The owners of El Con got a new surprise last week when Macy’s suddenly announced it will close its store there. The announcement didn’t say when the store would close only "that it is no longer financially viable to keep the El Con store open."
Susan Allen, spokeswoman for El Con, said the announcement caught them by surprise and, as of the end of the week, they still hadn’t officially received notice from Macy’s about the closure.
 Macy’s at El Con Mall will close it’s doors. The announcement was made the same week the old Macy’s store at the Tucson Mall commenced demolition. |
Word of the closure means the midtown center on Broadway, west of Alvernon Way, is left with J.C. Penney as its only traditional department store. It has also been known for some time in commercial real estate circles that Penney has considered moving, possibly about three miles east to Park Place Mall. But no deal has been made, according to Tami Ivy, senior marketing manager for General Growth Properties, which owns both Park Place and Tucson malls.
Commercial real estate agents suggest that may because General Growth knows its last-remaining department store pad at Park Place Mall is something valuable and they probably want to hold out, possibly for a retailer that is not currently in the market.
In the meantime, Penney, which continues to be one of the more successful traditional department stores, has developed a new-sized store of just under 100,000 square feet – about half the size of its current store in El Con.
The chain’s real estate department is now focusing on the possibility of building that new-sized store at El Con, possibly by tearing down what last was a Dillard’s department store that is now vacant.
El Con spokeswoman Allen said she didn’t know anything about the plan but "everything I’ve heard is that they’re happy with how well their store here is doing so I’m not surprised they would want to stay."
As for the future of the Macy’s store, the current lease on the three-story 290,000 square-foot building expires in December 2009, after which it has three 10-years renewal options. It is the largest traditional department store in the market, exceeding the Sear’s store at Park Place Mall, which is 220,000 square feet.
The fact that it still has a lease and hasn’t notified El Con of its plans to change that, suggests Macy’s is planning to sell off the lease, possibly to another retailer or a developer.
If something like that were to happen, El Con would most definitely be notified, Allen said.
Employees at the Macy's store said they were notified Oct. 29 of the store’s closure but weren’t given many details. They did say that store manager Wendy Kundrat told them she didn’t know much but that the company hoped to offer the 142 employees opportunities to work at other locations in Arizona. In Tucson, Macy’s has stores at Park Place and Tucson malls. It also has eight stores in the Phoenix area.
While some employees said they felt as if the store didn’t seem as if it had as much business since last year’s conversion from Robinsons-May, the furniture department was doing well.
Mall spokeswoman Allen said she recalled there had been some talk of emphasizing the furniture sales last year "but that never happened, and I don’t know why."
The El Con store was the only location in Tucson where Macy’s had furniture on
display.
At one time there was some discussion of expanding Macy’s store at Park Place Mall but General Growth Properties’ Ivy said there are no plans to do so.
Contact David Hatfield at dhatfield@azbiz.com or (520) 295-4237.
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