SPECIAL REPORT
Empty hallways at Great Northern Mall in Clay on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 31. Most stores have moved to other locations or closed.
Death Knell for Suburban Malls Retail Council: Many factors exist as to why traditional malls are biting the dust By Lou Sorendo
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once-treasured tradition is fading away. Two suburban malls in Onondaga County — ShoppingTown in DeWitt and Great Northern in Clay are seemingly dying slow deaths. According to a report by Credit Suisse, about 20% to 25% of all malls in the United States will close in the next five years. In 2017, more than 6,000 mall stores closed and left the malls. Onondaga County is considering using ShoppingTown Mall as a site to vaccine people against COVID-19. County officials reached an agreement with its owner, Moonbeam Capital, in November, and acquired the mall in December for $3.5 million. In January, the county issued a formal request for proposals to redevelop the mall. ShoppingTown filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of U.S. 44
Bankruptcy Code in 2019 and never reopened after malls were ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to close temporarily in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. It has lost retail titans Macy’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, J.C. Penney and Sears over the last several years. Meanwhile, Great Northern Mall is struggling as well while losing nearly all of its retail tenants. The mall is now losing its last anchor store — Dick’s Sporting Goods. Dick’s, a longtime tenant of the mall, has notified the town of Clay it plans to move from the mall in the spring to the former Value City Furniture store next to Wegmans at 3965 Route 31. Dick’s is Great Northern Mall’s last anchor store, so its departure is another nail in the coffin for the mall, which opened on Route 31 just east of OSWEGO COUNTY BUSINESS
Interstate 481 in 1988. Competition from Syracuse’s Destiny USA, the largest mall in New York, has been a major challenge to Great Northern. Incidentally, Dick’s opened a large store in Destiny in 2012. Competition from online retailers has led to the closing of all of Great Northern’s other anchor stores, including Sears and Macy’s, and most of its in-line stores. The departures accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic and have left the mall with one national retailer, Old Navy. All this follows a national trend that sees suburban malls losing their clout.
National trend “There are plenty of factors. The overarching one is inherent restlessness FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021
