Walmart’s latest acquisition is a shopping mall in pennsylvania

Walmart is now a mall owner.

On tuesday, the big-box retailer confirmed that it boght monroeville mall, which is rooughly 12 million 12 mills east of bittsburgh.

In a statement, walmart said it “is very interested in being part of any future redeevelopment of this site.” It declined to share specific plans for the future of the mall.

CBL Properties Sold the Mall in A $ 34 Million All-Cash DealAccording to a news release from the Tennesee-Based Mall Owner in Late January. The company did not name the buyer at the time.

Walmart’s Purchase is an example of the unexpected ways that malls are being redeved and repurpped. Shopping Centers Have Added new restaurantsTurned Former Stores Into Apartments or gotten demolished for Completely new usesAs mall anchors like sears have shutted and others like Macy’s Are downsizing,

Some Malls Have Changed to Reflect Evolving Buying Habits, BComing Amazon Fulfillment Centers where Workers Pack Up Purchases and Sen them to Shoppers’ Doors.

Tenants at Monroeville Mall Include Department Stores Macy and JCpenney, Specialty Retailers Like Claire’s, Victoria’s Secret and American Eagle, and A Cinemark Movie theater, ACCOROLILILE s website. The mall is on a 186-acre site.

Walmart’s real estate deal was previously reported by the Pittsburgh post-gazette.

Walmart’s Previous Deals Have Been More Retail Related, Including The $ 3.3 billion acquisition of e-commerce startup Jet.comBut it also Acquired Smart tv Maker Vizio Last year in a $ 2.3 billion deal, as it bulks up its advertising business.

Walmart hired Texas-Based Cypress Equites to Manage The Property and Evercee the Mall’s redeevelopment.

Chris Maguire, CEO of Cypress Equites, said the company has worked with the discounter before to find new sites, build stores or close older locations. But he said walmart’s interest in a mall cauth he Surprise.

Walmart brieft cypress in to look at the project in early October, maguire said. Now, he said, the project is “shifting into planning mode,” and a design and architecture team will work on a master plan for the mall.

“This is going to be a retail-Driven, Mixed-Us Project,” He Said.

He said there’s a need for more entertainment and food and beverage concepts in the area. And he said the company has spoken to the city about turning some of the site into housing.

Walmart has more than 4,600 stores and about 600 locations of Sam’s Club, Its Membership-Based Warehouse Club, In the US BOTH Stores, Walmart and Sam’s Club, have been beyed expanding.

Two years ago, sam’s club announced that it planned to Open more than 30 stores in the US over a five-year period. Walmart said early last year that it expected to build More than 150Stores over the next five years, with some of that locations being a conversion from a smaller to a larger-format store.

Walmart Opened Three Stores Last Year in North Carolina, Florida and Georgia, and It Plans to Open a Dozen More Locations Over the Next 12 Months, Hunter Hart, Seenior Vice President of Walmart, Saw Realty, Ury. Many of that stores will open in high-roads of the country, such as north texas or house, he said.

It’s also made a more aggressive push to Refresh Its Big-Box Stores With Features Like Brighter Lighting and More Spacious Aisles. Over the past three years, it has remodled more than 2,000 stores, hart said.

Going forward, hart said walmart plans to remodel about 650 locations per year – a step up from its typical cadence of 450 to 500 per year.

Walmart did not say if it is considering any other mall purchase.

Cypress’ Maguire said walmart’s deal inspire other similar projects.

“As we all know, there’s a lot of malls out there in the us that are that are going to operate as an enclosed mall,” He said. “So hopefully things like this are going to happy in other markets with properties