Igal Namdar has made a fortune buying shopping malls no one else wants.
He scoops up struggling centers at bargain-basement prices after their landlords lose faith, betting he can turn a profit before the last tenants turn out the lights. So far, that strategy has netted big gains—as well as lawsuits accusing Namdar of allowing his real estate to slide into disrepair.
In building an empire of 268 properties in 35 U.S. states—most prominently aging malls in small cities—Namdar has accumulated a personal net worth of about $2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The pandemic accelerated Americans’ years-long shift to e-commerce, forcing many already-ailing department stores and apparel shops to go dark. Landlords that own lower-end malls—with high proportions of tenants that have fallen behind on rents or shuttered stores—have been hit especially hard.
For Namdar, that smells like opportunity. He expects a flurry of deals in 2022 as more owners of troubled retail properties head for the exits.
“Any seller of retail—malls or open air—any size of portfolio, we’re there,” Namdar, 51, said in an interview from his headquarters in Great Neck, New York. “We can close immediately, as is, where it is, with no due diligence.”
The formula for Namdar Realty Group and partner firm Mason Asset Management is to recruit down-market retailers to fill vacancies while holding down costs by limiting debt and capital-improvement spending.
“They’ve been a bottom feeder, historically, buying on the cheap, for pennies on the dollar and making a go of it,” said Jim Costello, senior vice president at Real Capital Analytics Inc. “It’s not the high end of the market, but it’s solid retail if you can set it up right.”
Real Capital tracks 134 of the Namdar Realty Group’s properties and estimates that portfolio is worth about $2.7 billion.
Namdar declined to comment on the value of the properties his company owns, or his personal wealth, but said the figures Bloomberg is reporting are inaccurate.