PREIT Reveals The Gallery’s New Look

Everything about the decrepit Gallery at Market East may be about to change.

Under an intended top-to-bottom renovation, one of Center City’s most notorious dead spots would be reborn as a gleaming glass-and-steel emporium – brimming with brand-name discount fashion shops, destination restaurants, and lively sidewalk cafés.

Even the name would be new. Welcome, shoppers, to the Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia.

Details of the plan were provided exclusively to The Inquirer in advance of a series of meetings by government agencies whose support is vital to the project. The news marks a grand unveiling of plans for the Gallery following years of uncertainty and speculation.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20150415_PREIT_reveals_the_Gallery_s_new_look.html#ZjuIZxyXWmB7TTV1.99

Franklin Mills Reinvents Itself As A More Conventional Mall

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

A sky-high crane dangles over a corner of Franklin Mills Mall these days, but it is more than a towering construction tool: It is a symbol of how necessity is the mother of reinvention at this once-legendary shopping mall.

A Walmart Supercenter is taking shape at the once-pioneering complex, which opened nearly 25 years ago with theme-park anticipation as among the first outlet malls, and the outright largest, ever built. The splashy development, unveiled in 1989, was a gamble befitting its locale, a onetime Northeast Philadelphia racetrack. And early on, its unmatched offerings paid off with packed corridors.

The mall flaunted a 1.2-mile-long, zigzag-shaped concourse, and more than 200 stores hawking discount designer goods, at a time when such wares were available only at out-of-the-way old-factory outlets. Its 1.7 million square feet of bargain buys, right off I-95, was a tourist draw and local sensation.

But the megamall’s early monopoly on outlet shopping has come to an end, forcing Franklin Mills to alter its once-irresistible identity. The Walmart is one of many tenants that now make the monolith, well, a bit more ordinary. And this is by design.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20131226_Franklin_Malls_reinvents_itself_as_a_more_conventional_mall.html#B6GQUXeWYThVsWmy.99

Sears Opening Appliance Store In Pottstown

POTTSTOWN — The Pottstown Center shopping center will soon be getting a new tenant.

Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores will be opening a Sears Home Appliance Showroom in late April in the center off Route 100 and Shoemaker Road.  The store will provide customers with access to home appliances, mattresses and services through Sears.

Read more:  http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/20130316/NEWS01/130319468/sears-opening-appliance-store-in-pottstown

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.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=390171

Sears Shedding Some Stores, Reports 4Q Loss

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Editor’s note:  More bad news for Sears!

NEW YORK (AP) — Sears said Thursday that it’s unloading some of its profit-busting stores, but the retailer fell short of revealing how it plans to woo shoppers back into its remaining ones.

Investors have long speculated that the troubled retailer could sell off its massive real estate holdings to generate extra cash. But industry watchers say that will do little to solve Sears’ main problem: Rivals have been able to lure customers away from the chain because of its drab stores and unexciting merchandise.

“The image is atrocious. The stores are old and they’re run down. They don’t look like a nice place to visit,” said Ron Friedman, a partner in the retail and consumer products industry group of accounting firm Marcum, LLP in New York. “I don’t think that the Sears we see today can be around from a year today. It has to change.”

As part of a plan to turnaround the company, Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, Ill., said on Thursday that it will spin off of its smaller Hometown and Outlet stores as well as some hardware stores in a deal expected to raise $400 million to $500 million.

Read more: http://www.timesleader.com/news/ap?Sears-shedding-some-stores,-reports-4Q-loss&a=2569024&e=42200#ixzz1nPsFjNXD

J.C. Penney Closing Stores – Dropping Catalog Business

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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.