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WILKES-BARRE, PA-WP Edwardsville Associates, an affiliate of Bryn Mawr-based WP Realty, has acquired the 285,000-sf West Side Mall in the Edwardsville suburb here from Binghamton, NY-based EMA Associates LP. The center also includes an 80,000-sf building formerly occupied by an Ames Department Store.

John Fasciano and Michael Seaman, associates of Conshohocken-based Fameco Real Estate, structured the deal and represented the seller. They declined to disclose the price, which, according to published reports, is $23 million. The same report says the new owner filed an open-end, $26.6-million mortgage on the property. Bryan Weingarten, founder and president of WP, did not respond to GlobeSt.com inquiries.

EMA acquired the property in 2000, and, according to a Fameco spokesperson, "completely gutted and rebuilt it in 2001, and expanded it last year. It has a vacancy of 2% on the existing space," she says. WP plans to redevelop and expand the center, and the Fameco spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that it "has proposed a Lowe's Home Improvement Center for the Ames space." Among the mall's current tenants are Price Chopper, Rite Aid, AJ Wright and Jo-Ann Fabrics.