ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 4, 1991                   TAG: 9104040085
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY/ BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CROSSROADS MALL DEEDED TO LENDER

The Texas company that spent the past couple of years trying to revive Roanoke's Crossroads Mall has deeded the property to its lender to forestall foreclosure.

Zane May Operating Partners, a Dallas real estate investment and management company, on March 26 transferred title of the mall to Cross Mall Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corp. of Stamford, Conn. GE Capital holds a $15.3 million deed of trust on the shopping center.

Virginia Steinberg, spokeswoman for GE Capital, said Wednesday the company has hired New Market Development Co. of Atlanta to manage the 375,000-square-foot mall while a buyer is sought.

Richard Jaffe, property manager for Zane May, said he did not know the specifics of the situation, but Zane May is scaling back its shopping-center involvement everywhere.

Crossroads is the Roanoke Valley's oldest mall. It was built in 1960 on 20-plus acres on Hershberger Road near Roanoke Regional Airport. Developers were Roanoke Valley residents T.D. Steele and T.A. Carter Jr., who later developed Tanglewood Mall.

Crossroads Mall began to have difficulty in the early 1980s. When Valley View Mall opened nearby in 1985, it lost several major tenants, including J.C. Penney Co. In 1988, it lost Heironimus to the new Towne Square Shopping Center nearby.

Zane May bought Crossroads for $8 million in 1988 from Prudential Insurance, which purchased it for $13.5 million in 1979.

In December 1988, Zane May announced four new tenants, including the Waccamaw pottery and housewares store. The mall had 200,000 square feet of empty space at that time, according to a Zane May spokesman who said Waccamaw and two other proposed tenants, TJ Maxx and Office Warehouse, were critical to the revival of the center.

TJ Maxx and Office Warehouse never opened, however. Vickie Leavens, Crossroads manager, said the mall has 35 tenants. 


 by CNB