The Latham Circle Mall, located in what many people have called the best location in the Capital District, now has the dubious distrinction of being featured on the Web site DeadMalls.com. It has been the scene of renovation, prosperity, controversy, vacancy and legal issues since its inception, but its new owner and manager says he wants to bring the sagging shopping center it back to life.
The mall was converted from a drive-up plaza to a closed-in mall in the 1970s. Before its conversion, it was described by a former owner as a dilapidated strip center.
Eugene Weiss bought the mall in 1973, and eventually sold it on the last day of 2008 to David Allen, who runs it through a subsidiary of Realty Financial Partners based in Virginia.
Weiss said he sold the mall for a `nominal amount.`
Public records show that Realty Financial Partners loaned Weiss $21 million in December 2006. Realty then filed a foreclosure petition after taking possession of the mall in 2009 to have the mall sold in order to repay the debt with an additional $4 million in interest.
Allen told The Spotlight he has plans for the mall, which could include renting all of the vacant space to a single company, and possibly repositioning it in the market.
He said he expects to have more details in the coming months.
Weiss said he regrets not being able to orchestrate a comeback for the mall, but said his pockets were not deep enough to do so. He wishes nothing but success for the mall that sits in his hometown of nearly five decades, he said.
`I’m very disappointed I wasn’t able to accomplish rebuilding it,` he said. `I did it for the town.`
In light of the mall’s status and pending shift in the retail market, The Spotlight is launching a series of articles designed to highlight the storied history of the mall, its tenants ` past, present and future ` and some of the more notable issues that divided the community.
Perhaps the most divisive proposal in recent years was the construction in 2004 of a Lowe’s home supply store to anchor the mall.
Weiss said that the lengthy process, which dragged on for four years, led some potential tenants to find business elsewhere.
The Spotlight will investigate how those types of controversies shaped the mall’s future.
The five-part series will run weekly and feature a number of local voices, including Colonie historian Kevin Franklin, as well as mall patrons and past and present owners.
We will also look at the changes in design and layout of the mall over the years.
Although Allen did not go into detail about his plans for the mall, The Spotlight will continue to follow the story.
The first article in the series, slated for Wednesday, Jan. 27, will take a look at the history of the mall from the time it was constructed until Weiss converted it to the closed-air mall it is today.
Check online at www.spotlightnews.com and see upcoming issues to follow the path of Latham Circle Mall. “