New Owner for Midtown Mall
Looking southwest over the Midtown Mall, originally built as a Sears department store in 1966, which soon expanded into Alaska’s first indoor shopping center.
Time Equities, Inc.
Two former Sears properties in Anchorage have a new owner, extending the footprint of an international real estate firm into Alaska for the first time.
One Mall Step
Time Equities, Inc. (TEI) bought the Midtown Mall and the vacant Sears warehouse at Dowling Road and Old Seward Highway from Seritage Growth Properties for $44 million.
When it opened in 1968, the mall was the first enclosed shopping center in Alaska. The original owner, Carr Gottstein Properties, later sold the complex to Seritage, the real estate development branch of Sears Holdings.
Dino A. Christophilis, senior vice president at CBRE, the real estate services firm that represented the seller in the transaction, calls Midtown Mall “one of the most compelling pieces of real estate in the state of Alaska.” He points to the location at the intersection of Seward Highway and the Northern Lights / Benson couplet.
“Few other properties offer the same combination of class-leading tenants, new construction, long-term upside potential, and a location at one of the state’s most trafficked intersections,” Christophilis says.
The mall is 164,664 square feet, anchored at one end by REI and at the other by a Carrs/Safeway supermarket, Guitar Center, Nordstrom Rack, and Planet Fitness, all in a former Sears location. The shopping center was known as The Mall at Sears until the name changed in 2018.
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March 2023
Though many mall slots are without tenants, the building is currently 81 percent leased.
The warehouse covers 98,087 square feet and has been idle since Sears downsized in 2018.
“We are thrilled to be expanding our footprint into Alaska with two properties that offer tremendous value and diversification to Time Equities’ existing portfolio,” says Ami Ziff, TEI’s director of national retail. Ziff points to Anchorage’s position as a strategic hub in the global supply chain, particularly with respect to air cargo. “We view Anchorage as a stable market with immense growth potential.”
TEI owns retail, office, industrial, and residential properties in thirty-five US states as well as Canada, England, Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Anguilla.
Announcement of the purchase did not come with any specific plans to modify the operation or marketing of the mall or warehouse.
