Simon Property Group finalized its takeover of a shuttered Sears store at Town Center at Boca Raton in Palm Beach County.
An affiliate of Indianapolis-based Simon, led by David Simon, paid $23 million to an affiliate of New York-based Seritage Growth Properties for the 180,029-square-foot big box store at 5900 West Glades Road, records and real estate database Vizzda show.
The sale is the culmination of a two-year-old Palm Beach Circuit Court ruling that forced Seritage, the New York-based Sears real estate spin-off led by Andrea Olshan, to place the 18.6-acre parcel on the market and seek a buyer. Simon could match any offer, according to the 2023 court order.
Seritage and Simon representatives did not respond to requests for comment about the deal.
Simon also owns the central component of the 1.8 million square-foot Town Center at Boca Raton. Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales own four separate big box stores that are also part of the mall.
The Sears store was completed in 1980, records show, The building has been vacant since 2018 when Sears closed the store. The same year, Seritage submitted an application to the city of Boca Raton to redevelop the property into a shopping, dining, fitness and entertainment center.
Simon sued Seritage in 2019, asserting it had the right to purchase the Sears site because Seritage allegedly violated an agreement between the two firms, court records show. Simon had an option to buy the property and have it appraised if Seritage planned a project that included non-retail uses.
In 2023, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer ruled in Simon’s favor by concluding that services provided at restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues are not textbook definitions of retail uses.
Recently, Simon also acquired more square footage at another mall the company owns in South Florida. The firm bought the ground lease for a JCPenney store at Dadeland Mall in Kendall, an unincorporated neighborhood in Miami-Dade County. Simon paid $15.6 million for it.
While its plans for the Town Center Sears store faltered, Seritage recently completed the redevelopment of another big box building at Aventura Mall. Esplanade at Aventura is an open-air mixed-use facility with shops, restaurants and offices.
