Queens Center Mall owners buy Atlas Park

From the Daily News:

The firm that runs Queens Center Mall, among the nation's busiest shopping centers, landed a struggling rival complex at a recent foreclosure auction.

Sources revealed yesterday that mall giant Macerich was the mystery bidder that snared the Shops at Atlas Park for about $54 million at a highly anticipated sale last week at Queens Supreme Court.

That places two of the borough's largest malls in the same hands.

Though Macerich President Edward Coppola attended the sale on Friday, the group's involvement was initially unknown because it had created a shell corporation named WMAP LLC to bid.

Atlas Park was unveiled in 2006 as an outdoor "lifestyle center," but its mix of restaurants and boutiques slumped through recent years. Some residents complained the stores were too upscale in the middle-class area.

Its owners, the family of ex-MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger, defaulted on a $128 million loan to two French banks in 2009, initiating foreclosure.

Storeowners hope Macerich can turn around Atlas Park by employing the same strategies it used to lure tenants to Queens Center after buying the mall in 1995. It now boasts the highest revenue per square foot of any mall in the U.S.

Sorry, Dale...

From the NY Observer:

H. Dale Hemmerdinger is finding it's not so easy to stay involved in public service.

The real estate executive and longtime Democratic donor ceded his seat as chairman of the M.T.A. as part of a restructuring last summer, making way for new CEO/Chairman Jay Walder. Governor Paterson then offered up an apparent consolation prize: In October, he nominated Mr. Hemmerdinger for a seat on the Port Authority's board—long a landing pad for political donors and onetime government officials.

However, the state Senate, which must confirm the nomination, is not eager to allow Mr. Hemmerdinger in for a second swing at state government. When the Senate approved a set of nominations last week, Mr. Hemmerdinger didn't make the list.

Angst not over at Atlas

From the Daily News:

A Queens mom-to-be among the early tenants at a fledgling Glendale mall is mulling bankruptcy after being ordered to pay more than $300,000 to the prominent family that founded the Shops at Atlas Park.

Jennifer Padilla's two failed stores and dreary personal finances reinforce growing speculation that the Cooper Ave. center, nearing a foreclosure sale, isn't viable for small businesses - if at all.

Padilla's troubles stem from a $300,000 credit line that she secured in April 2008 with a guarantee by the clan of then-MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger, whose son Damon ran Atlas Park.

Padilla soon used the funds to start an upscale women's clothing store that would accompany the men's apparel shop, M12/Thirty One, that she opened at Atlas Park in November 2007.

Padilla opened the women's shop, Femme1231, in June 2008. But sales sagged after the mall fell into foreclosure in early 2009, and she stopped paying the bank.

When Valley National officials couldn't reach Padilla to collect, the Hemmerdingers covered her entire debt of $303,062 - the value of the loan plus interest - in September.

Hemmerdinger won a Christmas Eve judgment for that sum in Queens Supreme Court, renewing Padilla's bankruptcy fears.

The four-page decision by Judge Orin Kitzes capped a messy legal war that included whether the Hemmerdingers improperly intervened in the loan process.

Padilla's papers said that Damon Hemmerdinger, after coaching her how to obtain the loan, seemed angry when she was initially rejected in March 2008 by Valley National's Robert Minson. Hemmerdinger promised to follow up with the bank and told Padilla another person would contact her about the loan.

Just weeks after Minson turned down Padilla, James Zhou, an assistant vice president at a Valley National Bank subsidiary, e-mailed her to renew loan talks.

She was soon approved.

Padilla said Dale Hemmerdinger's clout paved the way for approval, but his son denied it.

"The fact that my father is board member at the bank in question means nothing," Damon Hemmerdinger insisted in a signed affidavit.

Hemmerdingers want Atlas Park back

From the Daily News:

The family of outgoing MTA Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger is quietly angling to regain control of the tony Queens mall it founded three years ago but lost to foreclosure in February, sources said.

The Shops at Atlas Park, an outdoor complex in Glendale anchored by a movie theater and restaurants, is controlled by a court-appointed lawyer until a foreclosure sale, expected to happen late this year or in early 2010.

Community leaders believe the Hemmerdingers recently formed ATCO Advisory Services, a subsidiary of the clan's retail management firm, to prepare to buy the mall at their own foreclosure sale.

"They are at least making moves to look at acquiring the property," said Lydon Sleeper, the chief of staff for City Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village).

Hemmerdinger's son, Damon, who was the mall's development director and serves as principal of ATCO Advisory, denied that the venture was created to bid on Atlas Park.

Paul Millus, the center's court-appointed receiver, said he didn't know what the family might do.

But Sleeper was direct when asked if the Hemmerdingers are positioning themselves to buy the Cooper Ave. complex.

"The different things that we've heard seem to suggest that," he said, declining to reveal his sources.

2009 a bad year for Dale Hemmerdinger

First, Atlas Park goes into receivership.

Then, Dale gets canned by the MTA.

Now his own family turns on him!

Photo from Staten Island Advance.