Decades-old covenants and restrictions on the
Southridge Mall property in Greendale that have halted redevelopment of the former Boston Store space there have been removed, allowing plans that have been in the works since 2021 to move forward.
Last summer, Milwaukee-based
Barrett Lo Visionary Development (BLVD)
unveiled renderings and concept plans to tear down the vacant department store to make way for up to 675 apartments and 20,000 square feet of new retail space as part of a phased development of the 15-acre site.
However, restrictions written by past mall owners prohibited the property from being redeveloped into anything but another department store.
Those restrictions couldn’t be lifted without approval from the other property owners at Southridge, which the Village of Greendale tried for years to do to no avail. At one point, the village considered condemning the property to remove the restrictions that way.
But late last year, the village struck agreements with the three necessary property owners at Southridge to allow the Boston Store redevelopment to proceed, village manager
Mike Hawes told BizTimes. There are still final details being finalized before the agreements can be fully executed, though, Hawes added.
Those property owners are New York-based
Spinoso Real Estate Group, which is the receiver that owns the foreclosed core of Southridge; Texas-based
Fidelis Realty Partners, which owns the former Sears property that has been renovated for TJ Maxx and Dick's Sporting Goods stores, among others; and a
JCPenney affiliate. A
Macy's affiliate also owns a parcel at Southridge, but did not have the same restrictions as other property owners there.
Hawes said the village now anticipates BLVD to submit detailed plans and zoning applications sometime in 2025.
Rick Barrett, founder and CEO of BLVD, said the firm is working to select a construction manager, which will help to price the project.
"We feel really good about the future down there and the game-changing nature of that project," Barrett said.
[gallery size="large" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="BLVD's conceptual plans" ids="592041,592038,592037,592039,592043,592040"]
The redevelopment — and the property’s covenants — have also been the centerpiece of court discussions relating to the foreclosure of the 560,000-square-foot mall core.
Spinoso initially had until December 2023 to market the mall property to potential buyers or schedule it for a sheriff’s sale, but that deadline was extended to December 2024 and then
again to June 2025 in order to give the parties more time to remove or alter the covenants and to bring development plans into focus.
That’s because attorneys for
Wells Fargo, which brought the foreclosure action in 2020, argued that the uncertainty around the development plans made it hard to effectively market the mall for sale and could impact the sale price itself.
