A national investor in distressed malls that has upset some municipalities by failing to pay its bills has purchased the ailing Town Center at Cobb.

Kohan Retail Investment Group paid $71M in January for the main retail core of the 1.3M SF regional mall off Ernest W. Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw that fell into foreclosure with Deutsche Bank in 2021, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. Deutsche Bank took back the mall from Simon Property Group, the firm that also owns Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza malls in Atlanta.

JCPenney and Macy’s anchor the mall but own their own spaces, according to the ABC. Belk is a major tenant at the mall as well.

The original $166.7M loan backed by the 560K SF main retail center went to a special servicer in June of 2020 for monetary default due to the impact of the pandemic, Trepp reported. In February 2021, the property was taken back by the lender along with a $96.5M loan loss, according to Trepp.

Kohan is no stranger to distressed malls, and owns some 60 malls across the U.S., including Triangle Town Center in Raleigh, North Carolina; Northwoods Mall in Peoria, Illinois; and Central Mall at Port Arthur in Texas. The firm has faced criticism of its ownership of various malls in recent years that it has let the properties languish or failed to pay local taxes and other bills.

Under Kohan’s ownership, Savannah Mall fell into disrepair before the firm sold the property last year. The Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, township sued Kohan for unpaid property taxes and sewer and stormwater bills. And despite plans to auction off Midland Mall in Michigan later this month, Kohan still owed more than $1M in property taxes before deeds could be transferred to a new owner, the Midland Daily News reported.

The ABC was unable to get Kohan to comment about its plans for Town Center.