Georgetown Park Sold

As reported by the Washington Business Journal, the Georgetown Park Mall has been sold. WBJ pegs the sale price at $272.5 million, which is a significant surplus over the $61 million that Angelo Gordon and Vornado paid for it four years ago.

This comes as no surprise. The property was publicly put up for sale last spring. And even before that announcement, this strategy was fairly obvious. As GM wrote all the way back in 2011:

GM predicts that all they want to do is gut the property, put in three or four large tenants (whoever they can sign, GM doubts they care much) and turn around and sell it. It would come as no surprise that they’re not interested in the long haul seeing as they’re simply acting as an agent for the mall’s actual owner: Angelo, Gordon & Co. This firm specializes in distressed properties, an investment strategy that normally involves buying a property cheap, tarting it up and turning around and selling it for quick buck.

That prediction has come true pretty much to a “t”.

The only surprise is that Vornado/Angelo Gordon have bailed before filling in the space entirely. GM understands there is space for at least one more restaurant at the southwest corner. This will be the first and one of the only spots where the new owners, whoever they are, will have to make an impact on their new asset.