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The leader of the company that owns Harrisburg East Mall and the CEO of Boscov's Department Store were on separate tours of the new Boscov's store in the mall last Tuesday when they ran into each other.
It was a happy meeting, marked by broad smiles and optimistic talk as Boscov's employees unpacked merchandise and unfolded clothes nearby for the store's opening next weekend.
For Ken Lakin, CEO and chairman of Reading-based Boscov's, the retailer's $ 20 million investment adds the 41st store to the family-owned chain and its third in the Harrisburg area.
For Larry Feldman, president and CEO of New York-based Feldman Equities, which owns the mall, the arrival of Boscov's is a harbinger of the struggling shopping center's renaissance.
Feldman glowingly pronounced the 185,000-square-foot, two-level Boscov's store "magnificent" and "just gorgeous."
It officially opens to the public next Sunday, with a 9:30 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony to be attended by actor Mickey Rooney, who then will put on a show in the store's auditorium, Lakin said. But the doors will open on Friday for people who gave local charities $ 5 for a ticket to get in early and then again on Saturday for a preview for Boscov's charge-card holders.
The store features "all the latest touches" in fixtures and cash register layout and will have larger departments for household goods and furniture in response to customer demand, according to Lakin.
This Boscov's, which is accepting job applications in a storefront on the mall's second floor, will employ about 400 people in full- and part-time positions, he said. But there will be no restaurant and no travel agency.
Boscov's fills space vacant since J.C. Penney left three years ago and doubles the number of anchor stores in the mall. Hecht's has been the only anchor since Lord & Taylor, which replaced Wanamaker's, closed last fall.
It's been a tough road in recent years for the mall, which opened in 1969 and underwent interior renovations in 1993. Prudential Insurance Co. acquired the mall in 2000 from its bankrupt owners and sold it to Feldman Equities Sept. 30 for $ 17.5 million, half its assessed value.
Feldman Equities, which has a reputation for turning around troubled properties, plans to spend $ 56.7 million on the mall.
In exchange, the state will kick in $ 3.4 million in economic development grants and loans, and the Dauphin County Industrial Redevelopment Authority will issue $ 3 million in taxable revenue bonds to help with the revitalization effort.
"This was the dominant mall in Harrisburg when Wanamaker's was here," Feldman said. "People drove from as far as 45 minutes to get here. Over the years the mall has declined because of its anchor situation. What we've done here is to re-tenant the mall with anchors that can extend the reach of the mall, the customer reach."
A third anchor is well on the way to a mid-November opening. Bulldozers and jack hammers have started to convert the old Lord & Taylor space and a 50,000-square- foot addition into an approximately 200,000-square-foot Bass Pro Shops store, which is expected to attract 3 million shoppers a year.
The mall has high hopes for Bass Pro Shops, which will be the second-largest store in the outdoor outfitter's chain. A typical Bass Pro Shops customer drives an hour or more to shop there, Feldman said.
This store, located near the Pennsylvania Turnpike and at the crossroads of Interstates 83 and 81, is expected to draw shoppers from across state lines, he said.
Feldman is not concerned about a Bass Pro Shops competitor, Cabela's, which opened a store last year near Hamburg in Berks County.
"Hamburg versus Harrisburg is completely different. You're talking about a small town 50 miles from here that has no significant population," he said. "We're not trying to steal the same market share as the guy down the block. Cabela's is an hour away."
Timed to coincide with the Bass Pro Shops opening, the mall is planning exterior renovations, a new food court and parking lot upgrades.
Feldman is not worried about a recent retail trend away from malls to big-box discount stores and strip shopping centers.
"There's definitely truth to that trend. All of the so-called experts have been predicting the decline of the department store and the demise of the malls," he acknowledged.
Yet malls remain the No. 1 sector in earnings for real estate investment trusts, he noted.
"The right department stores can thrive, even in the midst of the Wal-Mart and Target phenomenon," Feldman insisted. And at Harrisburg East Mall, "we're covering virtually every category."
Feldman envisions men coming to shop for hours at Bass Pro Shops while their wives visit Boscov's, Hecht's and the mall's other stores.
Indeed, Lakin said, the presence of Bass Pro Shops sold Boscov's on the location. The combination of Boscov's, Bass Pro Shops and Hecht's is "going to change the whole complexion of the mall," he predicted.
Without this redevelopment, the mall could have become an "eyesore," Lakin said. Now, there is a "total reinvention here and a commitment by all of us to keep it going once the dust settles. You don't attract people otherwise."
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