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Columbia Place Mall

xyhamiltonboi

By xyhamiltonboi
in Columbia Coffee House

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xyhamiltonboi Whistle-Stop

xyhamiltonboi

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That could happen. Both of those stores are near the mall and could benefit from a move into it.

TJMaxx is going to The Village At Sandhill.

Marshalls just remodeled their exterior store at Columbia Place

Burlington Coat Factory has no plans to come to Columbia Place.

The mall paid over 2 million for the space and is looking for a tenant to complement the stores already there not the temporary tenants but yet the stores like The Limited, American Eagle Outfitters and others. I'll keep you posted.

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xyhamiltonboi Whistle-Stop

xyhamiltonboi

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I talked to merchants in the mall about the sales figures since the departure of JCPenney and the struggling Decker corridor. You'll be amazed when you hear the results.

Stores offering merchandise at Value Prices reported not doing as well since JCPenney left and not feeling good about being in Columbia Place.

Stores offering national brands such as American Eagle Outfitters and Limited Too have said they don't cater to a JCPenney crowd and have reported increasing sales figures recently.

This could mean a major change for Columbia Place if the value oriented tenants continue to complain and want out while the national higher end stores continue to perform. Maybe the JCPenney space will attract something upscale.

I wish the same for Eastland Mall in Charlotte though looking at it's new stores coming soon, can't say these two malls are similar.

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xyhamiltonboi Whistle-Stop

xyhamiltonboi

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I am a business owner and run the beginning of what I hope to be a chain of Palmetto PCS's Sprint Nextel Stores. I want to give you a new prospective of Columbia Place.

I've researched and read on all sorts of dying malls nationwide and a few that stuck out to me were South Square Mall in Durham, NC, Northland Mall in Columbus Ohio and Raleigh Springs Mall in Memphis, TN. Typically when malls start dying they don't have the interest or focus from their parent company.

When Polaris Fashion opened not far from Northland Mall, it had already signed the tenants to relocate from Northland Mall.

When Streets at Southpoint opened not far away from South Square it had signed tenants to relocate from South Square.

Many major malls during the time period that Montgomery Ward and Service Merchandise were left without a leg to stand on when these anchors went dark. It was like a domino effect. Dillards leaves, then Belk leaves then Sears leaves.

An example of a dying mall now is Eastland Mall in Charlotte where JCPenney left, a a number of replacements were named. What you have to look at is that a mall with it's anchors will bring in who shops the specialty stores within. When Eastland leased to Burlington Coat Factory and Fred's Dollar it was a step lower than JCPenney which makes the typical Eastland shopper say why do I want to pay high prices at Dillards and Belk when I can get everday low prices at Freds Dollar and Burlington. This is what has lead Dillards to do a Clearance Center and Belk to scale back merchandise. It's kinda like the mall just said we'll fill it with something.

Columbia Place has a record of replacing major large tenants with ones that may not be what you expected, but that don't change the volume that the typical shopper spends. O'Charleys and Don Pablos (national chains) were replaced with regional Sticky Fingers and Charleston Crab House which both have the potential to draw the same dollars. In my talks with them while those spaces were vacant, I was told that a number of people wanted them including lower end stores that were rejected by CBL & Associates because of the redevelopment of Columbia Place. Now my focus......

Stores in Columbia Place do not have current store designs of typical stores. Dated appearances can be found at The Limited, Express, American Eagle, and others. Think for a second, if you lost your major anchor and the media, rumor mill and others were saying that the mall would close, you'd stay but you wouldn't invest a ton of money into your store until you saw the plans for the future of the mall.

Most people that watched JCPenney leave Columbia Place after 28 years signaled that as the end of an era, which by far isn't. They figured that if JCPenney left next would come other anchors. Dillard's and Macys have both been offered a chance to leave Columbia Place in the last two years and have declined and decided to stay. Dillards has even planned some remodeling. Macys has already redone it's upstairs and plans more work in the future. So for now until an anchor is named to replace JCPenney in which I think CBL will make the best choice. Most stores will continue to make money without using it for more investment. The sign at The Limited may start to break without repair, but once all see the investment and time CBL is taking in finding the next 25 year future of Columbia Place. Stores will reinvest and new things will happen.

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xyhamiltonboi Whistle-Stop

xyhamiltonboi

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From a reliable source, Columbia Place has found a replacement for JCPenney. This retailer is in the final stages of a deal to occupy the 120,000 sq. ft space vacated by JCPenney last October. Traditionally, deals are not announced until the ink is dry on the lease. The unnamed retailer could be open by December 2006 or late Winter.

Despite the opening of the Village at Sandhill in 2005, Columbia Place landed and opened new stores under the following banners: Charlotte Russe, Ashley Stewart, SC Place, Man Alive, Canvas and Yo Taco. Keep your ears to the tracks for more updates

Most recently Authentiks, (temporary urban store), has taken the place of the former Lane Bryant.

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xyhamiltonboi Whistle-Stop

xyhamiltonboi

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The rumor mill has taken us in different directions. Retail management from various levels have all said what stores their various home offices have said were filling the space. These are rated in order from most popular to least.

Parisian

Belk

Steve & Barry's University Sportswear

Target

Bed Bath & Beyond

Dick's Sporting Goods

Bass Pro Shops

Kohl's

Costco

Burlington Coat Factory

Steven, I'd like your opinion as well as others on what each one of these potential anchors and Jr. Anchors could mean for Columbia Place.

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StevenRocks City

StevenRocks

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The rumor mill has taken us in different directions. Retail management from various levels have all said what stores their various home offices have said were filling the space. These are rated in order from most popular to least.

Parisian

Belk

Steve & Barry's University Sportswear

Target

Bed Bath & Beyond

Dick's Sporting Goods

Bass Pro Shops

Kohl's

Costco

Burlington Coat Factory

Steven, I'd like your opinion as well as others on what each one of these potential anchors and Jr. Anchors could mean for Columbia Place.

Parisian - smart move, likely means the end of the Richland Mall store.

Belk - Damn, another one? Still, it's a somewhat strategic location.

Steve & Barry's University Sportswear - The current typical space-filler in down-on-their-luck malls. Neat and cheap, but boring and headed for overexpansion.

Target - Yawn! Still, it's a good anchor and it's extremely popular right now.

Bed Bath & Beyond - works best in combination with other big-box stores in a strip mall setting, but it's a good choice.

Dick's Sporting Goods - see comments on Bed Bath & Beyond above. Dick's offers a bit more to the mall because it doesn't duplicate what's there already as much.

Bass Pro Shops - I love this store, but there are way too many of these being built these days. It's another chain headed for overexpansion. It'll work, but it'll start cannibalizing sales from the other BPS stores somewhat nearby.

Kohl's - Too bland for the mall, but it's popular and growing. Might be an OK choice, just not for the fashion-oriented.

Costco - I've seen this configuration a number of times and as strange as it sounds, it works. The problem becomes whether we have a store that contributes to the mall or simply feeds off its traffic.

Burlington Coat Factory - It's almost simpler to hang a sign on the mall that siys "we are dying and ghetto" than to let these guys in. It'll be a quick and easy space-filler, but at what cost to the mall's reputation?

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waccamatt Town

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I think Bass Pro Shops would be an interesting addition to Columbia Place although they serve a demographic that doesn't really use Columbia Place. It would be their first store in Columbia, however, so it micht bring some added activity to Columbia Place. It wouldn't get me to the mall any more than I already go. Macy's is about the only reason I go to Columbia Place.

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