Lender acts to collect mall debt

Tag: LR6

Latham Circle Mall is facing foreclosure, according to court documents filed in the Albany County clerk's office.

 The owner of the mall, who has been promising improvements for more than three years, owes about $25 million on two mortgages dating to Dec. 29, 2006: $21 million on the original mortgages and the rest in interest, according to documents.

The complaint, filed in March, asks that the mall be sold to pay off the debt, with the mall's current owner responsible for paying off any remaining deficit.

The lender, LR6-A Latham LLC, is associated with Realty Financial Partners of Wellesley, Mass. Realty Financial is a real estate investment company with more than a half-billion dollars in capital, according to the firm's Web site.

Joshua Israel, associate asset manager for the lender, did not return calls seeking comment. Neither did Eugene Weiss, owner of the mall, or his lawyer, Wayne A. Smith.

Stuart Klein, an attorney for LR6-A, declined to comment.

The case is being handled by state Supreme Court Justice Michael C. Lynch in Albany, and is still pending, according to his office.

A number of entities are associated with Weiss and the mall -- Twenty-First Latham LLC, Burlease Corp., and Latham Circle LLC, all of which are located at the office of Weiss' E.W. Enterprises LLC. All were named in the foreclosure.

Weiss, an Auschwitz survivor now in his late 70s, bought in 1972 what was then a 300,000-square-foot retail plaza along Route 9 in Latham and built it into a 700,000-square-foot mall.

Tenants at the mall say they have known of the foreclosure for some time. Several spoke of perhaps leaving the mall but declined to speak for attribution.

A casual glance Thursday showed about two dozen stores and other businesses open -- including anchors J.C. Penney and Burlington Coat Factory -- perhaps half the number of businesses that once occupied the space.

A handful of additional stores, which appear to be occupied, were closed at lunchtime Thursday. Only a few dozen shoppers were present, and most smaller stores were empty of customers.

Great things had been promised of Latham Circle Mall in recent years. In 2004, a Lowe's home-improvement store opened in what was once a wing of the mall. Then, three years ago, Weiss announced a $12 million face-lift and a refurbished Regal Cinema, which is on the second floor of the mall.

In December, mall officials said they were finally ready to start moving on the redesign. They announced plans for a courtyard and a new main entrance, as well as new stores with direct access to the parking lot. Two new restaurants -- Texas Roadhouse and Bonefish Grill -- were announced.

But the only major redesign the town of Colonie Building Department has issued a permit for is a $200,000 facade and entrance improvement project, town officials said.