Franklin Mall, the beleaguered super mall at the border of Philadelphia and Bucks County, is on the market for a new buyer, writes JD Mullane for the Bucks County Courier Times.
Once one of the East Coast’s biggest shopping destinations, the lightning bolt-shaped mall is a shell of its former mega-mall glory. Its value has nosedived and it is currently in receivership.
While some area malls, such as Oxford Valley and Neshaminy, have mixed-use redevelopment plans, it is unclear what will happen to the 1.6 million square foot mall just over the border from Bensalem.
Since it has been placed for sale, no buyers have come forward. An expert on suburban redevelopment noted that due to its size, Franklin Mall will be more challenging to reinvent.
Once called Franklin Mills and later Philadelphia Mills, the $300 million mall opened in 1989 as the world’s largest outlet mall at the time. By the mid-1990s, it was attracting around 20 million shoppers a year.
It was acquired by Simon Property Group in 2007 and renovated in 2014. The property, which is currently 71 percent leased, has since been surrendered to its debtholders.
Read more about Franklin Mall as it goes up for sale in the Bucks County Courier Times.
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