Feb. 4—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — The storefront for the new Sweet Spot ice cream and candy shop at The Johnstown Galleria simply didn't exist a few weeks ago. The mall seems to have grown it out of nowhere.

Rather, the space had been walled up to be forgotten at a time when the Richland Township mall was struggling to fill the food court.

Knocking down the walls to reopen the space was necessary because, for the first time in years, the food court is completely full, and the Sweet Spot appears to be the cherry on top.

Like other food court businesses currently populating the mall, the Sweet Spot is owned and operated by a family.

Nanty Glo native Damien Tackett, his wife Jackie, and their son David moved back to the area from New York following the COVID-19 pandemic. Their shop at the mall will open in April and will serve treats made with local Galliker's Dairy ice cream and Blair Candy Company products.

The pandemic made operating their business in a New York mall difficult, Damien Tackett said. In Johnstown, he never would have considered opening in the Galleria, he said, if he hadn't stepped inside and met the new mall owner, Leo Karruli, who purchased the mall last August.

"He goes out of his way to make it lucrative," Tackett said. "After feeling the direction of the mall's resurgence, I wanted to be here."

Change at the mall isn't all openings, however. Books-A-Million closed its bookstore in the mall about a month ago, but on Friday Karruli said he's going to invest in a small food market to take the bookstore's place.

"I have a good feeling about the market," Karruli said. "I think it can be attractive because this would be a little market where we can make the mall a one-stop shop."

Karruli bought the mall for more than $3 million through an online auction in August after banks foreclosed on previous owners.

In making a further investment by helping to fill an open storefront in the mall himself, Karruli said he wants to show mall tenants that he's willing to put skin in the game.

He plans to invest in the market as a joint venture with another party to operate it.

"You have to show you are willing to invest yourself," he said. "I want more leases to come. I want them to make it, to make them turn the mall around."

Books-A-Million's corporate headquarters in Alabama did not respond Friday to requests for information about the closure of its store. Karruli said the book store had been operating in the mall on a month-to-month rent schedule prior to his ownership.

Karruli said the mall has gained 24 new leases since he took ownership in August. Some of those leases include food court businesses, boutiques and a computer repair business.

"By the end of 2023, I want the mall to be 90% full," he said.