The roughly 10-year-old outdoor lifestyle center at Lehigh Valley Mall in Whitehall Township is losing two of its original tenants, but replacements are coming — soon.
J. Crew already has closed up shop — in fact, on Thursday morning, some old signs and other store fixtures were loaded into a 1-800-Got-Junk? truck. Meanwhile, the nearby Ann Taylor store will close next week. A sign inside the location read: “We’re saying farewell to this location on March 24. But we can’t wait to shop with you nearby at King of Prussia.”
Spokespeople for Ann Taylor and J. Crew were not immediately available to comment Thursday.
John Ferreira, manager of Lehigh Valley Mall, said Ann Taylor and J. Crew decided against renewing their respective leases. Both J. Crew and Ann Taylor were among the first tenants in the 110,000-square-foot lifestyle center when the $40 million expansion opened in fall 2007, a year after the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley opened in Center Valley.
While Ferreira declined to disclose specifics, he said the mall already has replacements lined up. Shoppers will see a barricade up in front of J. Crew as early as Saturday.
“The important point is … we have a backfill for all of the space that’s going to become available there,” he said.
The closures highlight the evolving situation in the retail industry, one playing out where even the top-performing malls are not immune from turnover as retailers downsize and refocus resources elsewhere. In fact, J. Crew, in announcing a third-quarter comparable sales decrease of 12 percent in November, said it would close dozens of stores by the end of January. In addition, Ascena Retail Group Inc., the parent company of Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant and other women’s clothing stores, last year said it would close up to 667 of its locations over the next two years.
But the Lehigh Valley Mall, co-owned by Simon Property Group and Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, has largely found replacements for shuttering retailers to this point. For example, Bob’s Discount Furniture opened earlier this year in the former HHGregg space, quickly filling a 30,204-square-foot space in an outparcel along Grape Street that the mall owns.
The mall’s occupancy rate stands at 98.8 percent, according to Simon’s annual report.
While the mall hasn’t yet named replacements for J. Crew and Ann Taylor, the rest of the lifestyle center remains full, featuring stores such as the Apple Store, White House Black Market, Coach, Williams-Sonoma and restaurants such as Bonefish Grill and BRAVO Cucina Italiana.
Twitter @andrewwagaman
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