The Swain Company

**The Swain Company** (also known as **SwainCo**) was a real estate investment company that built 10 shopping malls and managed another 35. The company was acquired by Kramont Realty Trust in 2003, and then Centro Watt in 2005.

## History

The company was founded in 1984 by Adam Swain, claiming that he wants to be a mall developer. The first mall the company built was Universal Mall. A enclosed shopping mall that is now owned by Starwood Capital Group. The company later built an another enclosed shopping mall called Wasteland Mall, now owned by Brixmor Property Group, but however it was announced that the mall to be closed and be replaced with Wasteland Center by June 28, 2019. But however, on February 3, 2019, the redevelopment plan has been canceled and the mall would remain open for an unforeseeable future. Brixmor has plans to sell the mall to a closest bidder CBL Properties. The Swain Company later built some more enclosed shopping malls and also strip malls. In 1990, the company announced to move the enclosed shopping mall portfolio to a new division called **Swain Enclosed Mall Realty**.

In 1992, The Swain Company acquired The Matchboxtown Company, which owns Matchboxtown Mall and Matchboxtown Plaza, as well a arcade chain called QuartersEntertainment, which was later acquired by Nickels and Dimes Incorporated of Carrollton, Texas, and Burroughs and Chapin of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in 1995. The QuartersEntertainment locations in malls were converted into Tilt Family Amusement Center, while standalone locations in the 2000s were converted into Nascar Speedparks.

The company had once operated the Richardstown stations under Matchboxtown Radio, but however, the stations was sold in 1995.

The company also had interest in operating franchised hotels with an agreement with companies in 1994, but the franchised hotels that were operated by The Swain Company was sold to Hudson Capital Group in 1997 as American Realty Group was acquiring a small percent of The Swain Company, and as part of a new plan to focus more on malls.

In January 1997, American Realty Group, a company that Adam Swain co-founded in 1987, acquired 35 percent of the company.

In 1997, the company sold the enclosed mall division to Westfield America, Inc, a precursor to Westfield Group. These enclosed shopping mall would later have the Westfield Shoppingtown moniker in 1998.

In 1998, the company helped with General Growth Properties to convert Port City Mall into a outdoor shopping center due to stiff competition with Westfield Shoppingtown Matchboxtown.

In 2003, The Swain Company was acquired by Kramont Realty Trust. Later in 2005, Kramont was acquired by Centro Watt.

As of 2020, SwainCo still exists as a LLC entity of Westfield America, which manages Southland Mall, and a few other former SwainCo malls. Another existing entity Swain America LLC is owned by Brixmor Property Group and it handles management control over former Swain properties.

## Swain Enclosed Mall Realty

**Swain Enclosed Mall Realty** was a mall development company that owned and managed 11 enclosed shopping malls.

In 1990, The Swain Company announced to move the enclosed shopping mall portfolio to this new division.

In 1992, the company added Matchboxtown Mall to the enclosed mall portfolio after its parent company acquired The Matchboxtown Company.

In 1997, Westfield America, Inc, a precursor to Westfield Group, acquired the division from The Swain Company.

On May 9, 2006, Westfield sold 3 former Swain malls to Australia-based Centro Properties Group. The 3 malls that were sold includes Westfield Richardstown, Westfield Wasteland, and Westfield La Plaza. These 3 malls became part of the American company subsidiary Centro Watt.

In 2012, Westfield sold Westfield Universal to Starwood Capital Group.

In May 2019, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield sold Westfield Parkland to a consortium of Simon Property Group, Hudson Capital Group, and Vornado Realty Trust.

In June 2019, Westfield CityPoint was sold to CityPoint Properties, after a financial issue due to mall's mortgage being defaulted by JPMorgan Chase. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield continued to be the manager for the mall. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield also made an agreement to keep the Westfield CityPoint name as well. Becoming one of the former Westfield's malls to retain the Westfield name on it.

Here is the list of malls that Swain owned and managed:

* Universal Mall (now owned by Starwood Capital Group)
* Wasteland Mall (now owned by Brixmor Property Group and managed by Madison Marquette)
* Matchboxtown Mall (now renamed Richardstown Mall, now owned by Brookfield Properties Retail Group)
* La Horton Mall (renamed La Plaza, and then owned Brixmor Property Group and managed by Madison Marquette, the mall closed in January 2017 due to decline in mall traffic)
* Southland Mall (now owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield)
* Swainland Mall (now owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield)
* Parkland Mall (now owned by a consortium of Simon Property Group, Hudson Capital Group, and Vornado Realty Trust)
* Sevenland Mall (now owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield)
* Ace Mall (now owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield)
* Caesar Mall (now owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield)
* CityPoint Mall (now owned by CityPoint Properties)