Florida company buys troubled Belleville strip mall while former owner awaits sentencing
Belleville Crossing’s main strip mall is under new ownership after suffering from neglect, vacancies and other problems for years.
A Florida company that develops and manages shopping centers bought it in November from a court-appointed receiver, St. Clair County records show. The $6.5 million sale, which had to be approved by a federal judge, wasn’t recorded until last month.
The purchase didn’t include The Home Depot and Target buildings — which are owned by their respective companies — or smaller strip malls and free-standing businesses on outlots.
Cliff Cross, Belleville’s director of economic development, planning and zoning, said Wednesday that officials are “enthusiastic and encouraged.”
“It’s positive that someone has taken over and made a private investment (in the strip mall) because it gets it out of that receivership,” he said. “We hope we can get those empty storefronts filled and get that thing back going the way we’d like to see it.”
The strip mall was formerly owned by AT Belleville Crossing IL Inline under the umbrella of Arciterra Companies, based in Arizona and Florida. A federal judge appointed Trigild Inc. as receiver nearly two years ago.
Arciterra’s principal owner, Jonathan Larmore, is awaiting sentencing in federal court on a fraud conviction. In a civil lawsuit, investors claimed he misappropriated more than $35 million to support a lavish lifestyle that included a six-figure birthday party for his dog.
The strip mall’s new owner, Timber Belleville Properties, is part of Timber Development Corp., according to an employee who answered the telephone on Tuesday.
“We’re planning some improvements,” said the employee, who declined to give his name. He referred other questions to the company’s owner, who didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Timber Development is based in Longwood, Florida. It was founded in 1992 by Michael Timmons and Douglas Bercu.
“We currently own and manage over 25 active properties in 13 different states, with an average of 92% leased space,” its website states.
The entire Belleville Crossing development covers about 50 acres, northeast of Illinois 15 and Frank Scott Parkway.
Cross noted last year that the city has a financial interest in the shopping center’s success. Half of property taxes in a tax-increment-financing district and an additional 1% sales tax in a business district are being used to reimburse it for $18 million in rebates given to developers in 2006.
A St. Louis-based company known as The DESCO Group, which is affiliated with the Schnucks supermarket family, was the original developer of Belleville Crossing. It opened it in 2007.
Four years later, The DESCO Group sold the main strip mall and two smaller strip malls on outlots to two limited-liability companies formed under the Arciterra Companies umbrella. Larmore and his family also operated shopping centers in other U.S. cities.
By the early 2020s, Belleville Crossing tenants and city officials were complaining about tall weeds, malfunctioning signs, overflowing trash receptacles and potholes. Several large storefronts were empty.
Then came the following legal actions:
- In May 2023, four investors sued Arciterra’s principal owners and executives in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois for allegedly failing to maintain the Belleville Crossing property, renew leases, fill vacancies or pay dividends, property taxes, insurance and utility bills. Larmore and his family had been “diverting Company assets to fund their unbelievably lavish lifestyle,” stated the civil lawsuit. The investors voluntarily dismissed it without prejudice that October, meaning it could be filed again.
- Also in May 2023, First Guaranty Bank in Hammond, Louisiana, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, reporting that Larmore and 11 companies under the Arciterra umbrella had defaulted on more than $35 million in bank loans. That case led a judge to appoint Trigild Inc. as receiver for Belleville Crossing and other shopping centers.
- In November 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Larmore, then 50, and Arciterra “entities” with fraud in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The civil lawsuit alleged a multiyear scheme to “misappropriate” more than $35 million in investor funds. That case is still open.
- In March 2024, Larmore was indicted on criminal charges of tender-offer and securities fraud in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors alleged that he used a “sham company” to falsely announce a $77 million tender offer for shares of WeWork stock as part of a scheme he intended to lure a rush of investors, artificially inflating its value and potentially making him millions of dollars. He was convicted in October 2024 and is awaiting sentencing. He could face up to 20 years in federal prison on each count.
