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Nashville developer buys Bradenton’s DeSoto Square Mall
By JAMES A. JONES JR.
Bradenton Herald
Published: Jul 15, 2022

Maybe Nashville businessman Charles R. Jones can do for DeSoto Square Mall what others have failed to: breathe new life into the 58-acre property. CRJ Bradenton LLC, a corporate name which includes his initials, bought the mall property at 303 301 Blvd. W. for $25.7 million, according to documents filed May 5 with the Manatee County Clerk of Courts office. “It’s an exciting location,” Jones told the Bradenton Herald in an exclusive phone interview Friday.

Jones and his company are working on plans for the property that could see it eventually redeveloped as apartments with some retail. “We believe in benevolent capitalism where people can earn equity in the property they are leasing if they stay in it for a certain time,” he said.

Portions of the property could be sold off to other developers. “It has the potential of having several apartment complexes. It would help the local economy and help us, too,” he said. Unlike some previous owners of the mall property who were somewhat shadowy corporate figures, Jones, 92, has a large online footprint detailing his story, including YouTube videos with Jones himself.

He was born in a tenant house on his grandfather’s farm in Gainesboro, Tenn., on June 21, 1930, and served as medical corpsman and later a psychiatric assistant with the U.S Army during the Korean War. After his military he went on to a long, successful career as an innovator, entrepreneur, developer, manager and educator. “We never expected to get rich. We just wanted to get unpoor,” Jones told the Herald. “The scriptures say your inner man is young, but your outer man is growing older by the day.”

Among properties that Jones bought and helped preserve, according to his website:

Werthan Mills Lofts Nashville complex completed in 2008 with 218 condo units.

Milky Way Farm in Giles County, Tenn., the former estate of Franklin C. Mars, founder of Mars Candies. The property is named for the company’s Milky Way candy bar and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district and its manor house is now a venue for special events.

A former convent building now housing therapists, bridal counselors, law offices, a hair salon and a music publishing company.

Macy’s at Global Mall at the Crossings, in Antioch, Tenn. Jones bought and sold the 172,404-square-foot property and used the proceeds toward buying the five-building, 53-acre former Nashville Memorial Hospital campus in Madison. DeSoto Square’s previous owner, Romspen U.S. Master Mortgage LP, acquired the property in an online bankruptcy auction Oct. 12-14, 2021. Romspen had foreclosed on New York-based Meyer Lebovitz in 2018 for defaulting on a $21,889,109 loan.

Lebovitz, who purchased the property in April 2017 for $22,850,000 had announced ambitious plans for revitalizing the mall, most of which were never realized. The mall, which opened in 1973 as the premier shopping area in Bradenton, closed its doors in 2021, with the exception of Hudson Furniture which continues to do business there. While facing foreclosure proceedings, the previous mall owner proposed redeveloping the property into 128,514 square-feet of retail, including a lifestyle center, a 40,000 square-foot grocery, 90,000-square-feet of office space and three retail outparcels, totaling 16,250-square feet. Also planned were hundreds of residential units.