After more than two years on the market, the former Macy’s department store at the now-vacant Cortana Mall has sold to a mystery buyer.
In a deal that closed Jan. 30, an entity called Cortana Place Acquisitions LLC acquired the 238,000-square-foot former anchor tenant space from Macy’s Retail Holdings Inc. for $1.65 million, some $500,000 less than its $2.1 million asking price.
Cortana Place Acquisitions was created Jan. 15, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website and lists as its registered agent Sterling Willis, an attorney with the New Orleans office of Fishman Haygood.
It is unclear who owns the entity or who Willis actually represents. He did not return a call seeking comment and the broker who handled the sale, Ryan Pecot of Stirling Properties, says he had to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
“But even the nondisclosure was vague, so I don’t really know,” he says. “But it was a good deal and a pretty solid price for a box this size.”
The sale is the latest piece of anecdotal evidence to support assertions, first reported last August by Daily Report, that retail giant Amazon is planning to acquire the various properties that comprise the former Cortana Mall and its five anchor tenants and redevelop the site into a massive regional distribution and fulfillment center.
Sources familiar with the deal continue to confirm that the deal is moving forward, albeit slowly.
So far, the Macy’s space is the first anchor store property to change hands. The 90,000-square-foot Virginia College space has been under contract to a buyer since last fall. Real estate broker Lance Ginn of Beau Box Commercial Real Estate confirms the deal is still in the works but has not yet closed.
The status of the three other anchor tenant properties and the mall itself, which was shuttered last spring by its Nevada-based owners, remains unclear.
Separately, a deal is in the works for what appears to be a smaller Amazon distribution facility—or what’s known in the industry as a last-mile center—on Industriplex near Siegen Lane.
