by Inanna Arthen
The property occupied by the Price Chopper supermarket in Gardner has been sold to San Diego, CA investment firm Realty Income for $11.4 million. The sale closed on December 11. The property has been owned by Los Angeles investor CIM group since 2014.

Realty Income owned a total of 58 properties in Massachusetts as of the end of September. Their national portfolio focuses on properties housing retail businesses like Dollar General, Walgreens and 7-Eleven.

Located at 560 Main Street, the Price Chopper site comprises 11 acres and was last assessed for $3.7 million by the city of Gardner.

Sales of investment properties occur frequently and seldom directly impact the lessees, who generally have leases for as long as 20 years. A greater general concern is the falling property values revealed in these local sales.

The Mall at Whitney Field has changed hands four times in 13 years and has plummeted in value over that time. In 2007 Walton Whitney Investors paid $87 million for the former Searstown Mall at the junction of Rtes 2 and 13 and I-190. In 2013, the mall was sold for $36 million to Clnc Reo Whitney LLC, an entity of Colony Capital of Los Angeles, CA. On December 24, The Mall at Whitney Field was sold to Leo Ma Mall LLC, a division of Hull Property Group of Augusta, Georgia for $16 million.

The mall is anchored by Sears, Macy's, JCPenney, Market Basket and Burlington, and has been appraised at $6 million by the Town of Leominster.

Macy's announced this week that it will be closing its store at the Mall at Whitney Field after operating in that location for 18 years. A clearance sale will begin in January and run for eight to twelve weeks. Employees will be offered positions in other stores or given severance packages, including "outplacement resources." Macy's is closing 28 stores nationwide; the Whitney Field location is the only closure in Massachusetts.