Even though retail has become a standout asset class for commercial real estate investors, distress set off by the pandemic continues to grip even seemingly healthy properties.

A new appraisal chopped nearly half the value off of one of Metro Atlanta’s largest shopping centers this month, even though the mall is nearly full of tenants and is located in one of the region’s fastest-growing counties. 

The majority of Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville was appraised at $93.7M, a 46% haircut from when its loan was originated in 2012, according to Morningstar Credit Analytics. 

The 1.1M SF mall is anchored by Dillard’s, Belk, Macy’s and JCPenney, all of which, with the exception of JCPenney, own their own spaces. Sears shuttered its owned store at the mall in 2021.

CBL & Associates owns the remaining 546K SF and mortgaged it for $122M in 2012 with JPMorgan Chase, which sold the debt into a commercial mortgage-backed security. The property was appraised at $172M at the time.

The loan originally matured in May 2022 but went into special servicing, after which point CBL landed a four-year extension.

CBL defaulted in May on the debt, which has an $81.9M outstanding balance and is once again in special servicing. It intends to “cooperate with the foreclosure or conveyance of the property in satisfaction of the debt,” according to its Aug. 7 quarterly earnings report.

CWCapital was installed as the special servicer on the CMBS loan in March, putting it in the driver's seat to determine the future of the property. There is no indication a foreclosure has been advertised.

CBL and CWCapital didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

Chattanooga, Tennessee-based CBL developed Arbor Place in 1999, and today it is the 10th-largest shopping center in Metro Atlanta, behind Sugarloaf Mills in Gwinnett County and The Mall at Stonecrest in Lithonia.

It was a standout performer for the REIT before the pandemic, with 99% occupancy in 2020 before falling to 81% in 2022. But CBL pushed leasing back up from the doldrums of the post-pandemic era — the mall was 94% occupied in the first quarter. 

And those metrics mean whoever takes over the mall, roughly 20 miles west of Downtown Atlanta, from CBL would control a property primed for redevelopment, Alcove Commercial founder Laura King told Bisnow. 

“We are ripe for the next person to take it and remerchandize it well. There is enough money out there for this to be a truly thought-out development,” said King, a veteran retail broker in Metro Atlanta. “And the infrastructure is there. The site is huge, and you can get to it from anywhere.”

The mall generated $14.6M in revenue last year, paying nearly $8M in debt service, according to Morningstar. 

King said the city of Douglasville and Douglas County are rapidly growing, while their retail base has lagged.

Douglasville is “one of the most underserved markets that I’ve ever seen,” she said.

“There’s so much money out there. I don’t think you get a more underserved market than from Douglasville to Rome and Newnan.”

Douglasville’s population has grown nearly 20% since 2020 to 41,500 residents, according to the Census Bureau, with a median household income of $79K annually. That number outpaces the state’s median income of just over $77K a year.

The population of Douglas County, one of the fastest-growing counties in the metro area, increased by nearly 7% to 154,300 residents in 2025, according to census data. Arbor Place Mall’s trade area encompasses eight counties in Georgia and “a significant area in eastern Alabama,” according to CBL.

Morningstar Credit Analytics Associate Managing Director David Putro said Arbor Place Mall faced the same issues many traditional suburban malls encountered coming out of the pandemic, and its performance appears likely to continue to stagnate.

Because Arbor Place is more than 90% leased, Putro said there is little wiggle room for a potential refinancing, which would come with a significantly higher interest rate.

“Is it going to be any better four years from now? If you’re trying to push revenue, at 94% [leased], there’s only so much you can do,” Putro said. “It just looks like it kind of hit the Covid wall.”