Russell Galbut’s GFO Investments teamed up with InSite Group, Atlas Hill Real Estate and Prime Finance to buy Galleria Fort Lauderdale, sources told The Real Deal.
The partnership closed on the 800,000-square-foot indoor mall at 2414 East Sunrise Boulevard, according to sources familiar with the transaction. The buyers plan on redeveloping Galleria Fort Lauderdale with detailed plans to be unveiled in the combining months, a press release states.
Galbut called the property “an incredible site” that’s two blocks from the ocean.
“A transaction like this comes about once in a lifetime,” he told TRD. “We’re going to reinvent the mall and make it magical like all of the other projects we work on.”
A source told TRD the partnership paid at least $90 million for the property. The partnership declined to comment on the price.
The deal marks another redevelopment play for builders targeting older shopping centers. In Cutler Bay, Electra America and BH Group are redeveloping portions of Southland Mall into the $1 billion Southplace City Center. The planned mixed-use project could ultimately have 4,395 apartments and condos, a 150-room hotel, 60,000 square feet of medical office space, 150,000 square feet of retail outparcels and a community amphitheater.
A CBRE team led by Robert Given and Brad Capas marketed Galleria on behalf of the seller, Keystone-Florida Holding Corporation, led by president William O’Connor. In 1993, Keystone-Florida paid $25.1 million for Galleria Fort Lauderdale.
The mall hit the market in 2023 with a targeted sale price of more than $100 million. At the time, the property was 67 percent occupied, according to an offering memorandum.
Fort Lauderdale-based InSite is led by Ben Shmuel and Ronald Tercer. Atlas Hill is led by Sandeep Mathrani and Prime Finance is led by John Atwater.
Galbut’s Miami-based GFO and InSite will oversee redevelopment of Galleria Fort Lauderdale, while Atlas Hill Real Estate’s Mathrani will focus on operations and repositioning the mall, the press release states.
Galleria Fort Lauderdale, which opened in 1980, consists of multiple retail buildings, primarily empty big box stores that were previously occupied by Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and Neiman Marcus. The joint venture’s purchase did not include a Dillard’s department store building, which is separately owned, and a Macy’s store that has a ground lease.
Keystone-Florida unsuccessfully tried to redevelop Galeria Fort Lauderdale twice, most recently in 2022. The firm proposed a mixed-use project with at least 1,900 apartments on the 31.6-acre site. But the city of Fort Lauderdale did not approve it.
The property’s current zoning allows for 60 units per acre, or a maximum of 1,899 units. The maximum height for buildings is 150 feet.
Katherine Kallergis contributed reporting.
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