You can say one thing about former Orchards Mall owner Michael Kohan…he’s consistent. In his 17 years in business, he has frequently targeted distressed malls and he has frequently found himself at odds with the tax man. We’re getting word that Kohan and his Kohan Retail Investment Group have purchased two more Michigan malls since last summer, and staved off foreclosure on an Iowa mall just last month.
Kohan, who sold the Orchards Mall late last year, paid a reported $9.4-million last summer for the Midland Mall in Michigan’s thumb community of Midland according to The Detroit Free Press, and later purchased the Eastland Center in Harper Woods for $3.125-million in an online auction in October.
Meanwhile, The Globe Gazette of Mason City, Iowa reports that he met a December 6th agreed upon deadline for payment of $150,254.00 in real estate taxes and interest to keep the Cerro Gordo County Treasurer for foreclosing on his Southbridge Mall in the downtown sector of that city. The paper adds, “Kohan’s payment includes the fees and damages due on three of four checks that bounced on October 3rd due to non-sufficient funds.” Kohan had purchased Southbridge in September of 2016 for $1.5-million.
The Free Press says that the Midland Mall and Eastland Center are just 130 miles from one another, and describes them as “Two floundering Michigan shopping malls,” that “faced mortgage foreclosure and a relentless cascade of store closures.”
Kohan’s Retail Investment Group is based in Great Neck, New York, and the Free Press quotes him as saying, “My operation is about buying malls…I’ll do my work, I’ll try to fill out the mall,” but adds, “I’m not a developer.”
With the two new Michigan buys, Kohan owns 28 malls nationwide, although the Free Press includes the Orchards Mall in that count. They also quoted Kohan as saying, “I’ve seen it all. Some were not that much of a success for us, but we’re committed and determined to do whatever is in our power to help these malls be revitalized. It’s not an easy task.”
Kohan purchased the Orchards Mall in December of 2014 from Sequoia Investments of Eureka, California for an undisclosed price. At the time of his purchase, the Benton Township property marked the 14th center in his investment portfolio, a number he has doubled in the ensuing five year run.
The man who purchased the Orchards Mall in last summer’s online auction was identified as Vijaya Kumar Vemulapalli and his corporation, Durga, LLC. Vemulapalli was a Flint-based developer five years ago when he also purchased the former Cherryland Mall in Traverse City which was re-purposed as the Cherryland Center, an outdoor strip-center shopping facility in 1999, well before he bought it in November of 2013 in a similar online auction.
Real Estate Broker Steven Silverman, Senior Vice President of Investment & Advisory Services at Friedman Real Estate in Farmington Hills, Michigan confirmed last month in a very brief press release that the Orchards Mall deal was successfully closed with Durga, LLC, which is owned and operated by Vijaya Kumar Vemulapalli.
