Ogden’s Newgate Mall placed in receivership after loan default, to be auctioned
The exterior of the Newgate Mall in Ogden is pictured on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
Customers walk in front of a shuttered store at the Newgate Mall in Ogden on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
The exterior of Newgate Mall at 3651 Wall Ave. in Ogden is pictured Aug. 15, 2016.
The exterior of a shuttered department store at the Newgate Mall in Ogden is pictured on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
A customer is pictured walking past a shuttered shop at the Newgate Mall in Ogden on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
Customers are pictured walking in front of two shuttered stores at the Newgate Mall in Ogden on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021.
OGDEN — Newgate Mall has been placed in receivership and the Ogden retail outlet is to be sold at auction on March 19, according to court records and a legal ad.
U.S. Bank National Association, trustee for the $58 million loan to the mall owners, sued in 2nd District Court in Ogden last July to place Newgate Mall in receivership because the owners had defaulted on the loan agreement. Forth Worth, Texas-based Woodmont Company took over as receiver on July 16, tasked with overseeing the mall’s day-to-day operations pending resolution of the matter.
A legal ad in the Standard-Examiner on Thursday states that the mall “will be sold at public auction to the highest bidder” on March 19. Newgate Mall, one of the main shopping outlets in Ogden, is located at 3651 Wall Ave., adjacent to the busy Riverdale Road retail corridor.
Aside from the original lawsuit stating that joint mall owners Newgate Mall Holdings and Newgate Mall Equities defaulted on payments on the loan, the paperwork offers few additional clues about the turn of events. The $58 million loan’s maturity date, when it was to be paid off, was May 1 last year, according to a copy of the loan agreement included in the court filing.
A mall official on Thursday referred comment to a Woodmont Company rep, who didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. The mall is part of the portfolio of properties of New York City-based Time Equities, which acquired Newgate in 2016. A rep from that firm similarly didn’t immediately respond to queries seeking comment.
However, the legal proceedings don’t appear to be contentious. The court agreed to the appointment of Woodmont as receiver two days after the original suit was filed on July 14 and nothing in the court records suggest opposition or acrimony. In fact, the original lawsuit states that the Newgate Mall owners are agreeable to turning the property over to the lender, U.S. Bank National Association, which is affiliated with U.S. Bank.
Time Equities announced on Aug. 15, 2016, that it had acquired the Ogden mall for $69.5 million from Chicago-based General Growth Properties, or GGP. At the time, the Commercial Observer, a New York City real estate publication, said that Times Equities assumed a $58 million loan on the mall as part of the deal.
GGP appears to have held a stake in the mall dating back to 1996, according to online Weber County property records. The mall was built in 1980.
At the time of the 2016 transaction, the new owners expressed optimism. “Newgate Mall has an excellent tenant mix, offering a premier shopping and social experience to the residents of Ogden,” a Time Equities official said in a press release.
Since last year, though, COVID-19 has hit the U.S. and global economies, while more and more people have turned to online shopping, many experts say. A recent report from the Wasatch Front Regional Council said sales tax revenue increased in most cities across Northern Utah in 2020. But it attributed the bump to “non-store retail sales,” most notably via the internet.
The portion of Newgate Mall that’s part of the legal proceedings includes 308,914 square feet of property that’s occupied and 185,784 square feet of vacant space. The figures, according to court papers, doesn’t include separately owned space occupied by Dillard’s, Burlington and the Fly High Trampoline Park.
