Economic conditions help pad impact of closing Sears stores
Sears announced that it will close a third place in this region – this time in Piqua – leaves three area shopping malls with giant plots.
Springfield Sears will be the only Sears Holdings location left in the area when the store in the Miami Valley Center in Piqua is scheduled to close in February. The Dayton Mall store will close on November 25, and the Mall at the Fairfield Commons Store in Beavercreek will close once in December.
The Sears closures come in the wake of Elder-Beerman, who closes its major department stores in the same shopping malls in August.
While Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart, has closed stores for years, it was recently filed for Chapter 1[ads1]1 bankruptcy in late October. The company announced a total closure of 228 stores since this summer.
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While the closures will cost the region hundreds of jobs, today's economy helps to minimize the effects of low unemployment and increased consumption.
"It's never fun to lose a job, but it's true that there are many job searches right now, so definitely they must feel confident they'll be able to find a job," said Michael Lipsitz, economics professor at Miami Universitys Fisher School of Business.
The greater concern is about bankruptcy sales. Sears does not transfer to other retailers in the Miami Valley, but instead moves to online stores that will ultimately lead out of the region. This can lead to tax consequences without that money goes through local authorities and fewer people spend while they are available immediately after Sears is closed, said Lipsitz.
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"You can only think of it as a move around money instead of a loss in particular," he said. "But it may look like a loss for Ohio."
But that's an advantage.
"It's a feeling that Sears's business model did not work anymore," he said. "Hopefully, it will be replaced by business models that are better for our community."
This business model may include a greater focus on e-commerce that formulates today's retail landscape. Ideally, the new business model finds a way of hiring locally, says Lipsitz.
It can also contain experiences, which are becoming increasingly common in outdoor and indoor malls, as consumer handling habits change.
"(Piqua Mall) has some unique opportunities to include something that would be unique and entertaining," said Tim Echemann, principal of industrial real estate agents in Piqua.
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The Fairfield Commons in Beavercreek Mall has found success with the entertainment concept and plans to share the Sears room in the Entertainment Concept Round 1 and The Room Place furniture store. But Dayton Mall continues to work through plans to fill its space. The Elder-Beerman rooms in all three malls are also empty.
"Provided that this would happen, we have actually worked with some potential tenants for a while. Sears's problems are well-known and this closure was expected," said Bill Staebler, Director of Retail for Central America, the owner of the Miami Valley Center Mall.
Both 100,000 square meters Sears placement and Elder Beerman's box at Piqua Mall have seen interest from several parties. But it's unlikely that the audience will see any movement in space a few months since Sears did not Expected to close to February, and retailers have added expansion on hold while focusing on holiday sales.
"These are tough times in retail, we all get it," says Staebler. "But we have owned the mall for 25 years and we will hold it out. We like the location, we like Piqua, we like the market."
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He said that Piqua is particularly attractive due to its hotel, car park and location visible from Interstate 75.
And Piqua is in a thriving part of the state for a mall, although rural, said Tim Echemann, Rector of Industrial Real Estate Agents in Piqua. It is the right distance from Dayton to have a steady customer flow, especially with the growth in nearby Troy, while far enough away that residents choose to live in the community instead of traveling to Beavercreek or Miami Twp.
"The second thing What really matters is that the economy of choice and what happened, we will not see major changes in the economy and it's so strong right now that there has never been a better time to land an opportunity for space there. "
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