BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer
LAKEWOOD — Profits may one day take flight again at Seagull Square. That is the hope of a new ownership team at Lakewood’s second largest shopping center, according to manager Simcha Shain.
“We’re doing a feasibility study of the property, which we will continue to operate as a commercial business,” said Shain, who is also a member of the Lakewood Board of Education. “We see tremendous potential in this property.”
Despite a lawsuit filed by tenants against former owner Fair Oaks LLC, new owner Eliyahu Weinstein paid $10.7 million for Seagull Square at a closing held in May and recorded with the Ocean County Clerk’s Office on June 1, according to the Ocean County Inter-net Web site.
A mortgage of $9 million was obtained through Intervest National Bank of New York City and constituted the majority of the purchase price.
GMH Capital Partners of Newtown Square, Pa., represented Fair Oaks LLC in negotiating the deal, while Zev Lesser of Lakewood represented Ocean Realty 101 LLC, according to a press release sent to the Tri-Town News.
“We are pleased to have represented the institutional seller in this transaction,” said Bill Tourtellotte, a vice president with GMH Capital Partners Investment Sales Division, who was quoted in the release. “This property has excellent potential for value enhancement and this buyer is a great fit for the efficient and effective repositioning of this asset.”
The release said there were approximately 97,522 square feet of retail space at the shopping center, but in recent years many of the stores had not been leased.
Seagull Square has languished since 2001, when a Stop & Shop supermarket moved to a larger space that had been vacated by Foodtown in the Tri-State Plaza less than a mile down Route 9 in neighboring Dover Township.
Shain said he is hoping to change the public perception of Seagull Square.
“One of our specialties is buying distressed properties and turning them around,” he said on June 20. “We have property all over the country. This was an opportunity to turn [a local] mall around.”
Shain said he was working to resolve legal problems with tenants as well.
Last year Lynn Celli closed her ice cream parlor, Kringle’s Frozen Delites, but continues to represent other tenants who are also suing the shopping center. When contacted last week, she confirmed the sale of the property.
Celli said some tenants received leases they did not have before, such as the nail salon. However, she said those tenants would also have to pay more in rent if they chose to sign the leases offered them. She said Lesser had been attempting to persuade litigants to drop their lawsuit against the shopping center prior to its sale.
In response, Shain said Lesser was not an owner or manager and was not affiliated with Ocean Realty. He also said that although he could not discuss pending litigation, it was the intention of Seagull Square’s new owner to resolve the legal issues that now confront him.
“Our attorney is looking into the lawsuit filed by mall tenants and will try to make everything work out,” Shain said. “We bought this mall with these issues. We don’t run away from issues. Our attorneys are taking care of the matter.”