A 1.1 million square foot mall in a Pittsburgh suburb just sold for about as much money as you’d expect to spend on a pair of snow boots.
Wells Fargo purchased the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, located in northeast of the city, for $100 at a foreclosure auction Wednesday.
The bank was already the trustee of a trust that owned the property, but now Wells Fargo owns the property, according to C-III Asset Management, which serves as a special servicer for the trust. The developers behind the mall — Zamias Services and the now-bankrupt Mills Corporation — owe about $143 million on the property.
Wells Fargo declined to say what it plans to do with the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills. The venue opened in 2005 and failed to attract the foot traffic the mall developers expected. According to local news reports, about half of the mall’s available retail space lies dormant.
It’s a rough time for malls all over the country. Thanks to the rise of online shopping spearheaded by tech giants like Amazon shoppers no longer flock to malls in the numbers they once did.
Many mall staples — like Macy’s and Kmart — have announced stores closures in recent months. The Pittsburgh Mills mall once housed a Sears that was shuttered in 2015.
