If you've always wanted to own your own shopping mall, now's your chance. All it'll take is several hundred thousands dollars and an optimistic attitude about western Illinois.
Monday through Wednesday, the Sandburg Mall in Galesburg will be for sale in an online auction, with a starting bid of 300,000 dollars.
For that, or whatever the closing price ends up being, the new owner will get a 488,000 square foot shopping mall on 52 acres of land. Sandburg Mall opened in 1973, and currently is just 55 per cent occupied.
Anchor stores include JC Penney, with a lease through 2021, and Bergner's - its lease runs through 2018. Both have renewal options. Other current tenants are Zales, GNC, and Bath and Body Works.
The online auction of the mall is being handles by a company called Ten X, based in Los Angeles. Ten X sells homes and businesses online, and claims to be revolutionizing how real estate is bought and sold. Last year its website hosted nearly 20 million visitors, looking at 112,000 properties. Sales in 2015 totaled more than 8 billion dollars.
The current owner of the Sandburg Mall is another California company, Mall Group Investment, LLC.
