“A couple” of stores have asked for rent relief and could close if their requests are not granted, said Walt Petrie, chairman of mall manager Petrie Ross Ventures of Annapolis, Md., and managing member of a partnership that owns the mall.
He declined to name those stores.
One store that could be in jeopardy of leaving is OFF 5TH, the Saks Fifth Avenue outlet. Petrie said he expects the company to have a new store in the Tanger Factory Outlet Centers in greater Bluffton, but he said he’s not at liberty to say if the Shelter Cove store will close.
Druella Schultz, an OFF 5TH manager, directed questions to corporate officials but said rumors of the store’s demise have circulated for years. Corpoate officials at Saks, Banana Republic and Tanger could not be reached for comment.
Banana Republic also has a factory store in Tanger Outlet Center II.
Another issue that could affect the mall: It’s not clear what will happen to the group of at least six stores that moved there while Tanger Outlet Center I is being rebuilt. If they move out after Tanger reopens, scheduled for the second half of 2011, occupancy at the mall would dwindle, Petrie said.
“Then we’re really going to be pretty empty,” he said.
Petrie said mall officials, who abandoned plans to build a movie theater when they could not get financing, are now planning to redevelop the shopping center, which skirted foreclosure earlier this year.
They are not ready to discuss those plans, he said.
“We think we have a way to reposition the center,” Petrie said. “We’re working hard to try to get it done.”
SOURCE: islandpacket, By JOSH McCANN
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