Carlyle Development Aces With Walmart

With a new Walmart Supercenter, Metrocenter Mall also gets a new lease on life for its owner. We spoke with Carlyle Development Group COO Warren Fink about its 40-year-old mall fresh from having inked a deal with the world's largest retailer, which will build a 148k SF store at the former Broadway building location. The deal, which involves demolishing the vacant Broadway anchor space and selling the land to Walmart for ground-up construction, is a win for Carlyle that's been a long time in coming. “From day-one when we bought this product two and a half years ago, we really went to Walmart right off the bat,” he says. (They probably also went to a Walmart to get printer ink, paper, pens, and anything else they needed in order to market the property to Walmart.) The demographics fit for the area, and “number one, it re-energizes the mall.”

Carlyle bought the struggling mall for $12.2M in early 2012, and worked to keep occupancy at 75% and bring in new anchors. While Carlyle has no plans to sell the mall now, Warren says he's more than aware that the presence of Walmart already ups the value of the property. The firm is eyeing other major redevelopment and rezoning opportunities at Metrocenter, including taking down a portion of the enclosed mall area and recreating an open-air retail environment. As for future Phoenix investments, Warren says it's not only seeking value-add retail here, but also eyeing value-add office plays.