CLARENCE, NY - Sears will be closing its store at the Eastern Hills Mall which it opened there in 1970.
It will leave the once mighty retail giant with only one store on the Niagara Frontier at McKinley Mall in Hamburg.
The Sears closing follows the closing of another of the mall’s anchor tenants, Bon Ton, earlier this year.
Ordinarily, the closure of an anchor tenant just months after another one, would spell real problems for a mall and its owners, who would be left in a mad scramble to fill a large spaces.
That is, if their plan was to continue as a conventional mall.
However, Uniland Development in partnership with New Jersey based Mountain Development purchased the mall six months ago with plans to transform the property into a town center where people will not only work and shop, but live as well.
In fact, Uniland completed the purchase of the Sears store separately last week, giving it another 20 acres to work with.
"The time is right. There is demand in the community for this type of development and Western New York doesn't have it yet," Uniland’s Jill Pawlik said.
The Changing Face of Retail
As shoppers change their patterns toward online sales, retailers have struggled to maintain their brick and mortar stores.
The situation at Eastern Hills has been no exception.
“Our partners at Mountain Development have been in the business of owning and managing malls for a very long time, and they saw the writing on the wall so to speak,” Pawlik said.
And while one might presume every mall will have to transform itself along these lines, it might not be possible everywhere.
"I think a lot of it depends on where the property is situated, the surrounding demographics,” said Chuck Breidenbach, Mountain Development’s Managing Director for Retail. “It also depends on how eager the municipality is to see it transformed into something of higher and better use."
Moving Forward
After gaining the needed zoning changes from the Town of Clarence last month, Uniland is now in the process of finding the right consultant to push the project ahead.
“They will engage in market research and the financial feasibility of a town center development project," Pawlik said.
The consultant will help identify, for example, how much residential and retail should be in the mix at the new development, as well as the type of housing, stores, hotels, and restaurants that might eventually occupy the location.
“You have to listen to retailers and restaurateurs and find out what it is they want. And you have to go out and do study and focus groups in the community you're trying to serve and find out what they want, Breidenbach said.
“That’s where the fun begins,” said Pawlik. “Which will be trying to put all these parts and pieces together so that it works for everyone.”
The Sears Store
While it appears the closure of the Sears store will have no major impact on future plans for the mall property, the Uniland will nonetheless endeavor to land a new tenant for the 154,000 square foot space.
Leaving it empty is not a desirable option, considering the total redevelopment is still perhaps 5-10 years away.
Uniland concedes it may be challenging, however, to find someone who will lease it because the store may be significantly altered, or eliminated entirely in the not so distant future.