By Kim Leonard, TRIBUNE-REVIEWSaturday, January 10, 2009
Century III Mall owner Simon Property Group Inc. said Friday it's working to find new tenants or uses for two large, anchor store spaces that will be emptied through liquidation sales.
Jackets, skirts and T-shirts were selling for a few dollars each this week at Steve & Barry's, which is closing all its stores. Sofas, tables and other furniture pieces will be sold off starting Wednesday at a Macy's Furniture Gallery and clearance center.
The West Mifflin retail complex has battled rumors in recent years that it is on the verge of closing. Real estate firms have said the mall has been marketed for sale in recent years, but Simon has said it doesn't discuss any plans to sell properties.
"There is no plan as of right now, but we have an active leasing department that is trying to find other uses for that space," Century III's Marketing Manager Chris Jamison said of Steve & Barry's.
Possibilities include using the first-floor space for special events, at least for the time being, she said. The furniture store is being targeted for an "even more appealing" new use, Simon spokesman Les Morris said after Macy's announcement Thursday that it will close that location and 10 other underperforming stores.
Together, Steve & Barry's and Macy's represent more than 10 percent of the space at the 1.29-million-square-foot West Mifflin mall, where the vacancy rate already was running at above 20 percent two years ago.
"Ruby Tuesday's restaurant closed. Steve & Barry's is closing. It's a sign of the times, I guess," Christopher Kurzawa of Upper St. Clair said this week as he left Steve & Barry's with two bags of clearance items. Still, Century III is a nice, convenient place to shop and a good place to bring his family, he said.
Jamison and mall Manager Gina Mercorelli said yesterday that Century III has about 120 stores with four large anchors -- a Macy's department store that will remain open, plus Dick's Sporting Goods, J.C. Penney and Sears. In the past, the store count was listed as high as 180.
The mall that will celebrate its 30th birthday later this year is in the midst of a Route 51 commercial district that features a Super Wal-Mart, Kohl's and other major retailers next door at Century Ridge Crossing, and restaurants and shops at other centers.
According to data released yesterday, retailers cut 522,000 jobs in 2008, the worst year since 1939 for workers in the industry, and layoffs are expected to continue as more stores close. The Macy's furniture outlet has three employees, while a Macy's department store that is closing in Natrona Heights has 124 workers.
Ruby Tuesday's closed Dec. 7, and the restaurant chain said it has shut down or will close around 70 stores. K Bee Toys is liquidating stock at Century III and other locales. Whitehall Jewelers, another retailer quitting business, has shut down at the mall, and another jeweler, Citron, has posted store closing signs.
Duquesne University marketing professor Audrey Guskey said Century III remains "a nice mall, and at one point it was the mall to go to." Still, shoppers are willing to travel farther, to the expanded Ross Park Mall, for example, and to the new Tanger Outlet Center near Washington.
"My understanding is that Tanger did well this season" and pulled shoppers away from South Hills Village and retailers in Robinson, as well as Century III, Guskey said.
