoil continued. The company declared bankruptcy one again in December, when it hit a deadline for about $1.1 billion in debt payments.

As part of the restructuring, the company went private and gave $10 million to its stockholders. PREIT was worth nearly $2 billion in 2017.

Patch Staff Writer June Bakan contributed to this story.