Re: Oak Park Mall
Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:18 pm
I wouldn’t bet on that. It was one of the nations most profitable centers in the early 2000s and now it’s not even CBL’s best performing mall. Bringing in Nordstrom only works if you don’t chase off the likes of Talbots, Jos A Banks, Ann Taylor, J.Crew, Banana Republic, Lacoste, and Gap in return, part of which was caused by Copaken being an incompetent manager near the end. Copaken didn’t have a very good track record when they sold off Oak Park, Eastland, and Hickory Point. They built 10 enclosed malls in total and gave up on the malls in Hays and St. Joseph during planning and construction. Only three of their malls were still healthy in 2000, and only one of them is still healthy in 2021. CBL did a few good things at the start, but their renovation of the mall was rather cheap compared to the renovations Simon, Macerich, and GGP/Brookfield perform on their nicer properties. They then sold 50% ownership in their top malls and took out some hefty loans to avoid bankruptcy in the 2010s. Oak Park has one of those loans and it’s probably going to mature in the near future. They defaulted on three malls now who had loans from that era, the most recent being Park Plaza in Little Rock. Both ownership groups also completely dropped the ball. Town center has changed ownerships 3 to 4 times now and nobody has ever taken advantage of that and the fact that Oak Park has Nordstrom to bring in better stores before they were grabbed up by Leawood. When Nordstrom inevitably leaves, and I believe they’ll be open on the Plaza in 2023 when they go pull the weeds on the construction site, there isn’t much they can do to fill that spot. JCP isn’t far from joining Wards and Sears in the history books, and Dillard’s should consolidate the two stores into one building as it is. The men’s store is outdated and filthy. Just two years ago I had people on city data telling me that Independence Center had no chance of kicking the bucket and it has hemorrhaged so many high-quality tenants since then. While it is true that Oak Park has lost a large number of stores over the past 10 years due to retail bankruptcies, it’s also true that high-quality tenants are no longer opening in the mall and that others have just point-blank left.Goonies wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 11:25 amOak Park isnt going to failearthling wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 10:22 am If OP Mall doesn't make it, some ideas for dead mall conversions that could work...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvandera ... ty-assets/
The area has already had several grocery chains and they have decided to focus on the 95th and Antioch area. Hyvee and Aldi are already down the street, HyVee has another store at 87th and Pflumm, Hen House has a store at College and Quivera, and there’s a long empty Dillons at 75th and Quivera. When it comes to pulling other new chains into the neighborhood that aren’t grocery stores, I don’t think CBL has that power at this point. They pulled in vans several years ago, who then also opened on the plaza and legends nulling that pull. Altar’d State, Evereve, and Dry Goods also went on to open locations outside of Oak Park. There aren’t many chains left that KC doesn’t have. They can’t backfill the mall space with like a TJ Maxx or Ulta like other malls have because those chains are already in the mall area. They could eliminate a ton of vacant space by moving stores around and opening an Old Navy, similar to how they backfilled vacant stores when H&M and XXI moved in, but GAP Inc. Has publicly announced that they are trying to get out of malls. They recently relocated Topeka, they are in the process of closing out town east in Wichita for a new off-mall store, and a friend who is helping with that move said that they’re looking to move the Independence store out to Adams Dairy Landing, possibly the old GAP Outlet. Buckle has already been proactive in KS getting out of older malls. They’ve moved their stores in Topeka, Garden City, and in the west mall in Wichita so far. They have plans for new stores off-Mall in Dodge City and Hays.
Visited Oak Park Mall today, Fossil has closed permanently.empires228 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 1:56 pmAt the moment, the only "exclusive" stores left at Oak Park are Abercrombie, Oakley, Eddie Bauer, Fossil, Lush, and Lego. Build-a-Bear has two other locations, Hollister has Legends now, there's four other H&M stores, four other XXI, 4 other American Eagle, 3 other Altar'd State, two other Dillard's, one other Coach (Independence closed last year), three other Barnes & Noble (Independence closed last month), and one other Dry Goods. All of the other stores that a mall of this size would have in STL or Denver are at Town Center Plaza including Pottery Barn, Apple, RH, The Container Store, and then you have the ones that left Oak Park for TCP like GAP, Banana Republic, J.Crew. Talbots, and Jos. A Banks.jbean3535 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 14, 2021 12:12 amI understand that. But it doesn't discount the fact that it's another major (area-exclusive) retailer that's pulling out.empires228 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 12, 2021 9:28 pm
They're also closing at malls far more successful like the St. Louis Galleria, Chandler Fashion Center, and Flatirons Crossing.
They had a solid service team there as well, got my battery swapped there because they could actually reseal the watch properly. Shame they closed, but agreed, they would be a perfect fit for the plazaCratedigger wrote: ↑Tue Dec 27, 2022 6:36 pmVisited Oak Park Mall today, Fossil has closed permanently.empires228 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 1:56 pmAt the moment, the only "exclusive" stores left at Oak Park are Abercrombie, Oakley, Eddie Bauer, Fossil, Lush, and Lego. Build-a-Bear has two other locations, Hollister has Legends now, there's four other H&M stores, four other XXI, 4 other American Eagle, 3 other Altar'd State, two other Dillard's, one other Coach (Independence closed last year), three other Barnes & Noble (Independence closed last month), and one other Dry Goods. All of the other stores that a mall of this size would have in STL or Denver are at Town Center Plaza including Pottery Barn, Apple, RH, The Container Store, and then you have the ones that left Oak Park for TCP like GAP, Banana Republic, J.Crew. Talbots, and Jos. A Banks.
A shame. I enjoyed having one in the metro. Would love it if the Plaza picks them up somehow
Cratedigger wrote: ↑Tue Dec 27, 2022 6:36 pmVisited Oak Park Mall today, Fossil has closed permanently.empires228 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 15, 2021 1:56 pmAt the moment, the only "exclusive" stores left at Oak Park are Abercrombie, Oakley, Eddie Bauer, Fossil, Lush, and Lego. Build-a-Bear has two other locations, Hollister has Legends now, there's four other H&M stores, four other XXI, 4 other American Eagle, 3 other Altar'd State, two other Dillard's, one other Coach (Independence closed last year), three other Barnes & Noble (Independence closed last month), and one other Dry Goods. All of the other stores that a mall of this size would have in STL or Denver are at Town Center Plaza including Pottery Barn, Apple, RH, The Container Store, and then you have the ones that left Oak Park for TCP like GAP, Banana Republic, J.Crew. Talbots, and Jos. A Banks.
A shame. I enjoyed having one in the metro. Would love it if the Plaza picks them up somehow