Finish Line

According to their post on social media, The Finish Line athletic shoe store  at university Mall will close on Nov. 15. No clearance sales, just come by stuff before another mall store closes its doors.  I think that leaves about half a dozen still operating out there.

Hemp N. Stuff

 According to this Hemp N. Stuff is moving out of University Mall into the Eastgate Mall, next to the Ashley Outlet store. The post says, with Maurice's closing, there is not enough traffic in the mall to sustain them.

American Eagle

 According to signs in the window and posts on social media, University Mall's American Eagle Outfitters will close on March 17th. By my count that leaves 8 stores and the theater still open inside the mall and one with outside access only.. That does leave plenty of space for SIH to expand into.

Magickal Hippie

Magickal Hippie opened its new University Mall location yesterday .Center part of the mall near Rue 21 and Maruice's across from Hot Topic, in what was the Renaissance Trading Company location until it shuttered last December.

Ulta Beauty

 Ulta Beauty has completed its move out of Universty Mall and is now located between Bath and Body Works and Home Goods in the strip mall on the north side of Highway 13. Just one more step in the decline of the mall, a trend that is happening nationwide and overtook the Marion Mall some years ago.

Univeristy Mall

 Took a walk through University Mall and I estimated at least half the storefronts were empty. The only large stores remaining were Ultra Beauty, Old Navy and Shoe Dept. None of which are large enough to serve as anchor stores. I hear rumors that Bath and Body Works may vacate the Mall to move across the stree with Old Navy, leaving two more gaping holes in the retail mall storefront.

Mall Rent

 Talked with a representative from the company trying to recruit businesses to move into Univeristy Mall. According to him, they are looking at other types of businesses beyond clothing and jewelry stores and are willing to offer rent of $1 per square foot and other incentives to get buisnesses to move in. to the space.

Old Navy Moving

 From what I understand, both Old Navy and Ultra Beauty will move out of their spaces in University Mall into the old Best Buy location under renovation on the north side of Highway 13. That will only a collection of small retail storefronts in the mall, with no large stores to draw in shoppers. If this trend continues, I could see SIH as the only tenant at Univeristy Mall by 2025.

Bed Bath and Beyond

 Yet another nail in the coffin of Univeristy Mall, Bed Bath and Beyond has announced it will close its Carbondale location. Much like SIUC spinning the 1.4% decline as several different forms of positive, I imaging the mall management will present this as yet another opportunity to get a new tenant into that location. Given the amount of growth and number of buildings it is knocking down around Memorial Hospital, I would imaging SI Healthcare will rent the space out soon.

Univeristy Mall

 Was walking thorugh Univeristy Mall the other day and I would estimate 50-75% of the storefronts are empty. Gloria Jean's pulled out so no place to even buy food out there, unless you want to get something from a vending maching. The entrance to the abandoned food court is not an extrance to the healthcare adminstration complex and the Macy's section got leased out to Spirit Halloween in October and a Christmas decoration store now. Not sure how, or if, the mall can come back from this, especially with the national decine of anchor stores.

University Mall

 Walked through University Mall over the weekend and I would roughly estimate that 60% of the storefronts are empty . All of the prior anchor stores have converted over to office space for Southern Illinois Healthcare and businesses that had been there for years, like Victoria's Secret and GNC had shuttered. Old Navy, Bath and Body Works and the Science Center were the liveliest places I saw. Even the theater didn't have anyone manning the ticket booth. A sign directed anyone interested to the concession stand. Still not as bad as the Marion Mall but it is hard to see anyone wanted to spend much time shopping there.

GameStop Closing

 Just got word that the Univeristy Mall GameStop is closing. Last day of operation is Feb 21. Current markdowns are 10-30%. Fixtures for sale too..

Farmer's Market

 Next Saturday is the last Saturday of the year for the Murdale Farmer's Market at the outside location at Murdale. After that, it moves inside to the east End of University Mall starting December 5th. The market has announced it will offer curbside pickup but not sure how that will work. Apparently you put in orders through the market website and someone will bring the order out to you.

JCP Closing

JC Penny's announced yesterday it will be closing the stores at University Mall in Carbondale and Times Square Mall in Mt. Vernon. More space for Southern Illinois Healthcare to move into, I guess.

Macy's

Hearing that, once Macy's vacates the mall, SIH or another healthcare operation has contacted mall management about leasing the space. That would leave Penny's and the Bed Bath and Beyond as the only retail anchor stores remaining.

J. C. Penny's

J. C. Penny's announced it would close 6 stores and a call center today. I was worried, after the Pier One and Macy's announcements, that Carbondale would be on the list. None in the state of Illinois though. Incidentally, J.C. Penny's was the first store to move into University Mall when it opened decades ago.

Downtown Density

One of the big problems with downtown, and something the comprehensive plan will have to address is the amount of empty space between buildings. Especially in the  area between Walnut and College, you find quit long stretches of sidewalk bordered by parking spaces. while parking is a good and necessary thing (and the lack of which is also a common complaint about downtown), their presence breaks up the flow of foot traffic.

An important feature of a vibrant retail area is a dense business presence so that shoppers can readily move from one store to the next. This is the problem University Mall has with its food court. By locating it on a low traffic wing, it ensured little to no foot traffic in the area. No foot traffic means no pedestrians and no pedestrians means no shoppers.

My Favorite Toys Kinda Closing

If you are local, you probably have seen that My Favorite Toys is reducing its hours to one weekend a month, closing their doors next month, then re-opening for a weekend in March, then one weekend a month until the Christmas season, when they will open again full time.

This means they must be getting a great deal on rent from University Mall, since it appears they will retain the floor space but not generate any foot traffic to cover lease expenses.  For all intents and purposes, two wings of University Mall now sit empty.  Most of the storefronts in the wing with the food court have converted to SI Healthcare offices and the food court sits empty, last time I looked, save for the arcade in the corner.  The wing that housed My Favorite Toys will now only have Master Cuts as a business, as the Science Center and the African American Museum occupy the storefronts across from My Favorite Toys.  Both are non-profits and likely get lowered rents from University Mall.  

I just find the strategy that My Favorite Toys has chosen interesting.  If they truly want to pursue an online business, it would make more financial sense to move to the industrial park on the north side of town and operate there.  If they want to keep the storefront operating and contribute to the community, as seems the plan, move to a smaller storefront and run a "back door" operation (Nothing illegal about this, it's a term referring to a business that maintains a retail storefront but does most of its business online).  At least, the retail storefront would help generate some expenses to cover ongoing costs.  It will be interesting to see how this version of a back door operation works out.

Fireworks

In case you missed this, Carbondale's July 4th fireworks have moved this year from their long time home near Abe Martin Field on the SIUC campus to the east side of University Mall.

Not sure if fireworks will be a good idea, given the  drought the area (and all of Illinois) is suffering. We have received less than 2 inches of rain over the last 4 weeks and are about 8 inches down from the amount of rain we normally have received by this time of the year.  Even though they are illegal in Illinois, I expect to hear a lot of fireworks going off over the next couple of weeks, with a subsequent increase in calls to the Carbondale Fire Department.

Perceptions of Downtown

Found interesting the perceptions of downtown shown in the comments on the Southern's article about the closing of the Stadium Grille. Several comments related to the high rate of crime in the downtown area and the likelihood of getting mugged in the parking lot. This perception is not borne out by crime statistics from the Carbondale Police website. While I only looked at the last 30 days, it appears you are as likely to have property stolen if you are at University Mall as you are in downtown and neither location shows any reports of muggings, though there is one aggravated battery report from downtown and none at the Mall.