A tale of two shopping malls

Feb. 12—Samantha Crawford frequently shopped at the Wyoming Valley Mall as a teen.

Twenty years later, Crawford, 38, of Pittston, now prefers the Viewmont Mall, roughly 20 miles away.

The uncertainty over which retailers are still open inside the Wilkes-Barre Twp. shopping center led to her shift in shopping habits. A recent afternoon led her back to the Wyoming Valley Mall.

"I only came here because it's on the way to the scrub store and I lost my nose ring," Crawford said. "I don't know what's here and what's not here anymore. I like Viewmont — everything is right there. This mall kind of reminds me of a thrift store."

The malls opened just three years apart and feature two of the same anchors — JCPenney and Macy's — along with other mall staples like American Eagle, Bath & Body Works and Victoria's Secret, but face seemingly different futures, according to an industry expert.

Both near I-81, the malls share similar neighbors. Both are near bustling shopping centers and feature restaurant chains such as Olive Garden and Red Lobster.

The Viewmont Mall, which opened in 1968 and straddles Dickson City and Scranton, boasted a 98.8% occupancy rate as of Sept. 30, the third-highest among the 18 malls nationwide owned by Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT).

Several attempts to obtain the occupancy rate for the Wyoming Valley Mall were unsuccessful, however Sears and Bon-Ton, two of the mall's anchor stores, closed in 2018 and a section of the mall had at least five vacancies during a recent visit, including Express which closed last month.

"The general trend in malls is down and has been for 40 years," said Nick Egelanian, founder and president of Maryland-based SiteWorks Retail Real Estate Services. "There will be survivors and Viewmont will likely be one of them."

Egelanian isn't as bullish about the long-term prospects of the Wyoming Valley Mall which opened in 1971.

"It's pretty much gone at this point," he said. "It's gone through special servicing and doesn't have much of a future."

But perception means a lot. Despite that less-than-stellar prognosis some promising developments are there.

A black sheet covered the entrance to Justice earlier this month, but the store will be replaced by Daily Thread, said Joseph Ohrin, property/general manager and specialty leasing manager for Krig Properties, which owns the mall.

A Ken Pollock Tire & Auto Center filled the void of the former Sears Auto Center in 2019.

The Viewmont Mall quickly replaced Sears with Dick's Sporting Goods and Field & Stream when the department store closed in 2016, said Vince Vizza, vice president of real estate leasing for PREIT. Dick's and Field & Stream are closed for a major renovation and will reopen in August as Dick's House of Sport.

Vizza said PREIT, owner of the Viewmont Mall since 2003, completely remodeled the facility in 2007 with new floors, ceilings, lighting and restaurants and continues to look for ways to adapt to changes.

"We're adding more and more dining all the time and we're constantly looking at entertainment uses," he said. "We've kept it fresh in terms of all the changes over the years. We've been proactive and added (stores) like Old Navy, Ulta Beauty and Home Goods."

Egelanian remains optimistic about the Viewmont Mall's future because of recent developments in the area.

"There is some planned rail service ... maybe to New York and there is a lot of warehouse distribution," he said. "There are a lot of things that are going to bring regular commerce to Scranton, and business to that mall."

While Vizza of PREIT touted the success of the Viewmont Mall, the same company turned the Wyoming Valley Mall over to one of its lenders, GS Mortgage Securities Trust, in September 2019 to avoid foreclosure, according to a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group, an investment management company known for buying troubled and endangered shopping malls throughout the United States, purchased the mall for $17 million in August 2021.

Officials from Krig Properties declined to discuss the future of the Wyoming Valley Mall.

Grim future for shopping malls

The emergence of big-box stores and immense growth of online shopping spelled the end for many malls with more closings expected to follow.

"When the malls were built in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the department stores of those times were the Walmarts of their day," Egelanian said. "Since then, discounting has become much more prevalent. The original model of the mall was kind of destroyed and most malls around the United States couldn't survive it. We've gone from 2,500 ... and we're down to about 600 operating enclosed malls with 50 to 100 going out of service every year, usually by defaulting on their mortgages. We believe only about 200 will survive."

Another area mall with an uncertain future reinvented itself under new ownership.

Developer John Basalyga purchased the bankrupt Mall at Steamtown on Lackawanna Avenue in Scranton in 2015 for more than $5.5 million and transformed the property into the Marketplace at Steamtown.

Among the tenants of the facility are the Electric City Aquarium & Reptile Den, Crunch Fitness, Electric City Dentistry, Delta Medix and Geisinger.

"Steamtown is not really a mall anymore," Egelanian said. "It's really Boscov's and whatever they do with the rest of it. It doesn't really have a future as a shopping mall, per se."

Contact the writer: rtomkavage@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9131; @rtomkavage on Twitter.