Walmart’s newest acquisition is a shopping mall. Despite the recent shift in consumer behavior causing major stores and malls to close down or downsize, the retail giant seems unaffected. It confirmed on February 4 that it purchased Monroeville Mall, which is located about 12 miles from Pittsburgh and sits on about 186 acres of land.
A company called CBL Properties sold Monroeville Mall for $34 million in an all-cash deal. The company announced the sale in late January but did not reveal who bought the mall at that time.
Walmart’s purchase shows how malls are changing. Many shopping centers have had to adapt to these changes. Major stores like Sears have closed, and others like Macy’s are downsizing. Some adapt by adding new restaurants, while others turn empty stores into apartments. Some have even been torn down to make space for something completely different.
These malls are changing because consumers now shop differently. Some malls have become Amazon fulfillment centers where workers pack and send orders directly to customers.
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Walmart has focused on retail-related deals in the past. This includes a $3.3 billion acquisition of the online shopping company Jet.com. Last year, it bought Vizio, a smart TV company, for $2.3 billion. The deal was part of its effort to grow its advertising business.
Concerning Walmart’s newest acquisition, the retail giant wants full involvement in the mall’s future changes; however, it did not share any specific plans. To manage and redevelop the mall, Walmart hired Cypress Equities. Chris Maguire, the CEO of Cypress Equities, said his company has worked with Walmart before to open new stores and close old ones. However, its interest in a mall surprised him. Walmart asked Cypress to take a look at the project in early October, and now they are in the planning stage. According to him, a team of designers and architects will come up with a master plan for the mall’s future.
Maguire said that while the project will focus on retail, it will also include other types of businesses. He mentioned that the area could use more entertainment, restaurants, cafes, and possibly housing. The company has already talked to the city about the idea.
Walmart is very popular in the U.S. It has more than 4,600 stores and about 600 locations of Sam’s Club, its membership-based warehouse store. Both stores have been expanding. Two years ago, Sam’s Club announced that it planned to open more than 30 new stores in the U.S. within five years. Last year, Walmart also shared its expansion plans to build more than 150 new stores over the next five years. However, some of these new locations would come from converting smaller stores into larger ones.
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Last year, Walmart opened three new stores in North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia. According to Hunter Hart, senior vice president of Walmart Realty, it plans to open about 12 more stores in fast-growing areas like North Texas and Houston over the next year.
The retail chain has not just opened new stores but also upgraded many of its existing ones, adding features like brighter lighting and wider aisles to improve the shopping experience. Over the past three years, Walmart has remodeled more than 2,000 stores and plans to upgrade around 650 stores each year.
Walmart has not mentioned if it plans to buy more malls. However, some experts believe its recent mall purchase could lead to similar projects elsewhere. Many malls in the U.S. are struggling and may need to be repurposed for other uses. Chris Maguire said he hopes struggling malls will be transformed into something useful, just like Walmart’s recent project.