The Advocate
Written By: Timothy Boone
Trademark Property Co. has acquired a minority stake in the mixed-use Perkins Rowe development and will provide leasing and management services.
Terry Montesi, Trademark’s CEO, said in a statement that the company plans to better tailor Perkins Rowe to the surrounding community through “strategic leasing, property improvements and amenity enhancements.”
Trademark, based in Fort Worth, Texas, has a portfolio of 16 retail, lifestyle and mixed-use centers across the U.S., including Market Street Flowood in Flowood, Mississippi, Victory Park in downtown Dallas and Rice Village in Houston. The company’s real estate portfolio totals more than 6.8 million square feet of property in operations or development/redevelopment. Its tenants include Apple, Best Buy, Whole Foods, REI and House of Blues.
Perkins Rowe, which opened in 2007, has 375,000 square feet of retail space, with tenants such as Barnes & Noble, Cinemark, Starbucks and The Fresh Market; 135,000 square feet of office space; and more than 225 apartments and condominium units.
While Perkins Rowe is the home for popular retailers and restaurants, the development has been controversial.
Developer Tommy Spinosa pitched Perkins Rowe as a $350 million development that would eventually include more than 800 condominiums and apartment units, offices, a hotel and trendy national retailers, including a department store. But the development was stifled by the recession, which saw retail chains dramatically cut back on their expansion plans and credit markets tighten up.
Several dozen lawsuits were filed against Spinosa and his Echelon Construction Services LLC by contractors and subcontractors, who said they were not paid for their work and services.
In 2009, KeyBank led a group of nine lenders that filed suit against Spinosa, claiming he had not made interest payments for several months on $170 million in loans. A court battle dragged on for several years before U.S. District Judge James J. Brady awarded a $201.9 million judgment to the lenders in September 2012.
TPG Capital acquired Perkins Rowe in early 2014 for an undisclosed sum from KeyBank National Association, which took over the mixed-use development at a foreclosure sale a few months earlier.
In May 2015, TPG put Perkins Rowe up for sale, but the property has not changed hands.