Texas real estate firm takes lead in 'major redevelopment' of Monroeville Mall

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Feb. 3—A Texas-based real estate firm says the 186-acre Monroeville Mall property is well suited for a major redevelopment and that all options are on the table.

“I think we’re all aware that the current use isn’t the highest and best use for the property,” said Chris Maguire, CEO of Dallas-based Cypress Equities.

The mall was sold last week by CBL Properties to an undisclosed buyer for about $34 million. Cypress Equities will manage the property and lead efforts to reimagine Monroeville Mall into a new retail and commercial destination, according to a news release.

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Maguire said Cypress has been involved in talks about the property since October 2024.

“We had a series of meetings with the mayor and his team and they were incredibly supportive of the idea to redevelop this property,” he said. “I’m in Texas, where there’s a lot of flat land along the highway to buy. That’s not the case in Pennsylvania, and so a lot of larger-scale projects involve extensive redevelopment.”

The 1.2 million square foot property served as a commercial anchor for the community when it was constructed in the late 1960s. Like many larger shopping malls, its daily business has been affected over the years by the rise of online retailing.

Cypress officials say they plan to redevelop the mall with a mix of uses, including retail, entertainment, restaurants and spaces for residential, hospitality and office elements. The company has an accumulated portfolio of more than 200 real estate investments valued at about $5.2 billion.

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Maguire said it’s too early in the process to discount any possibilities about what the mall property could become.

Monroeville Mayor Nick Gresock said he is optimistic.

“In my opinion, mixed-use would be ideal — residential, entertainment, restaurants and retail,” he said. “Our (2023) zoning ordinance (update) has allowed for those types of development.”

Maguire said Cypress has worked on a host of mixed-use projects across the U.S.

“A lot of communities want that mix of restaurants, retail and residential,” he said. “And property owners don’t want dead time, they want morning, afternoon and evening users.”

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Maguire said the redevelopment process would take occur during the next several years, and its final form would be determined in part from community input.

“We’re hoping to engage a design team in the next 30 days, and we need to do a study in the community to see what residents are looking for,” he said. “We’re looking forward to a productive relationship with the municipality and with residents.”

Pittsburgh-based realty company CBRE represented the buyer in the transaction for the mall. CBRE officials could not be reached for comment. Officials from Visit Monroeville, which promotes the town as a destination for shopping, living and working, did not return calls for comment.

Former property owners CBL filed for bankruptcy in late 2020, and the mall has undergone a number of large-scale changes over the past two decades. In 2008, it lost anchor retailer Boscov’s, when that company went through a bankruptcy and restructuring. In 2011, JCPenney — which has been an anchor store since the mall first opened in 1969 — moved into the former Boscov’s space to make way for the Cinemark movie theater that dominates the southern side of the building.

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The property includes the main building, an adjacent strip mall, the streetscape expansion near the front entrance and out-parcels Best Buy and Firestone. Overall, the complex can hold more than 150 retailers.

The mall also has been the subject of negative headlines with shootings and fights among visitors during the past decade. In 2019, a group of young men just outside the mall fired up to 10 shots at another group of men who were inside the Macy’s Backstage store.

In 2020, a 20-year-old man was shot and killed inside the mall. In 2015, someone fired six shots inside the mall and hit three people, including two bystanders.

Patrick Varine is a TribLive reporter covering Delmont, Export and Murrysville. He is a Western Pennsylvania native and joined the Trib in 2010 after working as a reporter and editor with the former Dover Post Co. in Delaware. He can be reached at pvarine@triblive.com.