"Mall madness"
Anchor exits cause concern, but create opportunities for slumping properties
Anchor exits cause concern, but create opportunities for slumping properties
(Excerpt) Several San Antonio malls, already hit by competition with power centers, have taken another blow.The Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization of Texas retailer Stage Stores has led to the closing of four Bealls stores, three at local malls. Then, anchor tenant Montgomery Ward announced it was filing for bankruptcy liquidation, closing its stores at Windsor Park Mall, Crossroads Mall, Westlakes Mall and McCreless Mall.
To retail analysts, the situation for lower-end malls looks bleak. Some expect surviving retailers will slash operations further in an effort to cut costs in a belt-tightening market, resulting in more vacancies. In fact, this week J.C. Penney announced that it would close 50 stores.
Town centers such as the Derby Street Shoppes here are the latest answer. Because all stores can be entered from the parking lots, these topless malls satisfy busy shoppers' desire to run in and out.
Read the full article here.
Of course you know about Windsor Park Mall's fate, but what you may not know is that Westlakes and McCreless Malls were both hit equally hard by the shuttering of Wards and if they aren't dead, they're as good as.
ReplyDeleteCrossroads Mall stubbornly refuses to die, however, even though it's the most senior of the listed malls by far (it was the first mall in S.A. IIRC), due in part to its general tenacity and again in part to the high level of involvement by the surrounding community in making sure it doesn't die, come hell or high water. However, I don't see that mall existing as a traditional shopping structure for much longer. The food court is practically dead, the only shops of note are Stein Mart and Burlington Coat Factory, there's an art house cinema in-house that's doing a decent stock in trade but is pretty self-sufficient (in that it's a combination theater/eatery), the only thriving store on site is the Super Target that's in no way actually a part of the mall, and the only bright spot in the mall proper's recent history is the introduction of a convention center/series of reception ballrooms available for rent. And that and some doctor's offices on-site have been the only reasons for my being there this decade.