One of Cobb County's best-known shopping hubs has quietly changed hands after a rocky few years. Town Center at Cobb, the struggling regional mall in Kennesaw northwest of Atlanta, now belongs to an affiliate of Atlanta-based Ardent Cos., which picked it up at a public foreclosure auction last week for roughly $51.8 million. That price is only a fraction of what the property once commanded, capping a stretch marked by liens, unpaid taxes and a headline-grabbing power shutdown that rattled tenants and local officials.
Sale Details And Price
State real estate records show an Ardent affiliate acquired Town Center at Cobb for nearly $51.8 million at the auction. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that sale number is roughly one-sixth of the mall's estimated value about a decade ago and comes in at about 27 percent below what the previous owner paid only three years earlier.
How The Auction Played Out
Property filings show that an Ardent affiliate foreclosed on a $46.7 million loan tied to the mall, then an LLC connected to the firm emerged as the top bidder at around $51.75 million. That sequence was first reported by Bisnow. Court documents reviewed by reporters indicate the loan had already matured and that unpaid interest and fees likely nudged the final bid above the outstanding loan balance. The foreclosure effectively closes the chapter on Kohan Retail Investment Group's recent ownership and transfers the asset to an Atlanta-based investor group.
Kohan's Troubled Tenure
Kohan bought the mall for about $71 million in 2023, but the deal never translated into a clean turnaround. Vacancies, tax delinquencies and deferred maintenance continued to weigh on the property during its tenure, according to reporting by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Lenders were already zeroing in on the mall's core retail footprint, measured in the hundreds of thousands of square feet, even before last year's power shutoff put an exclamation point on the center's struggles.
Officials Push For Mixed-Use Future
The Town Center Community Improvement District is framing the ownership shakeup as a fresh start. The group says the change gives the corridor a shot at new investment and a broader reimagining of what the mall can be. In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the CID said, "Working closely with Cobb County and other partners, we are excited about the future of this area as a high-quality, mixed-use destination."
What Shoppers And Tenants Can Expect
For now, analysts say most storefronts are likely to keep the lights on while Ardent figures out its game plan. Long term, the playbook could include straightforward reinvestment, a partial redevelopment or a more gradual repositioning of the massive site. Observers caution that the timing is fuzzy and that "what comes next for Town Center remains unclear," reporting shows. The foreclosure sale hands Ardent control of a major Cobb County asset that could be held as is, upgraded or significantly transformed, depending on market demand and the direction county planners decide to go.
