INDEPENDENCE, Mo. -- There’s a new sign of trouble for Independence Center Mall. It’s headed for a foreclosure sale.
According to Trepp, the sale is set for February 16. Trepp is a firm that specializes in researching commercial mortgage-backed securities.
Simon Property Group currently owns the shopping center. The more than one-million-square-foot facility originally opened in 1974.
The Senior Managing Director of Trepp, Manus Clancy, said, “$200 million in debt for the Independence Mall was due in July 2017 but was not paid off.”
He added the mortgage holder could lose $60 million to $70 million in the foreclosure.
According to Clancy, in 2007 the property was valued at $250 million. Last summer, he says, that dropped to $136 million.
41 Action News has reached out to Simon Property Group, but we have not heard back.
Independence Center is only one of two remaining indoor malls in the Kansas City metro area.
The other, Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kansas, recently learned one of its biggest tenants, Nordstrom, will move to the Country Club Plaza in 2021.
A recent retail report from Lane4 Property Group said of Simon's financial troubles at Independence Center Mall, "This setback for the enclosed mall is part of a larger trend of shoppers and retailers turning their attention to open-air centers."
The report from Lane4 said this trend has claimed other Kansas City area malls including Metro North Mall, the Great Mall of the Great Plains, and Metcalf South Mall.
