Fairgrounds Square Mall Sells At Auction For $13.6 Million

Editor’s note:  Hopefully somebody can turn Fairgrounds Square around.  It needs some TLC.

The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. today bought the

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Berks County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fairgrounds Square Mall for $13.6 million, pending judicial approval.

The mall is expected to remain open and continue to operate.

An attorney for the trustee was the only bidder at the sale, performed by the U.S. Marshal Service in Philadelphia, said Patrick Ennis, supervisory criminal investigator civil unit for the marshals.

The mall was scheduled for marshal sale after GP-Fairgrounds Square LP, the mall owner, failed to meet its financial obligations.

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J.C. Penney Outlet In Fairgrounds Square Mall In Transition To Broader Based Store

JC Penney is one of the three department stores at the mall. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The J.C. Penney Outlet, one the three anchor stores at the Fairgrounds Square Mall, is experiencing growing pains.

The store is transitioning to a new outlet store with a new name, JC’s 5 Star Outlet, and an expanded inventory of closeouts from various manufacturers.

For now, store manager Bob Williams wants to focus on one thing: letting customers know that the store is open for business with no plans to close.

“Last year, when J.C. Penney decided to get out of the outlet business, customers were led to believe that we would be leaving,” Williams said.

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J.C. Penney Closing Stores – Dropping Catalog Business

Image via Wikipedia

I guess all good things come to an end.  J.C. Penney is getting out of the catalog business and closing all 19 of their catalog outlet stores.

This is possibly bad news for the Fairgrounds Square Mall, in Muhlenberg Township, which has a J.C. Penney catalog outlet store.  The store used to be a regular J.C. Penney and is one of the mall anchor stores.  The Fairgrounds location converted to the catalog outlet format in 1999. 

No closing date has been set other than it will be sometime in 2011 – 2012.  J.C. Penney would not say whether the store will close or convert back to a standard J.C. Penney retail store.

This would leave Boscov’s and Burlington Coat Factory as the remaining anchor stores in the event Penney’s pulls out of the Fairgrounds Square Mall.