K
ushner Companies is revitalizing the Monmouth Mall in New Jersey, having secured financing to bring the property back to life. Fortress Investment Group and Rithm Capital have provided a total of $415 million for the project, which was announced on Tuesday. The redevelopment project, known as Monmouth Square, began in May and is expected to be completed in 2028.

    The residential portion of the project is being funded by Fortress affiliate funds to the tune of $303 million, which will be used to construct 1,000 apartments, with 125 of them designated as affordable housing units. The complex will also feature a 40,000-square-foot clubhouse, a fitness center, a cafe, coworking space, pickleball and basketball courts, and a golf simulator.

    The remaining financing for the project is being managed by GreenBarn Investment Group, which is handling the debt provided by Rithm. This debt will be used to fund the 990,000-square-foot retail component of the project, which will be anchored by a Whole Foods Market. The grocery store will replace a Barnes & Noble, which will relocate to a different building in the town center.

    According to a statement by Morali, the project will serve as a model for future mall redevelopments across the country. The retail portion of the project, designed by Minno + Wasko Architects and Planners, is already 82 percent preleased.

    Kushner has been actively tearing down vacant stores at the property and transforming the mall into an open-air layout. A 150,000-square-foot Lord & Taylor closed in 2018, and a JCPenney shuttered in 2022 are among the stores being demolished as the mall shrinks by 40 percent from its original size of 1.5 million square feet.

    Kushner Companies has successfully fended off rival developers to acquire the NJ mall, which was once one of the country's largest enclosed shopping centers. However, the retail landscape became so bleak that the mall even served as a filming location for a spinoff of "The Walking Dead." Kushner bought a $110 million loan collateralized by the mall at auction three years ago when a joint venture between Kushner and Brookfield Property Partners defaulted on a Royal Bank of Canada loan at the start of the pandemic.