Plymouth Meeting Mall slated to be sold to Philly developer

The Plymouth Meeting Mall may soon change hands.

The mall’s current owner, PREIT, plans to sell the property to LA Partners, previously known as Lubert Adler Real Estate Funds, PREIT leadership confirmed Thursday, noting that the sale is still pending. PREIT did not disclose the price of the sale.

PREIT, which is based in Philadelphia, also sold the Exton Square Mall to Abrams Realty & Development in March. PREIT also owns the Cherry Hill and Moorestown Malls.

LA Partners executive chairman Dean Adler told the Philadelphia Business Journal, which first reported on the pending sale, that he expects to invest over $100 million to redevelop the mall. Early plans include adding residences.

PREIT CEO Jared Chupaila said in a statement that the sale reflects the company’s “commitment to disciplined balance sheet management and liquidity generation.”

“We believe LA Partners is uniquely positioned to build on the multipurpose hub we have laid the groundwork for, which has long served as a central part of Plymouth Township and the surrounding communities,” said Chupaila.

PREIT has faced financial challenges in recent years. The business has filed for bankruptcy twice since 2020, and most recently emerged from bankruptcy as a private company in 2024 helmed by a group of investment firms.

The Plymouth Meeting Mall, for its part, has tried to undergo a makeover in the last few years, following the 2017 closure of its anchor, a 215,000 square-foot Macy’s. Amid PREIT’s plans to “diversify the tenant mix” at the mall, nearly half the tenants there were either dining or entertainment businesses in 2018.

Lubert Adler’s other properties include the Bellevue in Center City, which recently underwent extensive renovations, and the Battery, a former power plant in Fishtown redeveloped into a multipurpose complex.

A spokesperson for LA Partners did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Peter Abrams, managing partner for Elkins Park-based Abrams Realty & Development, said the Plymouth Meeting Mall site “is the best-located large parcel of real estate in the Delaware Valley.”

“There’s a lot of dead and dying malls in this country, and some of us, like myself and Dean Adler, understand the opportunity and aren’t afraid of the challenges, which are many,” said Abrams, who is behind proposed development plans at the Exton Square Mall.

At the time of PREIT’s bankruptcy filing in 2020, the business managed 4.7 million square feet of space in the region as the largest mall owner in the Philadelphia area.

Consumers had already been shifting toward e-commerce before the pandemic. But as COVID forced nationwide shutdowns in 2020, some of PREIT’s tenants were forced to close, couldn’t pay rent, or didn’t want to, intensifying issues for the mall owner.

Prior to the pandemic, PREIT sold off malls and tried to transform others by adding supermarkets, movie theaters, and apartments.

Through the most recent bankruptcy process, PREIT shed $800 million in debt and gave up its stake in the Fashion District in Center City. When it emerged from bankruptcy last year, PREIT owned 13 malls across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia.

It’s a time of struggle and transition for many malls across the country, including several in the region that have survived beyond their heyday. In the Philadelphia suburbs, plans are in the works to redevelop mall sites including the Exton Square Mall and the former Echelon Mall in Voorhees.