Bids for Fashion Outlets mall hit $5.9 million; winner not disclosed until sale completed
Sep. 13—Online bidding reached $5.9 million in the auction for the Fashion Outlets of Santa Fe as the event continued a half-hour longer than the 1 p.m. Wednesday deadline.
Online commercial real estate auction platform RealINSIGHT Marketplace opened the online auction Monday with a minimum starting bid of $1.575 million.
Bidding reached $2.075 million at the end of Tuesday and stayed at $3 million through Wednesday morning.
In the final hour, bidding grew in quarter-million dollar increments to $3.25 million and $3.5 million. Four minutes before 1 p.m., a flurry of bids took it to $4.25 million and $4.5 million. At that time, the bidding increments were reduced to $100,000 and three minutes were added with each new bid.
Apparently, two unnamed bidders then jockeyed until 1:36 p.m. as no new bid was offered.
RealINSIGHT did not release the high bidder's identity with the intention to not disclose the buyer until the sale closes.
If a sale is completed, this would end Wells Fargo Bank's five-year ownership after foreclosing on the mall after prior owner Talisman Cos./Fashion Outlets of Santa Fe LLC owed Wells Fargo $10.2 million.
The $5.9 million high bid indicates the outlet mall or retail may remain. A bid closer to the starting bid would likely have led to apartments or medical offices being built there, commercial real estate experts have said.
"Property management has noticed most people interested in the property [in the month leading up to the auction] wanted to keep it a retail center," Fashion Outlets General Manager Neda Talebreza said.
Columbus Capital CEO Jeff Branch, owner of San Isidro Plaza, considered bidding on Fashion Outlets but declined to take part in the auction.
"It's a complicated deal," Branch said. "It's got a lot of hair on it. They can't [tear it down]. It's encumbered with leases."
The Fashion Outlets has 11 tenants in a center that opened in 1993 with 40 tenants.
"There are no assurances [the tenants] will go away," Branch said. "It's a high-profile place. A lot of people will have a lot of say of what you want to do there."
The 16.5-acre property is on Cerrillos Road just off Interstate 25.
Jim Dountas, senior vice president at CBRE commercial real estate firm, handles leasing at the Railyard and several other Santa Fe locations.
"I think you're on the cusp where the price is to do either-or [demolish or keep the center]," Dountas said. "Certainly, there is value in the existing improvements. Also, it is at a level where a higher and better use is possible."
The mall was built for $8 million in 1993, an amount the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator crunches to $17.1 million in today's dollars.
