A successful old-time Pennsylvania department store chain is poised to jump into the Baltimore metropolitan area with at least one and perhaps several stores.
Boscov's Department Stores Inc., the nation's largest privately owned department store chain with 28 stores in five states, has discussed entering various shopping centers ringing Interstate 695, according to several sources.
But as of yet, Boscov's has not yet committed to any location. The chain also declined to comment on its level of interest in the Baltimore market.
If Boscov's does locate here, its likely targets include the vacant Woodward & Lothrop store in the Rouse Co.'s White Marsh Mall; a Glen Burnie store that Sears, Roebuck & Co. is leaving as part of a relocation to Marley Station Mall; and the Hunt Valley Mall, the Equitable Life Insurance Co.-owned shopping hub that is half-empty but being repositioned, real estate sources said.
Boscov's also may target the JMB Co.'s Security Square Mall in Woodlawn.
Boscov's, which would compete in the Baltimore area with the May Department Stores Co.'s Hecht's unit and J. C. Penney Co., currently has just a single store in Maryland, in Salisbury.
Run by a savvy, hands-on merchant named Albert Boscov, the stores bearing the family name carry name-brand merchandise and would likely challenge the established Hecht's and J. C. Penney for consumer dollars, industry analysts say.
"In a shopping center with Hecht's, J. C. Penney and Boscov's, I would bet on Boscov's," said Rene Daniel, president of the Daniel Group, a Baltimore retail consultant.
"He is an old-time merchant. He runs a good business. He makes the other retailers scared."
While most department store chains have scaled back the types merchandise they sell, Boscov's remains an old-fashioned, full-service department store where customers can buy lingerie, mops or a needle and thread.
"From what I've seen, Boscov's is a quality merchant that sells brand-name goods at price points lower than most competing department stores," said F. Patrick Hughes, president and chief executive officer of Mid-Atlantic Realty Trust, a Linthicum-based company that owns the Harford Mall
The Reading, Pa.-based Boscov's, an 86-year-old chain with sales of roughly $1 billion annually, has been considering expanding into this area for several years, but now appears closer than ever to making its Baltimore entrance, real estate sources said this week.
