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I think it is prudent to distinguish between a well-thought out plan to evolve a mall into the next iteration and one where mall owners are trying something new just for the sake of it being new - such as leasing retail space for office tenants. I think after it is all behind us we will all see that reducing the retail aspect to stick on some offices was a bad decision. A mall is commercial retail and should only be commercial retail. If office, light industrial, government or hotels want to be co-located they can do so, outside of the mall proper. Where hotels and to a lesser extent office structures pull this off is on the grand scale such as hotels I Las Vegas or offices in major CBD's. I don't think that formulae will work in Charleston and I agree converting from a store to offices is much easier than converting from offices to a store, but Brickstreet, tore down the old Montgomery Wards structure before building their offices.
The only part of the Montgomery Ward structure that was demolished was the former automotive center. The rest ins still standing.
Two questions for you all to ponder over and respond to:
Q1> What types of stores would you like to see come to the CTC to replace empty spaces?
For me:
1/(If sears had to be filled by one store only) Nordstrom Rack, Belk, or some kind of entertainment venue.
2/(If Sears can be sub-divided between multiple stores) Stein Mart, Trader Joe's, Barnes & Noble, LLBean, REI, or LA Fitness
3/ Eddie Bauer, North Face, Colombia, or something similar
4/ (former Five Guys) Noodle's & Company or Smashburger
5/ Urban Outfitters, American Apparel, or a more trendier clothing store
Q2> What stores won't make it too much longer in the Town Center?
I'd have to say Hollister and one of the women's clothing stores like Christopher and Banks
Q1 .1 Boscov's, Belk or Peebles (Boscov's took over the former Sears location in Wheeling's Ohio Valley Mall and even expanded it. I hear they are doing quite well.)
Q1.2 Subdivide the first floor with an Old Navy, Barnes and Noble among others and relocate the senior services bureau to that area; you'll have about 40,000 sq. ft. to use on that one floor, remember, the entire Sears store was 120,000 sq. ft. Let the food court be a food court again with a Cheesecake Factory, Dairy Queen - Orange Julius and see if McDonald's would come back.
For the second and third floors, try to get a dept. store such as Boscov's, Belk or Peebles.
I think Planet Fitness, an auto shop like Pep Boys or a restaurant or two would be a good fit for the former Sears Auto Center building. Might not have enough parking for Trader Joe's.
Q1.3 Eddie Bauer or North Face.
Q1.4 Boston Market or Cheddar's Casual Cafe.
Q1.5 Beg The Gap to come back to CTC or Urban Outfitters.
Q2I agree on Hollister and one or two of the teen demographic stores.
I've heard Stein Mart is focusing their attentions on cities of 100,000+ population, however, maybe they'd consider Charleston when you factor in Kanawha County's population.
You want to start a bookstore? In 2017? One that would compete not only with the one already in the mall but also with one of your local small business success stories (Taylor Books)?
IF the CTC could land Banana Republic, Eddie Bauer, Brookstone and/or North Face it would certainly help the property with pulling in some additional customers. That along with a new hotel on the Civic Center property.
At least something like Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's or one of those make your own pizza places would offer some variety.
IF the CTC could land Banana Republic, Eddie Bauer, Brookstone and/or North Face it would certainly help the property with pulling in some additional customers. That along with a new hotel on the Civic Center property.
At least something like Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang's or one of those make your own pizza places would offer some variety.
The problem with CTC has always been that it was too expensive to be there and in the beginning to expensive to not be there for a retailer. That has changed as other retail centers have come into the picture and even Capitol St has been coming back over the last 20 years. The prices for square footage at CTC have only gone up.
I look for more stores to pull out of the mall before the corner is turned. it will continue on a downward slide until a new owner comes into the picture. The current operators all know they are one phone call from unemployment and they have mothering further to get from running the mall well. It is a dire time in this mall for every retailer. I wish it were better but it is going to be a long time before it gets better there and then only if the new owners want to do more than be overseers for the closing of the mall.
None of the above mentioned retailers or restaurants are going to be coming to the Town Center. Several stores are closed or are in the process of closing and 2018 will only see more of that.
The only chance that the CTC has is if a major new anchor tenant comes in. For this to happen the city will have to offer incentives. They dropped the ball once already with Dillard's and historically that will probably be looked back upon as the nail in the coffin.
If by some miracle with the next administration (and none of the candidates so far look to be capable of going outside box that is WV for ideas) if that administration decides to throw a hail Mary and try to save the place and do something to bring a new anchor then you might see some of the stores mentioned above give it a try.
I'd say it is more likely that Macy's will not renew in 2019 on their lease and JCP may not even be a company by then. Thus no anchor stores and therefore no mall.
And I'm really tired of hearing the mayor blame it all on Amazon and the internet too because the city dropping the ball on this one is as much to blame as is Amazon.
None of the above mentioned retailers or restaurants are going to be coming to the Town Center. Several stores are closed or are in the process of closing and 2018 will only see more of that.
The only chance that the CTC has is if a major new anchor tenant comes in. For this to happen the city will have to offer incentives. They dropped the ball once already with Dillard's and historically that will probably be looked back upon as the nail in the coffin.
If by some miracle with the next administration (and none of the candidates so far look to be capable of going outside box that is WV for ideas) if that administration decides to throw a hail Mary and try to save the place and do something to bring a new anchor then you might see some of the stores mentioned above give it a try.
I'd say it is more likely that Macy's will not renew in 2019 on their lease and JCP may not even be a company by then. Thus no anchor stores and therefore no mall.
And I'm really tired of hearing the mayor blame it all on Amazon and the internet too because the city dropping the ball on this one is as much to blame as is Amazon.
I think it is obvious that Forest City ran the mall in such a way that they could reap massive profits here and spend them elsewhere in their operations. Remember how long we saw that ugly terra cotta tile on the floor? It was original and was not replaced until just a few years ago with peel and stick carpet that looked dirty out of the Big Lots boxes.
I agree that the bulk of the problem with the mall has Mayor Danny Jones. He has never been a good mayor. He has allowed the city to drop below the critical 50,000 population benchmark without making the required effort to avoid that issue. He has seen both of the cities only fortune 500 companies leave town - MRC Global and United Bank. Both "officially" have corporate HQs here but they are just place holders, all of the corporate operations are in Houston and Washington D C respectively. He instituted another tax on anyone working in town with that Users Fee and he even over saw the city spending several million dollars for a new fire station out on Corridor G, only to turn it over to South Charleston soon after it went into operation.
He should have pushed Forest City but if I recall correctly, he has given them tax abatements and reduced the tax drawn from the parking fees. I could be wrong on both of those, but I do recall reading about both over the years.
He takes credit for the building of Power Park but that was already a done deal before he took office, even though it was not completely constructed until a year after he came into office.
I have talked to a few business leaders and they say the business operation cost in the city are a massive weight to carry when it is not necessary to do so, but changing their address to South Charleston or better yet outside of Kanawha County altogether. I spoke to a coal company COO recently and asked why he had a small office in another state but all his operations were in West Virginia and he said it was the tax climate and he said the worst environment was Charleston.
I apologize for the rant but we have stupid people in office everywhere you look. it is no wonder we have issues with running a mall at a profit that has a cherry location and no competition. I think it was the stupidity level of our leadership like our Mayor that kept REIT from including CTC in the recent sale and not any concrete asset CTC has.
Charleston WV, too stupid and costly to do business with.
Last edited by mensaguy; 11-29-2017 at 05:00 AM..
Reason: Changing red text to blue
Speaking of Charleston corporations, Energy Corporation of America (ECA) has been sold to a private equity firm. I haven’t seen any stories on this but maybe they’re out there. ECA has been struggling pretty badly over the past couple years with low natural gas prices so this is probably a good thing for the company and Charleston. From what I understand, they aren’t going to lay anyone off and the new ownership will provide an infusion of much needed capital to increase drilling.
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