The $100 million remake of Franklin Mall is dead, and the Northeast Philadelphia landmark is off the market again.
Developer Dean Adler has walked away from his plan to reinvent the mall, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported October 30. His firm, LA Partners, formerly Lubert-Adler, agreed last November to buy the mall from PREIT and expected to close in January. Nine months past that target, no sale has been announced, the plan was never presented at a public meeting, and no zoning notices have been issued.
The deal never got to a signature. Brenton Hutchinson, CEO of court-appointed receiver OPEX CRE Management, told the Business Journal that the two sides never finalized or signed a sale agreement, saying “the environment was just not right with the economics of the deals that were put in front of us.”
Adler had pitched a bold reinvention: a youth sports complex, 250 workforce housing units, a hotel, and a Margaritaville water park, with more than $100 million in upgrades. Construction was set to start in 2027.
Instead, the lenders are flipping the script. The mall is now off the market, and OPEX plans to sign tenants and improve the property before trying another sale. OPEX has renewed about 70,000 square feet of leases and is negotiating more.
The numbers show why a buyer walked. Occupancy has sunk to roughly 40 percent, down from 91 percent in 2016, after years of major retailers heading for the exits. The property’s value has slid from $201 million in 2012 to $76 million in 2024.
The mall itself is 1.6 million square feet on 137 acres near Interstate 95 and the Bucks County border, at Woodhaven Road and Knights Road. It opened as Franklin Mills, later became Philadelphia Mills, and carries the Franklin Mall name today.
Adler is still under contract for Plymouth Meeting Mall, where his concept calls for 280 residential units, a multipurpose sports field, a pool, and an ice-skating rink. That mall turned 60 on October 10.
For Franklin Mall, the wait continues. The next chapter is not a sale or a water park, but leasing: filling empty storefronts first, and letting a future buyer see a fuller mall.
