Ben Ashkenazy Opens War Chest for Queens Mall

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Ben Ashkenazy’s high-profile acquisition offensive is taking shape, starting in Queens.

Ashkenazy acquired the Shops at Atlas Park in Glendale, Crain’s reported. The purchase price was not disclosed, though Evercore ISI recently estimated the mall at 80-00 Cooper Avenue would trade for around $70 million, or $189 per square foot.

The 370,000-square-foot property is 97 percent leased, according to regulatory filings. Tenants at the mall include T.J. Maxx, New York Sports Club and Corndogs by Mr. Cow.

The seller was California-based Macerich, which disclosed to investors in May that it was aiming to sell the asset as part of a $2 billion quest to reduce debt. It acquired the shopping center for roughly $54 million at a foreclosure auction in early 2011. There’s a $65 million mortgage with a 9.5 percent interest rate that matures next year.

Joe Press, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp.’s chief operating officer, said the developer would “enhance and upgrade this extraordinary property into a best-in-class lifestyle center.”

It’s all part of a bigger vision for the company and its leader.

Ashkenazy was reported in June to have amassed $750 million in funds to purchase commercial properties, pulling from his own funds to help build the war chest. He’s targeting retail and hospitality deals over a two-year period, looking at buildings with overleveraged owners willing to cut bait at deep discounts.

The spending spree is a turn from recent years, when Ashkenazy lost high-profile properties, including Boston’s Faneuil Hall to Safra Bank and Washington, D.C.’s Union Station.

His portfolio is believed to be worth around $10 billion. The 15 million-square-foot portfolio includes a portion of The Plaza hotel, the former Barneys flagship on Madison Avenue, a shopping center near Beverly Hills and a prominent mall in Lawrence, Long Island.

— Holden Walter-Warner