HAYWARD — Southland Mall, a major regional shopping center in the East Bay, has been bought by a group of real estate bargain hunters from the New York City area who like to buy big retail hubs that few others desire to own.
The regional mall in Hayward has been bought for $70 million in an all-cash deal by an affiliate controlled by the principal executives of Namdar Realty Group, according to documents filed on Oct. 24 with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office.
Southland Mall has a high-profile location that’s perched next to the busy interchange of Interstate 880 and West Winton Avenue in Hayward, the county real estate files show.
The shopping center totals 1.1 million square feet of retail floor space, according to information posted by New York City-based real estate firm Brookfield Properties, whose affiliate sold Southland Mall to Namdar Realty.
Macy’s, JCPenney, Ross Dress for Less, Hobby Lobby, and Cinemark Century Southland Mall movie theaters are the primary merchants that anchor Southland Mall, according to the retail hub’s directory. Hobby Lobby took over a shuttered Dick’s Sporting Goods space in recent years.
The only empty anchor space at Southland Mall is a former Sears store, which the legendary retailer decided to close in 2020. By happenstance, in the 1960s, the original retail spaces at Southland Mall were built to incorporate the existing Sears store.
The new owner of Southland Mall often seeks to buy retail malls at an attractive price that have been overlooked by investors.
“Value-added commercial properties” are the primary types of real estate that Namdar Realty seeks to buy, according to the company’s website. These types of commercial sites are properties that are deemed to be underperforming.
The idea with this approach to real estate investments is usually to carry out improvements or upgrades to the properties so as to increase their value.
Yet for some communities, the Namdar Realty approach has produced results that haven’t always pleased local officials.
In August, officials in the Sacramento County city of Citrus Heights launched an appraisal of Sunrise Mall as a prelude to attempting condemnation proceedings against the portions of the retail hub that a Namdar affiliate owns.
“In response to continued community complaints, city staff inspected the Namdar-owned portion of the property in May 2025, resulting in extensive violations and a notice to abate issued the following month,” Citrus Heights officials stated in a web post.
Citrus Heights officials are scouting for some sort of long-term solution to redevelop or revive Sunrise Mall.
This news organization reached out to executives with Namdar Realty Group regarding the organization’s purchase of Southland Mall.
Namdar Realty executives haven’t publicly discussed the company’s current strategies so far in 2025. In June 2024, however, Namdar Realty Group posted an interview that the company’s chief executive officer provided to Bloomberg TV.
In the interview, CEO Igal Namdar stated the company was still looking for low-valued assets, including distressed office properties.
Namdar also noted that in addition to traditional financing sources in the United States such as banks, public employee retirement systems, and insurance titans, Namdar Realty has access to overseas sources of money in Israel through a publicly held company in that nation.
“We are able to have access to Israel money as well,” Namdar stated in the Bloomberg TV interview.
As for Hayward’s Southland Mall, the prior owner, Brookfield, praised the property’s viability as a retail hub.
“The center (Southland Mall) enjoys high visibility and traffic on the freeway and surface streets, making it easily accessible to the area residents,” Brookfield stated in a post. “The center is uniquely positioned, with limited regional mall competition within 20 miles to the north and limited development opportunities due to restricted land supply.”
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