[caption id="attachment_172132" align="aligncenter" width="846"] Allied Properties has sold the Concord Mall after more than 20 years of ownership. | PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLIED PROPERTIES[/caption]

WILMINGTON "“ The Concord Mall is changing hands after its longtime owner announced that it has been sold, according to a Friday afternoon announcement.

The new owner of the shopping mall located at 4737 Concord Pike was not identified in the release, nor was a reason given for the sale by Delaware-based Allied Properties, which has owned it since 1998.

"It has been our great pleasure to operate the Concord Mall these past 22 years," Allied Properties Vice President of Real Estate Jim Oeste said in a statement announcing the sale.

Oeste later reportedly said that the new owner was Concord DE Holdings LLC, which is a New York-based limited liability corporation formed in Delaware on Jan. 7, according to state records.

The mall's website has been updated in recent days, however, to reflect that it is now managed and leased by Namdar Realty Group, a 20-year-old private commercial real estate investment firm based in Long Island, N.Y. Allied's other websites carry identical layouts as the Concord Mall's, but still report Allied as their manager.

Namdar owns and manages 253 properties across the U.S., but the Concord Mall would be its first property in Delaware. Its closest properties are the Hamilton Mall near Atlantic City, N.J., and the Boulevard Shoppes in Voorhees, N.J.

Allied Properties and Namdar do have a prior connection, with Namdar reportedly buying the mortgage note on Allied's Berkshire Mall in Berks County, Pa., last year. Namdar has a reputation for buying distressed malls, acquiring about 20 each year over the past four years.

Delaware Business Times has left messages with Oeste and Namdar officials regarding Namdar's connection to the mall and whether they own Concord DE Holdings LLC. New Castle County online property records still list Allied's subsidiary Concord Mall LLC as the property owner as of Friday evening.

The more than 800,000-square-foot Concord Mall, built in 1968, has also been the corporate headquarters of Allied Properties, a 30-year-old family-owned business led by Frank Acierno that manages, develops and leases commercial retail space.

In conjunction with the sale, Allied Properties will move its corporate headquarters to a new, larger space in the Delaware Corporate Center II, located at 2 Righter Parkway off U.S. 202, owned by a subsidiary of Buccini/Pollin Group.

"Our new office will be nearly double the square footage we have now, with modern finishes, more meeting space and technology that supports the growth of our team and property portfolio," Oeste said in the statement. "The move is an exciting development, and we look forward to continuing our company's tradition of being an upstanding corporate citizen of the Wilmington community from our new offices which we'll occupy in March of 2020."

Allied will continue to own and operate the 89,230-square-foot adjacent shopping center where Best Buy and Ulta are located. The space left vacant by the move of Barnes and Noble is also set to be replaced by natural food grocery store Sprouts in March.

Allied also continues to have a sizable presence in the region with properties in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland, including the quickly-growing Christiana Fashion Center near the Christiana Mall.

Despite featuring anchor stores of Macy's, Boscov's and Sears, alongside well-known brands like H&M, American Eagle, Hollister, Bonefish Grill, and more, the Concord Mall has struggled to maintain the same level of foot traffic as the Christiana Mall to the south.

For generations, the Concord Mall was a destination shopping center for much of the greater Wilmington area and drew strong numbers of Pennsylvanians looking to take advantage of sales-tax-free shopping in Delaware.

By Jacob Owens

jowens@delawarebusinesstimes.com