By Jeremy Walsh
Three years after opening the Shops at Atlas Park in Glendale, developer Damon Hemmerdinger is out of the project, leaving his company’s creditors to run the mall.
In an open letter to the mall’s tenant businesses, vendors, neighbors and community leaders dated Jan. 21, Hemmerdinger said the involvement of ATCO Properties & Management, the Hemmerdinger family’s company, in the 400,000-square-foot mall would end effective Feb. 19.
ATCO’s lenders, the French banks Caylon and Societe Generale, will appoint a new management company, Hemmerdinger said. Representatives from Caylon did not return a request for comment by press time Wednesday.
“I believe in Atlas Park, and I believe that the residents of Queens want, deserve and can support high-quality, aspirational retail, restaurants and entertainment,” he said in the letter.
The mall saw foot traffic increase 30 percent last year and added 12 new stores, he said.
Hemmerdinger declined to comment further or clarify the financial nature of his company’s break with Atlas Park.
But Gary Giordano, district manager of Community Board 5, said ATCO was probably unable to keep up its loan payments after a sluggish couple of years and the ongoing economic slump.
The $180 million development of Atlas Park was completed in April 2006 with a $126 million loan from Wells Fargo.
“I’m sorry for his sake that it didn’t work out financially,” Giordano said. “I know he put a lot of time and effort into that to try to make it work. I guess it’s a very expensive proposition.”
Dave Kerpen, who runs The K Buzz, a marketing company located in Atlas Park’s office building, said he was saddened by the Hemmerdinger family’s departure.
“I think Damon and the management did everything they could to build out the property,” he said, blaming much of the mall’s misfortune on the nation’s economy, which claimed several retail chains that had branches in Atlas Park, including greeting card retailer Blue Tulip, which filed for Chapter 11 protection Jan. 5.
“It’s a very unfortunate mix of stores,” he said. “If you look at the stores that were in there, [furniture retailer] Bombay [Company] went under. That’s national. Blue Tulip went under. That’s national. There are rumors about Borders, again, a national situation.”
The mall was built on part of Atlas Terminals, an industrial park dating back to the turn of the 20th century that the Hemmerdingers have owned since 1922.
Industry thrived there until the 1960s, when the city’s manufacturing and industrial economy entered a decades-long decline.
Hemmerdinger said he still hopes to redevelop the rest of the property, though he said the company has no specific plans.
Eight to 10 remaining acres of the land were still zoned for industrial use as of 2006.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jwalsh@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
