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A Brooklyn, N.Y.-based real estate investor is apparently the high bidder on downtown Milwaukee's Shops of Grand Avenue mall.

A new business entity, Grand Avenue Mall LLC, filed incorporation papers with the state Department of Financial Institutions on Wednesday. It lists Alexander Levin, of Brooklyn, as its organizer.

Levin couldn't be reached for comment Thursday. His attorney, Eric Palatnik, declined to comment on the impending purchase of the Grand Avenue, which is to close within a few weeks.

Levin also is listed as a principal of other companies, including an investors group which owns a retail property at 2027 Emmons Ave., in the Sheepshead Bay community of Brooklyn.

The filing for Grand Avenue Mall LLC lists that group's main office at that same address.

An online auction of the Grand Avenue ended Oct. 23 with a high bid of $16.5 million, according to Auction.com, which conducted the sale. That amount is just over half the underused mall's 2005 sale price.

Auction.com didn't provide the identity of the high bidder, and a representative of the Grand Avenue's owner declined to comment.

Local nonprofit group WAM DC LLC, which stands for Wisconsin Avenue Milwaukee Development Corp. Limited Liability Co., dropped out of the bidding just before the high bid was announced.

Milwaukee attorney Steve Chernof, who leads WAM DC, said Thursday he hasn't been contacted by Levin. But Chernof hopes to hear from him.

"I hope he's terrific, and has a great plan," Chernof said. "We'd love to talk to him, to see if we can be helpful."

The 293,596-square-foot mall, 275 W. Wisconsin Ave., and its 1,748-stall parking structure are being sold by a Bank of America investors fund affiliate. The fund acquired the Grand Avenue at a 2012 foreclosure sale.

The city Redevelopment Authority board two weeks ago approved a plan to provide up to $20 million in tax-exempt financing for WAM DC to buy and redevelop the Grand Avenue.

WAM DC has a conceptual idea of converting much of the mall's Plankinton Arcade into space for local colleges and universities to collaborate on programs. Chernof has had preliminary discussions with some of those institutions.

The mall's newer space, between the Plankinton Arcade and the Boston Store building, would likely have both retail and other uses under WAM DC's plans.

A Sept. 29 New York Daily News article says Levin's plan to expand his Emmons Ave. property, Loehmann's Seaport Plaza, has run into opposition.

Levin says adding another floor, with offices, would help improve a three-story property that was hurt by flooding during Hurricane Sandy. He's trying to demonstrate hardship in order to obtain a variance from zoning laws that strictly limit the size of waterfront properties in Sheepshead Bay.

But community activists say using Hurricane Sandy to obtain a variance would set a bad precedent of allowing large developments in flood-prone areas.

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