According to documents filed with the Albemarle County Planning Department, Fashion Square is still operating as normal and continues to take in new tenants and leases. Mall officials said retailers currently in the mall will continue to lease.

According to court documents obtained by Sean Tubbs of Town Crier Productions and shared with The Daily Progress, the mall has new tenants set to enter the shopping center and other tenants may move out.

Among those entering the mall is the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, which plans to open a 2,500-square-foot Medicare insurance counseling office in the south wing of the mall next to the Eddie Bauer store.

“We are excited to offer face-to-face counseling this open enrollment season. [we’re] Randy Rodgers, JABA’s Insurance Counseling Program Manager, said: “We needed a bigger space to provide this important service to more people. We have set up this site in the Fashion Square mall and have helped thousands of people by making appointments via Zoom and phone. I hope you can.”

Officials at the mall confirmed this week that Home Depot, a Georgia-based home improvement mega-retailer with more than $150 billion in revenue, has purchased the mall. A Berg store for men, separate from the women’s store, is included in the purchase.

Home Depot’s national rival, Lowe’s, has a retail store about a mile away from the mall.

Attempts to get The Home Depot to comment on the sale or plans for the mall have been unsuccessful. The acquisition price was not announced.

According to Tubbs, Home Depot and the local holding company that bought the mall at a foreclosure auction held on the steps of the county courthouse in July 2021 will have an effective date of July 31 this year on July 8. A sales contract was concluded.

Tubbs has been a reporter for the local press for 30 years. He currently produces the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter and podcast.

On September 2, the Charlottesville Circuit Court filed three documents between Home Depot USA and Charlottesville JP 2014-CP (the holding company that previously owned Home Depot).

One of the documents is a sales contract with no explicit selling price and the other is a detailed list of parcels affected. Another document frees The Home Depot from grand leases and subleases that manage real estate.

The document refers to the bankruptcy of Sears, Roebuck and Company, which was part of the shopping center’s original operating contract and part of the mall.

Sears declared Chapter 11 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 2018 and closed its Albemarle County store early the following year.

Albemarle County’s online records have not updated the mall’s ownership. However, these records often lag behind.

As of January 1, the land on which the mall is located is valued at $8,796,000, according to county appraiser records. Buildings and improvements on site are valued at $7,329,900 for a total valuation of $16,125,900.

Your assessed value is what the county uses to determine your tax amount.

In a separate transaction, Fashion Square Assets LLC, a company affiliated with developer Richard Hewitt, purchased the former JCPenney space on September 10, 2020.

Earlier this summer, Albemarle County agreed to rent part of the space for use as a public safety center, including vehicle parking and maintenance bays.

Albemarle County Fire Rescue maintenance personnel will be on the scene, and Albemarle County Police will deploy the Department’s traffic unit.

The county will pay $3.1 million to renovate the property and $558,000 in first-year rent.

The sale is the latest in a series of ownership changes for the once-bustling 570,000-square-foot indoor shopping center.

Built in the early 1980s, the mall was once a retail powerhouse in central Virginia. Like other indoor malls across the country, its popularity has waned between 2015 and 2021 as people switched to online shopping and many retailers closed or went bankrupt.

The mall was purchased by Simon Property Group in 1997. It was sold to Washington Prime Group, a Simon spin-off company, in 2014. In January 2015 he merged with Glimcher Realty Trust to become WP Glimcher.

In late 2019, a mortgage secured by Fashion Square was transferred to special servicing after the borrower notified the lender that its expected future cash flows were insufficient to guarantee mortgage compliance. I was.

At the request of Fashion Square’s special servicer, Midland Loan Services, a judge approved the appointment of a special servicer in March 2020. In 2021, the mall was sold at auction to a lender after a loan default.