WAUSAU — A Miami-based investment banking firm is the new owner of Wausau Center mall, after the sale was confirmed Monday in Marathon County Circuit Court.

Court records show Deutsche Bank Trust Company of Miami bought the financially troubled mall for $12.8 million at a July 25 Sheriff sale. The transaction is now final.

The sale could mark a new chapter for the mall, which has been in decline for years. Still, it is unclear whether the sale will impact plans for a 10-screen movie theater in the former Sears space. City leaders in February approved a $1 million forgivable loan for the project, which was expected to break ground in April.

The Sears property, which the city acquired for $650,000 earlier this year, is attached to the Wausau Center mall and has been vacant since Sears shuttered the store more than a year ago. Micon, a family-owned theater company with theaters in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls, plans is expected to invest roughly $10 million into the movie theater project. But those plans have stalled amid complications regarding a shared wall between the Sears building and the mall itself.

When Wausau Center opened in 1983, the mall, then owned by the Jacobs Group, was a bustling 424,000 square-foot regional center with three anchor tenants: J.C. Penney, Sears, and Prange’s, which evolved into Younkers. Of those three, only Younkers remains today.

CBL & Associates Properties, the firm that acquired the mall in 2001, said they spent significant time and resources over a two-year period to revitalize the mall, but delays, city approval and other red tape hindered their progress. As a result, CBL turned its nearly $18 million mortgage back to the bank, essentially walking away from the property.

When CBL defaulted on the loan, Rialto Capital Management of Miami hired Mid-America Real Estate Group of Milwaukee to take over the mall. Court documents indicate Wells Fargo Bank initially issued the loan but the plaintiff in the case, the current lender, was changed in April to Deutsche Bank, the entity that ultimately purchased the mall at auction.