Chambersburg Mall Loses Bon-Ton; Potentially Dismal Days Ahead (Williamsport, Penn: loan, hotels)

[Dequindre]

Bright red-and-yellow signs scream "entire store on sale" and "store closing" at the entrance of what will soon be yet another former department store at Chambersburg Mall.

The Bon-Ton is the only remaining major department store at the mall, and it is expected to close its doors in the next 10-12 weeks, in late June or early July, according to the mall's general manager, Dan May. The company announced early last week it plans to close and liquidate the last of its more than 200 stores.

https://www.publicopiniononline.com/...ain/541842002/

[Dequindre]

Chambersburg Mall is in a bit of a pickle. It's far away from the bulk of population in Chambersburg, it's located in a dry township, and the tenant mix continues to get worse. Redevelopment may be the only option at this point.

[Wells5]

I wonder if the mall is still owned by Mason Asset Management Group/ Namdar Realty Group? See link.


http://www.city-data.com/forum/penns...ying-mall.html

[jtab4994]

Malls killed Main Street, Big Boxes killed Malls, now Amazon is killing Big Boxes. Eventually 3D printers will kill internet retailing and who knows what will kill 3D printers.


Sorry to see malls go, but I've always been a Main Street kind of guy. There are fewer cookie-cutter stores on Main Street, especially these days.

[Dequindre]

Originally Posted by Wells5

I wonder if the mall is still owned by Mason Asset Management Group/ Namdar Realty Group? See link.


http://www.city-data.com/forum/penns...ying-mall.html

I'm pretty sure it is. They were one of the firms trying to buy Bon-Ton, precisely because they own many malls with Bon-Ton anchors.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by jtab4994

Malls killed Main Street, Big Boxes killed Malls, now Amazon is killing Big Boxes. Eventually 3D printers will kill internet retailing and who knows what will kill 3D printers.


Sorry to see malls go, but I've always been a Main Street kind of guy. There are fewer cookie-cutter stores on Main Street, especially these days.

Agreed 1000%.

[Dequindre]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Agreed 1000%.

At least in Chambersburg's case, the death of the mall has brought stores to the Borough limits, so the town is benefiting.

[briantroutman]

A similar scenario is playing out near my hometown of Williamsport. The Lycoming Mall—another former Crown American property, like Chambersburg Mall—opened in 1978 as downtown Williamsport began a very swift slide into irrelevance. In my childhood in the ’80s and ’90s, virtually no one went downtown unless they had to meet with a loan officer at the bank or or were summoned to jury duty.

In 2017, Lycoming Mall lost its Macy’s, then JCPenney, and then Sears. Now with the impending dissolution of Bon-Ton Stores, Inc., the mall will be entirely without department stores or anchors. Other notable retail bankruptcies (Toys R Us, Gander Mountain, Aéropostale) have also taken a toll on Lycoming Mall, and the percentage of unleased square footage will probably be in the neighborhood of 60% by this summer. I don’t see how Lycoming can survive as a viable shopping venue, and it’s so far removed from the center of population in the county that it might not be suitable for redevelopment as some kind of mixed use facility with offices, retail, and living spaces.

Ironically, the mall’s swift collapse came only a half-dozen years after a separate strip plaza (Lycoming Crossings) was built adjacent to the mall—a “suburb” of a soon-to-be-dead mall, if you will. I realize that store types and configurations are rather rigid (e.g. a certain type of store that inhabits an unenclosed “power center” typically doesn’t go into an enclosed shopping mall), but I can’t help but think that if this retail activity was redirected into the mall rather than parasitically siphoning it off, the Lycoming Mall would be in better health today.

And circling back to downtown Williamsport 40 years later: Now the city itself has seen what I consider to be an impressive level of reinvestment, including large retailers (Wegmans, Kohl’s) several new or renovated hotels on the walkable downtown street grid, and numerous local restaurants—as the mall begins is swift slide into irrelevance.

[Tractor Face]

I don't know who thought a mall was a good idea there. Heck, even if it was placed right in the middle of town it wouldn't survive. Malls are just too expensive anyway for many of the shoppers in Chambersburg. They can't support stores like the Dollar Store or Five Below. You know what does really well in Chambersburg? Yard sales. That should tell you something.

[Dequindre]

Originally Posted by briantroutman

A similar scenario is playing out near my hometown of Williamsport. The Lycoming Mall—another former Crown American property, like Chambersburg Mall—opened in 1978 as downtown Williamsport began a very swift slide into irrelevance. In my childhood in the ’80s and ’90s, virtually no one went downtown unless they had to meet with a loan officer at the bank or or were summoned to jury duty.

In 2017, Lycoming Mall lost its Macy’s, then JCPenney, and then Sears. Now with the impending dissolution of Bon-Ton Stores, Inc., the mall will be entirely without department stores or anchors. Other notable retail bankruptcies (Toys R Us, Gander Mountain, Aéropostale) have also taken a toll on Lycoming Mall, and the percentage of unleased square footage will probably be in the neighborhood of 60% by this summer. I don’t see how Lycoming can survive as a viable shopping venue, and it’s so far removed from the center of population in the county that it might not be suitable for redevelopment as some kind of mixed use facility with offices, retail, and living spaces.

Ironically, the mall’s swift collapse came only a half-dozen years after a separate strip plaza (Lycoming Crossings) was built adjacent to the mall—a “suburb” of a soon-to-be-dead mall, if you will. I realize that store types and configurations are rather rigid (e.g. a certain type of store that inhabits an unenclosed “power center” typically doesn’t go into an enclosed shopping mall), but I can’t help but think that if this retail activity was redirected into the mall rather than parasitically siphoning it off, the Lycoming Mall would be in better health today.

And circling back to downtown Williamsport 40 years later: Now the city itself has seen what I consider to be an impressive level of reinvestment, including large retailers (Wegmans, Kohl’s) several new or renovated hotels on the walkable downtown street grid, and numerous local restaurants—as the mall begins is swift slide into irrelevance.

Many of the early Crown American malls are in bad shape. They all had similar ailing anchor store chains, such as Sears, JCPenney, Hess's (bought by Bon-Ton), Bee Gee (went out of business), Macy's, etc. Crown American never really reinvested much in their small town malls either, so they're all kind of in poor physical shape. It's a shame because many of these smaller malls are all that their communities have.