"No More Clowning Around at Echelon Mall"

PREIT the new owners of the Echelon Mall must have sent out a memo that mentioned how empty their investment has been over the past few years. It appears that their logic now (finally) is if they don't have stores to bring people in events will, and eventaully create a buzz and a location that retail stores would want to flock too.

Since the trees started blooming in South Jersey special events at the ill Mall started poping up like weeds. First there was the business convention which used the vacant J C Penny's wing of the mall. Then the had the "Shred It" event in conjunction with NBC10 where people shred their bills and learn how to prevent people from stealing their credit card accounts. I guess these people don't have paper shredders at home or access to the internet to look the measures that they should take at home. I understand turn out wasn't all that great for this one.

The mall have also starting a promotion that gets teenaged girls involved with modeling. I guess this will bring familes to rally around them and shop in stores while dropping them off. Perhaps an attempt to get guys in their 20's to come to the mall and creepily stare. I imagine Heros world must do a killing on these days.

This past week the Circus came to town. They set up just outside the vacant Penny's and it was heavily advertised in the papers, and through some billboards. So this is a good sign that some green is being spent to bring back interest in the mall. Wheather or not that circus goers decided to check out Gamestop or not after ridding the Elephants remains to be seen. However one wonders what people who haven't been there for years thought whent hey wondered in to the Mall. During the duration of these Special events the bleeding of existing businesses hasn't been able to be stopped. GNC,the Gap, and Pearl Vision all flew the coop.

In the addition to the previously mentioned events, Flyers forward Sami Kapanen (june 11 th) will be there for autographs,Rose flower shoe (june 5), classic car show june 19th,and Sports card show (June 11-13th).

Rumors of the mall landing Wal-Mart, Crate and Barrel, and Ikea over the past 6 months have proven to be just that. Rumors. No more truth to them than the Rutgers or Rowan rumors that have floating around South Jersey for almost 5 years now.

The rumors of a big announcment were however true, but resulted in mixed feelings from store owners. The Mall has decided to tear down the empty J C Penny's anchor store. The logic behind this is the wing can be rebuild to better suit the needs of a deal retail store. No Best Buy, Ikea, Wal-Mart or most newer successful retail stores are down with the split level set-up. So perhaps having the building's style reflect the business's image would make it easier to land a big account than disguising an old Penny's store as something else.

The news is good since it shows the owners are doing someting, and in the mean time saves money taxes wise. On the downside the Mall didn't say if they actually had a client lined up. In fact that pretty much denied anything would rise from the ashes anytime soon. Kind of like setting up a one timer, only to have the shot go wide.

One complaint againt this mall is the location. People blame the fact that it isn't near major highways that it gets hurt. I think that is bull, since its near the WHP and not too far from 295 and a train station. Look at all the rush hour traffic that goes on around that area. People can get there. If they can get to the Ritz Movie theater they can get there. People just need some different stores than Deptford or Cherryhill malls.

If they are about to start overhauling the mall I would highly suggest to replace some of their damaged signs with new digital ones. However maybe the tearing down of Penny's is the true sign of the envitable date with doom for the Mall. No matter how many clowns they send in.