CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Charleston Town Center Mall could soon have a new owner.
The Charleston Urban Renewal Authority voted Wednesday to waive a 10 percent transaction fee for current mall owner Forest City to sell the mall to Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC).
The 10 percent fee would have cost Forest City around $13 million.
Charleston Mayor Danny Jones was at the CURA meeting Wednesday and said without waiving the fee, the sale between the two companies would not have been possible.
“If we don’t make that transaction happen, we believe that there may be some jeopardy attached to the future of the mall,” Jones told reporters.
Neither side wanted to deal with the large fee, Jones said.
“We don’t want to get in the way of keeping our mall in downtown Charleston,” he said.
Jones frequents the mall on a daily basis.
“The people that go there — like me — I’m there every day. They won’t notice any change except for in the future. We think that the new owners may do some great things,” he said.
It’s “premature” to speculate any other redevelopments at the mall, Jones said.
The mayor said he’s been working for years to keep stores like Macy’s at the mall. With the new buy, Jones said he’s confident Macy’s will stay.
“I’m very confident they’ll be there for at least the end of my term (in January 2019) and hopefully more,” he said.