This December 2023 photo shows one of the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Town Center mall parking garages on Lee Street. The garages were auctioned on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä and Kanawha County officials announced in August 2022 an $80 million investment in two ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Town Center mall structures that would transform the Macy’s building and the Lee Street parking garage into this multi-sport complex to be called the Capital Sports Center.
The saga of the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Town Center mall parking garages continues.
The garages will be auctioned off, according to a motion expected to be filed in the coming days with Kanawha County Circuit Court. The initial plan for the Capital Sports Center, a proposed $80-million multi-use athletic complex, was to use some upper floors of the Lee Street garage and some other nearby properties.
However, Steve White, chairman of the Capital Sports Center Development Association (CSCDA), said Wednesday at a CSCDA board meeting that the present plan is to build on the site of the former Macy’s retail location at the Town Center mall. An offer for the Macy’s parcel has been sent to the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Urban Renewal Authority, City Attorney Kevin Baker said at the meeting.
This December 2023 photo shows one of the ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Town Center mall parking garages on Lee Street. The garages were auctioned on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
CHRIS DORST | Gazette-Mail file photo
‘Last step’ for garages
The sale will be “kind of the last step†for the garages, said Ann Starcher, who has been representing the CURA in the matter of the parking garages since 2017.
On Wednesday, she told members of the Capital Sports Center Development Association that the garages were owned by ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Building Commission (not to be confused with the city’s Building Commission) and have been in receivership with Boyd Real Estate Resources since this fall.
The sale will be free and clear of liens (in this case, money owed to the bondholders), but other obligations will continue with the structures. The garages are being sold “as is.â€
The bondholders are owed between $12 million and $15 million, Starcher told the committee. A court document says the garages are worth less than the debt.
According to the motion, the auction will occur in March. The court will hold a hearing confirming the sale and assigning the proceeds, which likely will be used to pay the bondholders.
Starcher said she expects objections to the auction motion, but also expects the sale to go through.
The land, which is owned by CURA, is not being sold.
Starcher suggested potential bidders, including The Hull Group, which owns the mall, as well as Embassy Suites and Marriott. The bondholders also may participate through a credit bid, which is bidding up to the amount of money they are owned.
Whether the CSCDA would try to buy the garages will be “a decision for later,†White said.
ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä and Kanawha County officials announced in August 2022 an $80 million investment in two ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Town Center mall structures that would transform the Macy’s building and the Lee Street parking garage into this multi-sport complex to be called the Capital Sports Center.
Artist’s rendering
Garages to play a major role
In an interview Thursday, ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said the parking garages would play a major role in the development of the Capital Sports Center, but that the Macy’s site is the anchor.
