Let the bidding begin: Fashion Square Mall auction launches with $6.3M offer

SAGINAW TOWNSHIP, MI — Bidding began at noon Monday, Aug. 22, for buyers hoping to purchase the Fashion Square Mall, and within two hours, the online auction netted an offer nearly triple the minimum entry fee.

As of 2:45 p.m. Monday, the highest bid for the Saginaw Township shopping center was $6.3 million, the online auction website indicated.

The top bidder’s identity was not revealed and auction organizers have said they don’t plan to provide such details during the bidding process.

The starting bid to enter the auction earlier in the day was $2.3 million.

The website shows the latest top bid as well as a countdown indicating the days, hours and minutes until the auction closes at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24.

While the auction ends Wednesday, organizers said the resulting transaction could close as much as 30 days later.

An auction winner must sign a purchase and sale agreement by Thursday, Aug. 25, and the legal transactions necessary to close the deal must conclude by Friday, Sept. 23.

Southfield-based real estate firm NAI Farbman is one of the online auction’s managers, along with Ten-X, an Irvine, California-based real estate firm.

The mall’s previous owner — Great Neck, New York-based Namdar Realty Group — in 2020 defaulted on $34.8 million in mortgage debt owed to Wells Fargo, setting up the lending giant to grab the property last year as part of a foreclosure auction.

Officials with NAI Farbman last year said the company expected to put the property up for auction in 2022 on behalf of Wells Fargo. Now that auction date is here.

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