Karcher's new Calif.-based owner plans a taller mall

By Lora Volkert

IDAHO BUSINESS REVIEW

Karcher Mall’s newest owners say they want to make the 40-year-old Nampa shopping center bigger and better – or at least taller and better.

Anaheim, Calif.-based Milan Properties LLC purchased the mall from Baum Bros. LLC in Chicago, which had held the property for just two months.

Chris Nichelson, Milan’s asset manager, said he had few specifics to share about how he would improve the mall’s appearance and decrease vacancy, which he said is almost 50 percent. But he said Milan will most likely add “additional height” to the building.

“It needs better visibility,” he said.

Some of the pad buildings, such as the Taco Bell and Idaho Water Sports, block visibility of the mall from Caldwell Boulevard, Nichelson said. A taller building fa&#231ade with room for signage could improve traffic to the mall and promote a new department store tenant Milan hopes to secure to anchor the 75,000-square-foot space once occupied by Emporium before the clothing chain declared bankruptcy.

Before that, J.C. Penney occupied the anchor slot.

A related issue is that the main entrance, while “reasonably attractive,” is somewhat “off kilter,” Nichelson said. It doesn’t line up exactly with the driveway into the mall.

The new owners anticipate that they may need to open up the front of the mall “so it’s more open-air” and the tenant in the Emporium space has its own entrance and fa&#231ade at the front of the mall. If they do, it’ll be “a little less like an enclosed mall,” he said – sort of a blend between an enclosed mall and strip retail.

Milan representatives plan to use an unspecified architect and leasing agent from the Boise area and meet with them this week to develop plans to market to potential tenants and put together preliminary renderings and a site plan.

Nichelson said he has an advantage most prior owners haven’t had. “The timing is right,” he said.

“By the time the off-ramp is open, (mall remodeling) construction could be done,” he said, referring to the planned Karcher Interchange with Interstate 84. “We’re really in the path of progress.”

Milan Properties manages 1.5 million square feet of commercial property, mainly retail. Karcher Mall is about 545,000 square feet. Prior to Baum Bros., Karcher Mall was purchased by Lehman Bros., headquartered in New York City, in May 2004 from New York-based DLC Management, which had owned it for six years.

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