Anchor Stores

A second new large department store -- in addition to a Nordstrom -- will likely move into The Mall in Columbia next year as part of large-scale renovations at the 30-year-old shopping center, a Rouse Co. official said.Lease negotiations are underway and should be completed within about a month, said Cathy A. Licktieg of the Rouse Co., who declined to name the store."It is a very fine department store -- that's all I can say," Licktieg said.In December, Rouse unveiled plans for a $70 million expansion and renovation of the aging mall, including the addition of a Nordstrom and about 25 smaller retail stores.

Eastpoint Mall, in southeast Baltimore County, is being sold at auction on May 29, the auctioneer announced. Tidewater Auctions LLC will conduct the foreclosure sale at 11 a.m. in front of the Bosley Avenue entrance of the Baltimore County Circuit Court in Towson. The auction is the result of a lender's lawsuit against Thor Equities LLC, the New York-based investment firm that bought the mall in 2006. There is 850,000 square feet of leasable space in the shopping center, situated on a 67-acre parcel between Eastern Avenue and North Point Boulevard.

It's all about first impressions for Jimmy Burbee and Mark Linden of Off Broadway Shoe Warehouse, an anchor at Arundel Mills. The two district managers expect about half the 100,000 shoppers expected today for the megamall's opening to storm their shoe aisles on the first day. And Burbee and Linden want to grab consumers' attention from the start. "We want to stop them in their tracks," said Burbee, a district manager on loan for the past week to help prepare the new store - one of 217 opening today in the Baltimore area's newest and biggest mall.

Well, the New Year 2012 has arrived. It is true that the older one gets, the faster time flies. And this year has truly flown by! With the beginning of any New Year, the anticipation of change and betterment is on everyone's mind. The Owings Mills community is no exception as plans are under way for some major changes in the area. First is the "de-malling" of the Town Center. The anchor stores, J.C. Penney's and Macy's, are slated to stay while the rest of the mall will be torn down to make way for free-standing box stores, such as the ones at Hunt Valley or White Marsh.

Regal Cinemas will open a theater at Waugh Chapel Towne Centre, a planned mixed-use development in Gambrills in West Anne Arundel County, project developer Greenberg Gibbons said Monday. The theater will offer digital projection and will be the first IMAX cinema in the area. The 52,000-square-foot theater will join anchors Wegmans, Target, Dick's Sporting Goods and Petco in a 1.2 million-square-foot center with 650,000 square feet of shops, 125,000 square feet of offices and 380 apartments.

Eastpoint Mall, in southeast Baltimore County, is being sold at auction on May 29, the auctioneer announced. Tidewater Auctions LLC will conduct the foreclosure sale at 11 a.m. in front of the Bosley Avenue entrance of the Baltimore County Circuit Court in Towson. The auction is the result of a lender's lawsuit against Thor Equities LLC, the New York-based investment firm that bought the mall in 2006. There is 850,000 square feet of leasable space in the shopping center, situated on a 67-acre parcel between Eastern Avenue and North Point Boulevard.

A Baltimore real estate investment group has bought the former Montgomery Ward department store at Security Square Mall in Baltimore County and is exploring uses for the site that include retail, office, medical and institutional tenants. Security Wards LLC, a private entity headed by Michael B. Glick, purchased the two-story, 143,252-square-foot property for $2.1 million from two California-based real estate partnerships: Manchester Maryland Properties and Second Manchester Maryland Properties.

The Tollgate Mall on U.S. 1 in Bel Air is in receivership, but the company named as receiver for the property said last week that business at the mall won't be interrupted.The mall owner is Polimeni Enterprises of Hauppoauge, N.Y. Receivership records were not on file instate or county court last week, so it could not be determined how much Polimeni owes creditors. The company named as receiver, Stanford Realty Corp. in Roseland, N.J., declined comment on finances.Bel Air's town planner blamed the financial difficulty on poor management.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Teen-agers accustomed to spending Friday and Saturday nights roaming Patrick Henry Mall will have to find a new place to hang out beginning this weekend.Mall Manager Roger Brown, saying he was fed up with foul language, rowdy behavior and lack of respect from some teens, is banning unaccompanied teen-agers under 18 from most of the mall's public areas and food court after 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights."In the last few weeks I've seen the potential for losing control," Mr. Brown said yesterday.

Developers of Harundale Plaza in Glen Burnie expect to begin signing leases with retail stores, including a video store, a dry cleaner and hair salon, in the next two weeks, a spokesman said yesterday.Richard C. Darrell, who is handling Harundale leasing for Manekin Corp., said he expects to sign a retail chain store specializing in ready-to-wear clothing for families within the next 10 days. He would not name the chain, but said it does not have a store in the Baltimore area.The anchor stores -- Superfresh and Value City -- already have signed leases, and Darrell said the leases for 12 to 15 small retail stores at the revamped mall should all be signed by the end of winter.

Regal Cinemas will open a theater at Waugh Chapel Towne Centre, a planned mixed-use development in Gambrills in West Anne Arundel County, project developer Greenberg Gibbons said Monday. The theater will offer digital projection and will be the first IMAX cinema in the area. The 52,000-square-foot theater will join anchors Wegmans, Target, Dick's Sporting Goods and Petco in a 1.2 million-square-foot center with 650,000 square feet of shops, 125,000 square feet of offices and 380 apartments.

The shuttered Boscov's department store at White Marsh Mall has been leased to national retailer Forever 21, according to the commercial real estate firm that brokered the deal. The chain of women's apparel stores will lease the entire 197,000-square-foot space that Boscov's occupied until it filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2008, said Towson-based KLNB Retail. KLNB handled the transaction for Jones Lang LaSalle, the court-appointed receiver overseeing Boscov's real estate.

Uh-oh. You swore this year it would be different. This year you would plan ahead. You would do all your holiday shopping before Thanksgiving. No more December crowds and last-minute gift-buying stress for you. Yet here it is, same time of year, same old situation. The holiday rush has begun, and you're going to have to be part of it. What's a non-online shopper to do? Why not ask the "experts" - those for whom shopping is a vocation - or an avocation. Someone like Nancy Green, who shops for a living.

The 148-year-old Hecht's name will disappear next year, and anchor stores in three Baltimore-area malls will close under Federated Department Stores Inc.'s plan to convert most of the stores it is acquiring from May Department Stores Co. to the Macy's nameplate. In addition to Hecht's, which grew from a Baltimore furniture store started by Samuel Hecht in 1857, the Filene's, Famous-Barr and Kaufmann's names will disappear. In all, 330 stores around the country will change their names to Macy's.

In the midst of major new residential developments on Baltimore County's east side, the Martin Plaza shopping center is to undergo a $25 million private redevelopment, Baltimore County officials are to announce today. Plans call for a Target retail store, and smaller shops will be included in the future. County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said the Target development is a major sign of confidence in east side revitalization from the business community. The only economic incentive the county put forward for the developers was accelerating some previously planned work on a storm drain, he said.

Gil A. DeWitt, who manages Littman Jewelers in Westminster's TownMall, can hardly wait for the new Boscov's store to open. His store has spent $300,000 on renovations and expansions in anticipation of the 16-year-old mall's biggest addition ever. "I'm as excited as can be," said DeWitt. "I'm 50 feet from the entrance, and everyone and their brother is going to come by my store." Motorists on Route 140 can get a glimpse of the new Boscov's through a gigantic glass window above its entrance, where a brightly lighted chandelier built into a wall of mirrors can be seen.

An article in The Sun yesterday stated incorrectly that all Leggett department stores in Maryland will now be open on Sundays. The article failed to mention the Leggett store in California, Md., which will not be open Sundays.The Sun regrets the error.Responding to changes in customer shopping habits, the Leggett department store chain is breaking with family tradition and permanently opening its stores on Sundays.The 45-store chain's two Maryland stores -- at Cranberry Mall in Westminster and Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick -- will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays beginning July 18."

An article in The Sun yesterday stated incorrectly that all Leggett department stores in Maryland will now be open on Sundays. The article failed to mention the Leggett store in California, Md., which will not be open Sundays.The Sun regrets the error.Responding to changes in customer shopping habits, the Leggett department store chain is breaking with family tradition and permanently opening its stores on Sundays.The 45-store chain's two Maryland stores -- at Cranberry Mall in Westminster and Francis Scott Key Mall in Frederick -- will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, beginning July 18."

At Hunt Valley Mall yesterday, mothers dressed their toddlers in velvet and bows at Sears Portrait Studio trying to beat the Christmas picture rush. A half-dozen teen-age girls giggled as they tried on the most outrageous spike heels they could find at DSW Shoe Warehouse. And moviegoers flocked to Hoyts Cinema for the latest Harry Potter release. It seemed the most typical of days at a typical American shopping mall - except for one big difference. Most of the stores in the northern Baltimore County mall have simply disappeared.

Boscov's, the long-awaited retail anchor for TownMall in Westminster, unmasked itself officially yesterday to an assembly of about 20 city and county officials, as well as mall executives who hailed it as just what the mall needs to keep shoppers in Carroll County, while creating at least 400 jobs. "We're delighted to be here," said Albert R. Boscov, patriarch of the family-owned department store chain, who announced the company's arrival from a podium in the mall in front of the former Montgomery Ward space that Boscov's will take over.