Blaine’s Northtown Mall recently sold for $31 million. NANCY KUEHN I MSPBJ
By Brianna Kelly – Reporter, Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal Aug 15, 2023
A Florida-based owner of regional shopping centers across the U.S. just added Northtown Mall in Blaine to its portfolio. The 1 million-square-foot mall, located at 398 Northtown Drive, sold to 4th Dimension Properties for $31 million late last week, 4th Dimension Principal Felix Reznick confirmed Monday. The seller was Washington Prime Group. Reznick told the Business Journal that he plans to fill vacancies, develop outparcels around Northtown Mall and host events to generate foot traffic. He is coming into town this week to meet with interested tenants and developers “for pretty much every space,” including the LA Fitness vacancy. “It’s just a matter of whether the mix will fit,” he said. Fourth Dimension, based in Hollywood, Fla., plans to work with Blaine to revitalize the 200-acre Northtown Mall area. Reznick said possibilities include an extended-stay or fourstar hotel near the National Sports Center, through partnerships with other developers.
“They want more density and multifamily mixed-use here,” Reznick said. “I’m completely in favor of that.”
Through his company, Reznick owns or co-owns about a dozen malls across the U.S., including a “small percentage” in Burnsville Center. Northtown is the fourth mall in which he has sole ownership; and the three others were all purchased in the last eight months.
Northtown Mall’s previous owner, Washington Prime, is an Ohio-based retail real estate investment trust and spinoff of Simon Property Group, the biggest U.S. mall owner. The firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2021, started offloading its portfolio of100 retail centers to pay off its debt and sold Maplewood Mall for $27.S million in spring 2022. Northtown Mall is anchored by Hobby Lobby, LA Fitness, Burlington, a Best Buy store that was recently converted into an outlet, a Becker Furniture World store and a Becker Furniture outlet. Its vacancy rate was 13-4% in the first half of 2022, according to Business Journal research. Marshall Nguyen’s newly-formed Wyn Group will handle leasing within the mall, while Deb Carlson and Skip Melin of Cushman & Wakefield will focus on sales and leasing of the outparcels, along with an out-of-town broker, Marc Mandel of Forged Real Estate. “We’re very business-friendly, so we’ll try our best to help (tenants) succeed, and I’ll do everything I can to increase the foot traffic over here,” Reznick said.