ANNAPOLIS, MD. — Dallas-based Centennial, along with capital partners Sandeep Mathrani, Waterfall Asset Management and Lincoln Property Co. (LPC), has acquired Annapolis Mall, a 1.6 million-square-foot shopping mall in Annapolis. The mall sits roughly 30 miles east of Washington, D.C., in the Chesapeake Bay region.
The property, which formerly operated as Westfield Annapolis, houses 200 shops and restaurants and is listed as the second-largest mall in the state, trailing only the 1.9 million-square-foot Arundel Mills mall in Hanover.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the seller and former operator, Paris-based mall giant Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), listed in its first-half 2024 earnings results that the company sold Annapolis Mall for $160 million. URW also reported it had received a nonrefundable deposit of $10 million as part of the disposition.
According to Steven Levin, founder and CEO of Centennial, there are no other enclosed shopping centers located within a 25-minute drive of Annapolis Mall.
“Long term, the property presents a unique opportunity to densify the site with complementary mixed uses that would benefit from retail as the integrated amenity,” says Levin.
Annapolis Mall opened in 1980 and over the past few years has lost four anchor tenants — Lord & Taylor, Nordstrom, Sears and Bowtie Cinemas, according to The Baltimore Banner, which first reported on the sale. Specific redevelopment plans for Annapolis Mall were not disclosed, but Mathrani stated that the new ownership “has the ability to add a residential community” at the campus.
“Annapolis Mall checks all of the boxes of a best-in-class retail asset with the center’s high sales volume and robust tenancy in an affluent, growing trade area,” says Mathrani, who founded Atlas Hill RE and is the current vice chairman of retail giant Brookfield Properties.
David Binswanger, co-CEO of LPC, adds that the ownership team plans to transform the mall into a “dynamic mixed-use destination of the future.”
In addition to the sale, Centennial announced that Dick’s Sporting Goods and Dave & Buster’s recently signed leases at Annapolis Mall, with the former company planning to open its House of Sport brand at the mall. Both retailers plan to open their new stores in “winter 2025,” but no further details were provided.
Current tenants at Annapolis Mall include Macy’s, Apple, Crate & Barrel, lululemon, H&M, Michael Kors, Tumi, Urban Outfitters, Free People, Footlocker, Zara, Maggiano’s, The Cheesecake Factory and an 11-screen AMC Theatres location.
Additionally, Capital Gazette reports that New Village Academy, a public charter high school, has delayed its opening at Annapolis Mall from fall 2024 to fall 2025 as a result of the mall trading hands.
Each entity within the new ownership group has a financial stake in Annapolis Mall, and the team will work collaboratively to execute the mall’s business plan moving forward.
Founded in 1997, Centennial is a retail real estate investment firm with a national portfolio of shopping, dining, entertainment and mixed-use destinations, as well as a full-service property management platform serving third-party owners. With over 300 employees nationwide, the company now operates 23 million square feet of mixed-use destinations in 17 states.
LPC, a private real estate investment and development firm also based in Dallas, recently made a “strategic investment” in Centennial of an undisclosed amount with the goal to acquire, redevelop and operate underperforming, large-scale retail assets into mixed-use destinations.
Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield operates 71 malls and shopping centers in 12 countries, including 39 properties that operate under the Westfield flag, as of June 30. The company’s development pipeline exceeds 2.9 billion euro in value (or approximately $3.2 billion) and primarily comprises mixed-use developments.
— John Nelson and Hayden Spiess