Patterns are patterns and the owner of the Briarwood 1 Building definitely has a pattern. Check out what Mike Kohan pulled recently. WLUC (Michigan) reported:
For the third day, signs on the front entrance of the Westwood Mall in Marquette Township say it is closed because of an “electrical problem.” But representatives for businesses in the building have told us power was shut off by the Marquette Board of Light and Power because of a past-due bill, and that it’s not the first time.
Others posted the notice they received from the BLP to social media. But businesses inside the mall tell us, it’s not the local management at the mall responsible for that payment, it’s the owner.
“I want the people of Marquette to know that the management at the mall is not to blame for this, it’s the owner of the corporation, who’s not even a Michigan resident,” Owner of Timber Yeti Axe Range Avery Smith said.
The Westwood Mall was sold in 2019 to Kohan Retail Investment Group, owned by Mike Kohan of New York. Kohan owns 52 mall sites around the country and his website claims to to invest in local communities by purchasing shopping centers and working to revitalize them.
But other malls owned by Kohan have run into similar problems. In November, the Marshalltown Mall in Iowa reportedly closed after an electric bill was left unpaid by Kohan for 10 months, according to WHO13 in Iowa.
This week, the Towne West Mall in Witchita, Kansas has also been closed since Wednesday for an unpaid electric bill according to KSNW. A non-profit that works out of that mall also called us to confirm the outage has been going on there for three days....
Power remains shut off and the front doors locked at Westwood Mall in Marquette Township Friday, according to business representatives in the mall.
The front doors of the mall were closed beginning Wednesday after power was first shut off. It remained off Thursday as well. A business manager told TV6 Friday morning around 9:30 a.m. they would know by 11 a.m. if power would remain off or if the mall would open. However, by 11:40, a business representative in the mall said power had still not been restored and there had been no word on the rest of the day.... Article
11 comments:
What is the reasoning behind buying properties and letting them deteriorate? I don't see how the money works in this scheme.
What gain or profit is there to buying properties and doing nothing with them? I assume property taxes are still due, so unless there's some enterprising action to gain something, it's a losing proposition. What am I missing?
Can someone explain how the math works on these? Buy low, but then kill it completely and get nothing? That's still a loss. What is his business model on these?
"What is the reasoning behind buying properties and letting them deteriorate? I don't see how the money works in this scheme."
The tax code is very advantageous to real estate owners, allowing a sharp individual to shelter income from taxes.
If you put little money down and collect the rent for a year of two and basically don't pay any monthly bills you would have a nice little sum of cash.
As stated above, buy cheap....run them LEAN while collecting rents, all while leveraging tax codes to shelter income.
I smell some wire fraud. Hello feds....
Possible mechanics of mall scam: Kohan uses leased up mall to raise investor cash for another mall. He uses some of the new cash to pay dividend/interest on old investors, but keeps most of the rest, not paying bills or maintenance.
Then maintains a small happy investor group who will attest to new investors that their interest payments are paid, even though their equity amount remains with Kohan, presumably earning more percentage. Actually all investor equity is "gone", keyholed or spent by Kohan.
If he keeps paying interest to a small number of investors, and nobody asks for their equity back, Kohan cruises comfortably along. Ponzi scheme, like Madoff did for many years.
We don’t know anything and all is conjecture as usual. He may have a few lucrative sites he’s trying to offset against earnings. These properties may have been losers or close to that when bought - so maybe win, maybe lose - but always tax advantaged. NYC is where many prefer to do business.
OMG. Look at this guys pattern of buying dead malls with zero plans. Any red flags here??
Anyone who has any interest in dead malls knows Kohan very well. Kohan will buy a property, let it rot, and then sell the remaining property for tax breaks -- or if possible wait until a company needing a large space comes in and buys for an inflated price. I was surprised that Jackson was able to get Kohan to take care of One Briarwood. Maybe Kohan will stay out of the South from now on.
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