wnetmacman wrote: ↑May 1st, 2018, 12:39 pm
SamSpade wrote: ↑May 1st, 2018, 5:40 am
All true. It still seemed a healthy mall in 2016 when I visited, but this is also where Macy's closed the former Foley's location across the street.
I was just in Omaha where I have a photo of a 1960s vintage Sears to share, and that mall is also undergoing massive redevelopment discussions to better use the centralized site for multiple uses - and Sears isn't part of it.
Broadway Square has always been a bit of a retail anomaly. Stores that shouldn't be there survive, and stores that should survive die. That whole area of Tyler has been in constant flux for over 30 years. Ironically, Tyler has now about 20,000 more people than Longview, but the Longview Sears is more than double. Dillards has a particular interest here, as it was one of their earliest acquisitions (Mayer & Schmidt). Tyler is one of their oldest markets outside Arkansas. This mall is also slightly smaller than Longview's as well, but to my recollection has always been overbuilt around it.
Tyler is definitely a retail anomaly for East Texas. Although Tyler and Longview have traditionally been similar in size and share status as the main retail hubs for the region, Tyler has a much larger upper-class demographic (largely due to the medical, banking, and oil and gas business sectors, vs Longview which is much more of an industrial and manufacturing hub which leans more middle-class), which has led many retailers/restaurants to open locations in Tyler first and then follow in Longview. However, Tyler also still has the "small-town networking" culture where opinions and experiences with businesses spread like wildfire, so if a particular store or restaurant fails to make a splash immediately or generates bad publicity, they are typically gone in a matter of a few years.
The Macy's which closed in Tyler a couple of years ago was hurt by several factors. First of all, it was not attached to Broadway Square but rather across the street, so many out of town shoppers would opt to shop Dillard's instead simply due to the fact that they would visit the mall for other stores during the same trip. The Tyler Dillard's is very well-trafficked, and is surprisingly large for a market of Tyler's size. Secondly, the merchandise mix at Macy's was simply too low-end (and slipped noticeably under Macy's), which did not fit the demographics of the Tyler market as a whole. For example, in the men's department, the only designer brand which was decently represented was Polo Ralph Lauren; most of the selection was private-label items or casualware. Even basic men's professional/dress clothing was extremely limited. Thirdly, the store was just simply too small, at right around 100,000 sq ft. The men's and home departments were both particularly lacking. I would love to see Macy's come back to Tyler, but I doubt such a move would happen anytime soon unless if the company goes through a massive turnaround.
Overall, I wouldn't associate Macy's closure with a lack of business at Broadway Square and the Tyler market as a whole, but rather simply due to Macy's mismanagement.
Super S wrote: ↑May 1st, 2018, 1:35 pm
Sounds an awful lot like what they plan to do with Tacoma Mall (also a Simon property) and the Sears space. Gotta give Simon a little credit though for at least acknowledging Sears may not be around much longer and discussing plans to redevelop those spaces. Many malls don't do much until long after an anchor leaves (and often takes other stores along with it)
I definitely agree that Simon is being smart by proactively replacing these Sears locations prior to their inevitable collapse. In the case of Tyler, the Sears there has received almost no traffic for several years now, so I am surprised that it is still open. If the store was to close without a replacement lined up, it could be a very bad situation for Simon as the closure might trigger co-tenancy agreements with the smaller stores in the mall considering that there are only two other anchors. I am very curious to see what stores fill the Sears space. A few possibilities which are not already operating in Tyler could be Dicks, HomeGoods, Nordstrom Rack or Sprouts.