If you live in northeast Pennsylvania and are seeking refuge from the large mega malls located near the major cities, you should visit Columbia Mall in Bloomsburg.
This 408,000 square foot one-level mall sits on approximately 52 acres of land with 2,400 parking spaces right off Interstate 80 exit 232.
The mall has access to Route 42 and several restaurants surround the mall as well as an Econo Lodge motel and it is located on Columbia Mall Drive.
It has a backwards L-shape with anchor stores at either end and two anchor stores throughout the mall, one on one side and one on the other but are not directly across from each other.
Anchor stores include a 64,264 square foot Sears at the western end, a 34,076 square foot JC Penney, facing south, a 45,000 square foot Bon Ton, facing north, and a vacant 80,000 square foot space, facing east.
I remember visiting the mall several years ago when its vacant anchor space was the former home of the Hills Department Store.
All the anchor stores have a mall entrance and at least one entrance to the parking lot, have restrooms, and have only one floor.
Hills was one of the most popular stores in the whole mall and there were always a number of cars outside the store taking advantage of the store’s uniqueness, quality, and affordable prices.
Hills was similar to Target with clothing, health and beauty aids, jewelry, sporting goods, toys, seasonal, home electronics, audio and video, domestics, greeting cards and party supplies, hardware, automotives, a full book and magazine department, a small grocery department, stationery, and small appliances.
While Ames later bought up Hills, Hills was a classier store than Ames with a nice variety of holiday merchandise and had items you would not see in your typical Wal-Mart or K-Mart.
The quality of clothes, its low prices, and weekly sales featured in advertisements made Hills more attractive than its competition.
Hills had a mall entrance and an outside entrance with a Snack Bar in the glass lobby between the outdoor entrances, one on each side, and the store proper.
The Snack Bar featured hamburgers, hot dogs, soda, and popcorn and was centrally located in the lobby area with tables on either side.
While Ames retained both entrances and the snack bar, it took out a few registers near the mall entrance and filled blank shelves with big plastic storage boxes, a cheap trick used by Bradlees to fill shelves quickly. Hills staffed both mall entrance registers and registers near the outdoor entrance pretty much equally while Ames concentrated more staff on the registers closest to the stores parking lot.
This was probably done because there were issues with shoppers bringing shopping carts in the mall leading to signs asking them to abandon their carts before leaving the store.
Ames stocked merchandise quite high when they moved in making it impossible to see from one end of the store to the other like one could when Hills occupied the space.
I could quickly tell on my visits to the mall that not as many customers went to the Ames as they did to Hills and a lot went over to the new shopping plaza only a few miles away anchored by Wal-Mart.
While this Ames location survived several rounds of preliminary closings, this store died with the remaining Ames locations when the chain went out of business.
Visiting the mall after Ames closed; the mall eventually took down the white Ames letters near the mall entrance leaving the Ames logo on the outside entrance.
The mall once advertised the space as “Future Anchor” hoping the space would quickly be filled.
Several years after the closing of Ames, this dead space still exists despite the mall’s actions of putting black paint on the windows so one could not stare into a completely empty store void of any trace of Ames except those white letters on the building outside.
With vacant retail space around the former Hills/Ames, a retailer could gain another 6,000 square feet.
One of the unique features of the mall is the fact it has several stores that are independently owned and does not feature large and multi-colored neon signs seen in some malls.
I recall visiting several home décor type of stores, one of which was Country Accents/Gallery, probably one of the nicest stores in the mall, mixed in with the traditional stores one sees at any mall.
I remember this store because it has a display area at the Perkins Restaurant near the mall.
The mall used to house two stores, one on each end, with music and DVD’s.
Today, only FYE exists, a store located outside the Bon Ton with the other music/DVD store outside Sears closed with no permanent tenant.
Frequently Halloween or Christmas stores temporarily rent out that space.
Many malls which had two music/DVD stores now just have one – FYE – perhaps not a benefit to consumers since when there are two stores it encourages competition and you can compare prices between the two.
CVS was located only three doors away from Sears, however, it later was replaced by an independent book store, Friar Tuck, that moved from another part of the mall.
This store had a good variety of books and magazines and its new location features its own outside entrance, which CVS also had when it was there, gaining it more visibility.
However, the book store closed the entrance to the outside for security reasons forcing shoppers to walk into the mall and around.
This book store has since closed and the space is vacant.
The mall has no Borders or Waldenbooks so this closing is particularly troublesome for those shopping for books.
I do remember the mall used to have a Boardwalk Blvd. arcade, near the old Ames/Hills space but this also has closed.
The arcade was next to the music/DVD store, perhaps a smart move if the arcade could have remained profitable.
Now, there simply is not much in the mall for younger people since food choices are limited and there is no arcade.
In an effort to lower maintenance costs, a recent mall map shows former mall restrooms now occupied by “mall storage”.
Perhaps that was the best since those restrooms were as dark as a tomb and the floors were usually wet.
The mall’s “food court” suffers from a lack of food choices after both Arby’s, which featured its own seating, and an independent “Route 80” restaurant/bar, which had its own patio, closed.
Several Arby’s restaurants in malls have closed, a disappointment to me, one who always loved their roast beef sandwiches and milkshakes.
Auntie Anne’s Pretzels, Luca Pizza, Gertrude Hawk Chocolates are the only eateries in the mall.
Perhaps one of the highlights of the mall is the nice and spacious Hallmark store filled with many more collectibles than its previous store located in another space in the mall had.
The mall also has a Kay-Bee Toy store, a chain which I have seen close many mall location stores citing competition from stores such as Wal-Mart and Target.
Other stores at the mall include Famous Footwear, Pennsylvania Air National Guard office, Nail Glamour, Gordon’s Jewelers, Maurice’s, Bath and Body Works, Silver Creek Home Improvement, Sojourner Imports, Provost Naturalizer Shoes, Electronics Boutique, Mastercuts, Liberty Travel, Merle Norman Cosmetics, Keyboard World, DEB, GNC, Claire’s Accessories, Litman Jewelers, Radio Shack, Victoria’s Secret, Foot Locker, GAP, Christopher and Banks, Payless Shoe Source, Pearle Vision Express, Schuylkill Valley Sports, and Sylvan Learning Center.
There are two kiosks in the mall’s hallway featuring Piercing Pagoda and Freedom Wireless.
Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. recently purchased the mall for $14 million.
Leo Ullman, CEO of Cedar Shopping Centers said, “This property is very well located at a major intersection on Interstate 80 in Bloomsburg, PA. We expect the center to become an excellent redevelopment opportunity for our Company, creating potential value enhancement for our shareholders. We hope to be able to announce some preliminary redevelopment/re-tenanting plans during the next few months.”
I do not believe these plans will make the mall a “lifestyle center” since it has three strong anchors.
I have seen many “lifestyle centers” and must say that usually customers park next to the store they want to shop in, actually go in, make their purchases and leave.
In malls, more actually sit on the benches or take a walk looking in several stores but lifestyle centers discourage this activity when weather is too hot, too cold, or simply too inclement for this to take place.
Hopefully, the former Hills/Ames can be replaced with a similar type store such as a Target or possibly one of the other department stores could move here to gain more space for merchandise.
If the later happens, that would still leave a sizable vacancy in the mall.
However, Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. is a self-managed real estate investment trust focused on supermarket-anchored shopping centers and drug store-anchored convenience centers.
It currently owns and operates 73 primarily community supermarket-anchored shopping centers and drug store-anchored convenience centers with approximately 7.4 million square feet of gross leaseable area, located in eight contiguous states, mostly in the northeast.
Landscaping and benches inside the mall do help maintain a “community” atmosphere and many take advantage of the mall’s walking program.
A brochure from the program states those walking the inner perimeter of the mall from one end to the other are walking about ¼ mile.
Statistics from Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. shows that the median household income within a 20 mile radius of the mall is $38,580 in 2005 estimating it will rise to $45,169 in the year 2010.
There is a population of 207,239 within a 20 mile radius.
The mall is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
More information is available at www.columbiamall.com.
