A prospective buyer is marketing the closed Sears store in Regency Square Mall for auto dealerships – and just about any other commercial use a tenant might want.
Eric Bumgarner with Prime Realty Inc. represents the buyer. Bumgarner declined to identify the buyer, but said the property is under contract for closing by year-end.
“We are getting a head start on trying to do something with it,” Bumgarner said Monday.
Sears, Roebuck and Co. owns the property at 9501 Arlington Expressway at the west end of the mall. The store closed July 17, 2016.
A marketing flyer says the two-story, 196,214-square-foot building has 12 acres that can be subdivided. It was built in 1981.
Flexible leasing options include the first floor, second floor, auto garage and parking lot. It says there are 1,195 paved and striped parking spots available.
Lot sizes vary, starting at a half-acre.
Bumgarner said a collision center is lined up to lease the former Sears auto center and that negotiations are underway with a national auto dealership for the front part of the parking lot on which it would build a new structure.
Bumgarner declined to provide the contract purchase price. The property is assessed for tax purposes at $3.6 million.
“We can do just about anything in there,” he said.
He said uses could include schools, distribution, offices, RV dealerships and showrooms. He also said that the second floor would be a good site for climate-controlled self-storage.
The first-floor distribution center provides seven dock-high doors.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring some life back to that area,” he said.
Sears owns its building at the 50-year-old Arlington mall that has lost many tenants. The mall’s remaining anchors are J.C. Penney and a Dillard’s clearance center. Dillard’s also owns its building.
A New York investment group bought the mall in February 2014, consolidated the retail stores into the east side of the mall and is finding other uses for the rest of the 1.4 million-square-foot center.