ABOVE: While the Village Mall portion labeled “Grocery Anchored Retail Center” (County Market, Dunham’s Sports, Pet Supplies Plus, Ross Dress for Less) on the auction web site calls for an opening bid of $1.75 million; the rest of the mall structure (labeled “Danville Village Mall”) and the southwest outer parking lot are being offered for one dollar each.
The Danville Village Mall is for sale at on online auction scheduled to begin on Monday, May 13th; under the supervision of transitional retail broker Riser Retail Group and online marketplace for commercial and residential real estate Ten-X. The information can be found at loopnet.com.
It was in February of this year that Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr expressed extreme discouragement for the lack of communication with mall owner AZT Corporation, based in Dallas, Texas. (A phone call by Neuhoff Media to the Tabani Group, identified by Mayor Williams as the owner of the Village Mall properties, brought a response that Tabani is the name of the owner, and AZT is the name of the corporation. Messages left with the marketing manager were not returned to Neuhoff Media. Mayor Williams also stated at the time that although the corporate office is in Dallas, he believes the actual owners live outside of the United States.)
The mayor was especially frustrated that the owners had refused to participate in a proposed city-funded market feasibility study looking at possible future uses for the property. It was also at that time that City Council members were expressing anger that the owner of Village Mall family fun place Jump Off, Alvarez Dixon, was being forced to remove his business from the mall, even though his lease did not expire until May.
Now, in addition to finding out that the mall is up for an online auction, there is also the fact that that two of the three entities the mall has been divided into for the auction are being offered on an “absolute auction,” highest price no matter what basis, with opening bids of just one dollar.
While the portion labeled “Grocery Anchored Retail Center” (County Market, Dunham’s Sports, Pet Supplies Plus, Ross Dress for Less) on the auction web site calls for an opening bid of $1.75 million; the rest of the mall structure (labeled “Danville Village Mall”) and the southwest outer parking lot are indeed being offered for one dollar each.
Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr says; sure, it would be great if someone trustworthy swooped in, bought the whole thing, and had a solid plan.
AUDIO: In an ideal world, that would happen. My big concern is that whoever would acquire the property would have the resources and the skill to properly manage it. Because without resources or without the proper skill, it will end up like a lot of unfortunate buildings in this town; that have become vacant and abandoned, that the taxpayers have to take care of.
Vermilion Advantage CEO Mike Marron also feels that there is just way too much that can go wrong here.
AUDIO: The city’s had a great plan on this for a long time to try to figure out a good, decent repurpose for the mall; and try to get some investors in to purchase it. And, unfortunately, the mall ownership has not been very cooperative. And now they’ve gone down this road, which is very disturbing. And we have absolutely no idea what will come of this.
Mayor Williams says it needs to be remembered that the three entities do not need to be bought together. So if someone wants to, for example, they could step up and purchase the outer southwest parking lot only.
AUDIO: It’s really unfortunate when outsiders can have such a negative impact on our community because they only care about their pocketbook.
Mayor Williams also says he will certainly be paying close attention on May 13th to see what’s happening.
PREVIOUS STORYS:
City of Danville’s Relationship with Village Mall Owners Worsens
Vermilion Advantage & JumpOff Owner Speak Out on Mall Situation; Local Media Asked to Leave Mall
