Macy’s has announced that it will be closing 68 store sin 2017, but the good news is, one of them won’t 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 Macy’s location at the Shops at Wiregrass mall was not on the list.
That’s good news, says Shops at Wiregrass general manager Greg Lenners.
“Having a Macy’s, it basically rounds out the selection of stores that we have and it’s a great anchor to have,’’ Lenners says.
When Macy’s announced its potential closings last year, Morningstar Credit Ratings identified 28 locations that had sales below the company’s national average for 2014, the most recent year information was available, putting them at higher risk.
The Wiregrass Macy’s was No. 8 on that list, reporting $118 in sales per sq. ft. The average for Macy’s 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.
“We always anticipated it wouldn’t close,’’ he says. “We are in one of the fastest-growing communities in the state. It didn’t make sense why they would close it.”
Of the 68 stores Macy’s 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 Macy’s, whose storefront faces the center – and, probably, busiest — section of the mall, is staying open. He says the store’s selection, as well as the selection at the other anchors, JC Penney and Dillard’s, fits the local shopping demographic perfectly.
Big-name anchors are generally considered vital to a mall’s 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 café, opened, and on Jan. 8, Menchie’s 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 Dillard’s. Lenners says the mall also recently completed a lease agreement with Noble Crust, a trendy and popular St. Petersburg restaurant that offers “Seasonal Italian with Southern Soul.”
Lenners also said the so-called “connector site” to the east of the existing Shops at Wiregrass, which will include luxury apartments, a movie theater and a green grocer, is still making it’s way through the environmental permitting process, but hopes to break ground sometime in the fall.
“There’s going to be lots of activity,’’ Lenners says.
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