DeSoto Square mall sells for $25.5 million

DeSoto Square mall sold from one New York-based company to another at the end of February, according to records filed with Manatee County this week.

News of the mall’s sale came out in December, but mall management has been mum about the new ownership.

DeSoto Square Mall LLC, an affiliate company of Namdar Realty Group in Great Neck, N.Y., sold the mall to DeSoto Owners LLC, a Brooklyn-based company, for $25.5 million on Feb. 23. The deed was filed in Manatee County on Tuesday.

DeSoto Square’s general manager, Don Burrow, said he hopes to hold a press conference soon regarding the new ownership. Namdar bought DeSoto Square in October 2012 for $24.6 million, according to Manatee County property records. Representatives for Namdar could not be reached regarding the sale to DeSoto Owners.

Last year, the mall had a slew of store closings as tenants became disenfranchised with low traffic at the mall. The mall was listed for sale online in July.

Sears and J.C. Penney are longtime anchors at the mall, which opened in 1973 and has struggled to keep pace with other malls in the Bradenton-Sarasota area.

Hudson’s Furniture occupies the spot once utilized by Dillard’s. The space vacated by Macy’s in July 2014 remains unoccupied.

In March 2016, tenants such as Chick-Fil-A and Aeropostale left the mall. That same month, an inspector with the Florida Department of Health in Manatee County visited the DeSoto 6 Colonial Cinemas, which was closed for renovations, in response to a customer’s complaint of seeing rats scurrying across the floor. The inspector found “some droppings by the back door in theater #1.”

Meyer Lebovits, the manager listed on DeSoto Owners LLC state corporate documents, could not be reached for comment on Friday.

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 3:54 PM with the headline "DeSoto Square mall sells for $25.5 million."