Rug merchant buys Stamford Town Center for $20.15 million

In a turnaround of the trend which has mall owners like Brookfield and Simon buying retail chains, the high-end rug merchant Safavieh has purchased the Stamford Town Center mall in Stamford, Conn., from Taubman for $20.15 million.

Used as the backdrop for Woody Allen’s 1991 film, “Scenes from a Mall,” the 750,000-sq.-ft. property now becomes part of Yaraghi Realty, a Safavieh unit that owns or is developing nearly 15 miilion sq. ft. of commercial property.

A high-quality rug-maker in business since 1914, Safavieh opened a store on New York’s Madison Avenue in the Seventies and flourished by selling rugs made in Persia, India, Tibet, China, and Pakistan. The company later branched out into furniture and entered into licensing programs with, among others, Martha Stewart, David Easton, and Suzanne Kasler. Besides its New York store, Safavieh has showrooms in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and High Point, N.C.

“The Stamford Town Center is an iconic piece of the central business district landscape, which has the long-term potential to continue to provide retail, restaurants, and entertainment to the local community,” Yaraghi’s director of acquisitions and development Jonathan Yaraghi told the Westchester & Fairfield County Business Journals.

Stamford Town Center has suffered its share of store closings over the past year and lost the retail luster it had maintained for decades in upscale Fairfield County, which last year saw the opening of Brookfield’s SoNo Collection Mall in South Norwalk.