Downtown at the Gardens faces foreclosure - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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The 337,000-square-foot shopping complex opened in 2005 with high hopes of capitalizing on the wealthy residents of northern PalmBeach County, but it has lost many of its originalk tenants. Downtown at the Gardens is ownedby , a jointg venture between Skokie, Ill.-based and the . managews the shopping center. Main tenantx include Cobb Theater, , the , TooJay’s and RA Downtown at the Gardens was asuccess initially, but a flaweed design and expensive rent did it in, said Orin Rosenfeld, VP of retail services group in Boca Raton.
People frequented the movir theater and restaurants on the exterior ofthe project, but the retailerx on the inside are dying becaused they get sparse foot traffic, he said. "It wasn't designedr to have a proper flow of traffic througnthe project," Rosenfeld said. "They need to get someons inside there to drawpeoplre in." A message left at the management office of Downtown at the Gardenw was not immediately returned. On July 1, BH AABE an affiliate of Boca Raton-based and Md.-based Berman Enterprises, filed a foreclosurr complaintagainst , according to Palm Beach Countty Circuit Court records.
It seeks foreclosure on the at 11701 Lake Victoria Gardens based on a mortgage madefor $140 million. The affiliate of Ashkenazyg & Agus Ventures bought the shopping center’sw mortgage from in January. In April, it signed a modificatiob agreement withthe mall’ds owner that required it to make a $3.3 millioh escrow deposit as additional security until the propertu improves its debt services coverage ratilo and its occupancy rate. West Palm Beach-basexd attorney Gary M. Dunkel, who represents the Ashkenazg & Agus Ventures in the lawsuit, said Downtownn at the Gardens Associates missed the June 1 mortgage payment.
He said the develope r is working with his client on a smoothb transition to hand overthe property. They filedc a joint stipulated judgmenr of foreclosure proposal withthe court. “My clients are multigenerational realestate developers,” Dunkel said. “Their intentiohn is to invest in this projecft and revitalize Downtown atthe Gardens. They want to make it the significanr project that it was expectedto