By Paul Post
Aviation Mall heads into the fourth quarter with a new owner anticipating increased traffic spurred by a growing lineup of entertainment-type tenants.
Eric Jacobov, principal of the investment firm Concord Capital New York, purchased the 50-year-old Queensbury shopping center at auction for $21 million, on September 10.
A major new tenant, ADK Karting Experience featuring indoors go-kart racing on a quarter-mile track, is scheduled to open November 1 at the mall’s former Sears store location.
“ADK Karting should be a huge driver of foot traffic, about 1,500 people per week,” mall Manager James Griffith said. “It’s not just the karting, it’s 12,000 square feet of games, glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, a café bar and breakout rooms. I fully expect that we’re going to pull traffic from Clifton Park and Saratoga.”
“Our job is to really market it and get more of that type of use into the shopping center,” he said.
Previously owned by Syracuse-based Pyramid Companies, the mall went into receivership in July 2024. For the past year, it has been managed by The Woodmont Company, of Fort Worth, Texas, on behalf of Deutsche Bank and M&T Bank, which received multiple offers.
The auction, at Warren County Municipal Center, concluded the judicial foreclosure process. Jacobov outbid the only other party on hand, a contingency of investors led by Michael Vopelak, which dropped out after offering $19 million for the property.
Bidding started at $7.4 million.
The $21 million sale price is well below the nearly $28 million non-recourse loan the bank gave Pyramid several years ago to make major renovations to the mall. So the lender is left on the hook for the approximately $7 million difference.
“We knew there were going to be bidders,” Jacobov said. “At the same time, the goal was to own it. Thankfully we’re here and get to move forward.”
Concord Capital, headquartered in Manhattan, manages multiple strip plazas. Aviation Mall is its first interior shopping center.
“The goal is to increase occupancy and start attracting new tenants and vendors,” Jacobov said. “We’d also like to add some additional signage off of I-87, and bring it onwards and upwards. We like upstate. We like the Capital Region. There’s a lot of potential here.”
Courtesy Glens Falls Business Journal
The mall property is zoned for multi-family residential development as well.
“That’s definitely a bonus and (adds) potential to the plaza,” he said. “We’re going to look into that deeper. It’s a big plus.”
A similar strategy is planned for Wilton Mall, which Capital Region developer Faraz Khan purchased earlier this year for $25 million. Plans call for 300 apartments and 80 townhomes on the 100-acre site. Dwellings would connect to the mall, giving residents direct access to its amenities and hopefully attract new mall tenants by putting a large market at their doorstep.
Like malls throughout America, the 630,000-square-foot Aviation Mall has been greatly impacted by online shopping, but with five anchors it still generates $80 million in taxable revenue per year and attracts more than 8,000 people daily, Griffith said.
In an effort to reinvent itself, the mall has become more geared to sports, fitness and entertainment-type tenants in recent years, and has more space to grow in those areas.
A 50,000-square-foot space adjacent to Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, part of the former Bon-Ton store, is currently vacant.
Griffith said this site would be ideal for a trampoline-type firm or something like Billy Beez, the children’s indoor playground and recreation center at Crossgates Mall in Albany. This would be a good attraction for younger children, while ADK Karting is designed for teens and adults, he said.
“I really feel like that would be a great opportunity in that location,” Griffith said. “We’ve talked to many potential tenants. I think they want to see how ADK Karting does before they step up to the plate and make a decision on that space.”
He said Regal cinema is a major contributor to mall business as well.
“The movie lineup for this fall is great again,” Griffith said. “Last year Wicked did a phenomenal job in November. That’s going to be the same this year with the new movie, Wicked: For Good. That’s going to be a huge draw. The movie theater is doing phenomenal. In fact it’s performing over its pre-pandemic numbers.”
In addition to Regal, the mall’s major anchors are Target, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Ollie’s and JC Penney, an original tenant since October 1975 when the mall welcomed its first customers.
Discussions are under way with several potential local tenants to fill smaller spaces, and holiday “pop-ups” are expected prior to Christmas, too, he said.
Griffith said there won’t be any dramatic new “bells and whistles” visual changes to the mall under new ownership. “But we are going to have some backhouse changes to make the property run more efficiently from a balance sheet standpoint,” he said. “As we become more efficient with expenses, that can be turned into operating dollars reinvested in the mall.”
The center employs 15 office, maintenance and security personnel directly.
ADK Karting is being developed by Jeremy Treadway, who owns and operates ADK MX, a motocross facility at the former Country Meadows Golf Course in Fort Ann, and Country Meadows Barn, a wedding and special events venue.
The ADK Karting track, designed and built by 360 Karting of Slovenia, will be set up as a flat road course with left- and right-turns, straightaways, a vibrant coloring system, and special coating on the concrete surface that promotes traction, stability and safety. The track has lanes so karts go along side one another just like a race.
Competitive leagues will be organized for experienced drivers.
In addition, plans call for six simulators that let people feel like they’re behind the wheel in a NASCAR race or competing in one of the world’s most famous international circuits.