Macyโs has announced that it will be closing 68 store sin 2017, but the good news is, one of them wonโt be ours.
The department store chain, which announced in August that it would be closing 100 of its 700 stores by next year, announced 68 of its store closings and the Macyโs location at the Shops at Wiregrass mall was not on the list.
Thatโs good news, says Shops at Wiregrass general manager Greg Lenners.
โHaving a Macyโs, it basically rounds out the selection of stores that we have and itโs a great anchor to have,โโ Lenners says.
When Macyโs announced its potential closings last year, Morningstar Credit Ratings identified 28 locations that had sales below the companyโs national average for 2014, the most recent year information was available, putting them at higher risk.
The Wiregrass Macyโs was No. 8 on that list, reporting $118 in sales per sq. ft. The average for Macyโs overall in 2014 was $169 per sq. ft.
The other Florida store on the Morningstar Credit Ratings list was the Lakeland Square Mall location. That location did not survive and will close this spring.
Lenners says that despite the report, he never thought the location at his mall would be axed.
โWe always anticipated it wouldnโt close,โโ he says. โWe are in one of the fastest-growing communities in the state. It didnโt make sense why they would close it.โ
Of the 68 stores Macyโs will close, three have already been shuttered, with another 63 closings expected by the spring. The remaining two are set to close later this summer.
Lenners says he is pleased Macyโs, whose storefront faces the center โ and, probably, busiest — section of the mall, is staying open. He says the storeโs selection, as well as the selection at the other anchors, JC Penney and Dillardโs, fits the local shopping demographic perfectly.
Big-name anchors are generally considered vital to a mallโs success, and the loss of one can sometimes be a hint of a downward spiral.
Lenners, however, points to some recent and planned openings that show the mall is still growing and going strong.
A few months ago, PhoLicious, a Vietnamese noodle soup cafรฉ, opened, and on Jan. 8, Menchieโs Frozen Yogurt debuted.
By the time this issue arrives in your mailbox, the Chinese stir-fry kitchen Wok Chi, located near the Barnes & Noble, should be open as well.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Irish 31 is still expected to open this spring, and an Avalon Spa is under construction next to Dillardโs. Lenners says the mall also recently completed a lease agreement with Noble Crust, a trendy and popular St. Petersburg restaurant that offers โSeasonal Italian with Southern Soul.โ
Lenners also said the so-called โconnector siteโ to the east of the existing Shops at Wiregrass, which will include luxury apartments, a movie theater and a green grocer, is still making itโs way through the environmental permitting process, but hopes to break ground sometime in the fall.
โThereโs going to be lots of activity,โโ Lenners says.
For those of us who have previously toured the new Florida Hospital Center Ice (FCHI) off S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel, there were only two things missing โ people skating and the ice itself.
