WYOMISSING, Pa. – The Berkshire Mall in Berks County is in the midst of changing hands, and we’re learning more about what the future holds for the 55-year-old shopping destination.

Reports say most of the building could be torn down to make way for something new.

We’re told all this information is very preliminary, but a potential new developer reportedly has an initial agreement to buy the property and has major changes in mind for the space. 

The owner of the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing – Namdar Realty Group – tells 69 News the property is under contract to be sold.

According to a report in the Philadelphia Business Journal, the plan is to demolish everything, except the Boscov’s store.

Boscov’s CEO Jim Boscov says the store plans to stay there regardless of what happens with the mall, and he says the news of the sale is a positive thing and is excited about the new developer.

“This is the best piece of real estate in Wyomissing for retail, and I think there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in the infrastructure… we’ve done it in front of our store, but the rest of the mall needs to be worked on and he’s planning to do that,” Boscov said.

The nearly 60-acre property is decades old and has had problems that borough officials say spanned from stormwater issues to safety concerns, which led to parts of the parking lot being closed for the past year. Boscov says the current owner did not keep up with the property.

“They did cut back on all the services here but I don’t know that they were counting on the subsidence that occurred in the parking lot and it created a major expense and then Wyomissing was very good about saying, you need to fix this and the cost of doing that is tremendous and that didn’t fit into their business plan and just as we had hoped that that pressure invited them to welcome an offer to sell the property,” Boscov said.

A number of stores are still open inside the mall. No word on exactly what the future looks like with them, but according to the article in the Philadelphia Business Journal and Boscov, the new developer plans to redevelop retail space on the site.