Steamtown Mall
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The Marketplace at Steamtown (formerly The Mall at Steamtown) is a
shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...
in
Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...
. United States. It was conceived in the mid-1980s as the keystone of downtown revitalization, though the project was not completed until 1993. Its opening in 1993 was nationally televised on
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and attended by then-
Pennsylvania Governor The governor of Pennsylvania is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as commander-in-chief of the state's national guard. The governor has a duty to enforce state laws and the power to approve or veto bills pass ...
Robert P. Casey, Sr., who was instrumental in securing funding for and initiating development of the mall. The mall is built on approximately half of the former
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad, was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and by ferry with New York City, a distance of . The railroad was ...
yard that was abandoned by
Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...
in the late 1970s. The mall is located on Lackawanna Avenue in the heart of downtown Scranton, and includes a parking garage that stretches the length of the mall between
Boscov's Boscov's Inc. is a family-owned department store with over fifty locations in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Connecticut, West Virginia, and Rhode Island. Twenty-six of the stores are located in Pennsylvania. Corpo ...
and the former
The Bon-Ton Bonton Holdings Inc. operating as Bonton () was an American department store chain and group founded in 1898. It operated in Western New York, Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and throughout the Midwestern United States. The former York, Pennsy ...
. The mall has two levels with a
food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...
overlooking
Steamtown National Historic Site Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) is a List of railway museums, railroad museum and Heritage railway, heritage railroad located on in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and ...
on the second floor. There is a pedestrian bridge leading from the food court out to Steamtown. The mall was featured several times on the ''
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''
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''
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'' which was set in Scranton.


History

The Mall at Steamtown project was organized by Al Boscov, due to
Boscov's Boscov's Inc. is a family-owned department store with over fifty locations in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Connecticut, West Virginia, and Rhode Island. Twenty-six of the stores are located in Pennsylvania. Corpo ...
being unable to move into
Crown American Crown American is a privately held American company that manages and develops commercial real estate. The corporate headquarters is in downtown Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a building designed by architect Michael Graves. History The company w ...
malls after they bought
Hess's Hess's, originally known as Hess Brothers, was a department store chain based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company was founded a single store in 1897, and grew to nearly 80 stores by its commercial peak in the late 1980s. The chains stores were ...
. Boscov’s Department Stores and Shopco Advisory Corp developed the mall under the name Scranton Mall Associates. The mall cost $90 million to construct and required the demolition of many buildings which was completed with the implosion of five buildings on April 5, 1992. Prior to the construction, the area had problems with drugs and
prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...
.


2000s

The Bon-Ton Bonton Holdings Inc. operating as Bonton () was an American department store chain and group founded in 1898. It operated in Western New York, Pennsylvania, Western Maryland, and throughout the Midwestern United States. The former York, Pennsy ...
moved to the mall in 2000 from its location at the Keyser Oak Shopping Center. In 2003, Steamtown Mall Partners replaced Scranton Mall Associates as the manager of the mall. The mall's owners fought the construction of
The Shoppes at Montage The Shoppes at Montage is a shopping center in Moosic, Pennsylvania. It opened on March 29, 2007. It is the first Lifestyle center (retail), lifestyle shopping center in the area. Unlike other local shopping centers, it focuses on mid to high- ...
and lost in court.


2010s

The Bon-Ton closed after the lease expired on January 31, 2014, after 13 years in the mall. They had also leased an additional over two stores on the mall's first floor. American Eagle and ATOS Chicken & Waffles also closed. A replacement store had shown interest, but was delayed due to the foreclosure. No new anchor was in negotiations to replace The Bon-Ton according to Al Boscov. After the foreclosure announcement, As Seen on TV,
Cinnabon Cinnabon, Inc., is an American chain of baked goods stores and kiosks, normally found in areas with high pedestrian traffic such as malls, airports and rest stops. The company's signature item is the cinnamon roll. As of December 2017, there w ...
/ Carvel, and Steamtown Pub and Grill also closed. After the sheriff's sale,
Express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...
closed in August 2014.
Jones Lang LaSalle Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) is a global real estate services company, founded in the United Kingdom with offices in 80 countries. The company also provides investment management services worldwide, including services to institutional an ...
managed the mall from 2012 until 2014. Part of the parking deck near the former Bon-Ton store had to be closed in 2014 due to degradation. Overall parking was not affected due to the parking garage underneath the mall and the parking deck near Boscov's. Repairs for the parking garages were estimated at $10 million. The Steamtown 8 Cinemas (
Marquee Cinemas Marquee Cinemas is a chain of movie theaters in the Eastern United States. It was established in 1979. Founder Curtis McCall opened his first movie theatre in Rainelle, West Virginia, in June 1979. By June 2007, he had expanded the business to ...
) did not generate enough revenue to afford the conversion to digital projectors. Operator Marquee did not renew its lease at the end of 2014.
Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) is an American lifestyle store, lifestyle retailer, founded in 1892 which focuses on contemporary clothing targeting customers in their early 20's to mid 40's. Headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, the company operate ...
and Hollister closed in December 2014. Due to the foreclosure and sheriff's sale, The Mall at Steamtown's vacancy is at 75%. Lids and
Nathan's Hot Dogs Nathan's Famous, Inc. is an American company that operates a chain of fast-food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brook ...
closed in January 2015. The mall considered ending the parking program in January 2015, but kept it active. The Bodywork Store and
f.y.e. 2428392, Inc., doing business as FYE (an initialism of For Your Entertainment), is an American chain of entertainment retail stores headquartered in Albany, New York. Formerly owned by Trans World Entertainment, it began in 1993 and was expan ...
closed in May 2015. According to Al Boscov, many stores left under the terms of their lease due to the mall only having one remaining anchor store.


Foreclosure

A $40.5-million mortgage came due on July 11, 2013. The owners were not able to make the payment, and the mall went into foreclosure on March 7, 2014. The Marquee Theater was included in the foreclosure, but not the Oppenheim and Samter buildings. Debt and low rent revenue (at the time of the foreclosure, the mall was only 65 percent occupied), along with competition from
The Shoppes at Montage The Shoppes at Montage is a shopping center in Moosic, Pennsylvania. It opened on March 29, 2007. It is the first Lifestyle center (retail), lifestyle shopping center in the area. Unlike other local shopping centers, it focuses on mid to high- ...
,
Viewmont Mall Viewmont Mall is a shopping mall located in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is anchored by JCPenney, Macy's, Dick's House of Sport, and HomeGoods. History Viewmont Mall cost $10 million to construct and the original anchors included Grant's, JCPenn ...
, and online businesses were cited as reasons for the foreclosure. Boscov's department store, whose owner, Al Boscov, was a member of Steamtown Mall Partners, planned to bid for the mall at the auction or purchase it beforehand, but could not reach an agreement. Out of 43 Boscov's locations, the location at Steamtown was the 5th-best performing with annual sales of $31 million. Boscov expressed hope that other mall groups would bid on the mall as they have more resources to fill it. Boscov's continued to renovate its store during the foreclosure. The city of
Scranton Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...
owes more than $3.6 million in loans that it secured for the mall. Due to a missed payment, $613,000 has been withheld from Scranton by the
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the secretary of housing and u ...
. Due to accounting issues at the Office of Economic and Community Development in Scranton, $998,000 in payments on the Section 108 loan made from 1999 to 2001 by the mall's owners at the time (Scranton Mall Associates) were not recorded properly. The city of Scranton refinanced the remaining $1,865,000 HUD Section 108 loan in late 2014 and it will be paid over 10 years. Al Boscov donated $715,173 ($612,480 for loan principal and $102,693 in interest) from Boscov’s Department Stores to Scranton for the missed HUD loan. The money was later added to the cities funds for rebuilding sidewalk curbs.


Sheriff’s sale

The sheriff's sale was held on July 15, 2014, with a requested price of over $43.7 million. The reserve price of $37.3 million ($37,265,000) was not met and LNR Partners purchased the property for $1,567.71, its costs and taxes. The only other bidder was a representative for Robert Bolus, whose bid was declared illegal due to the contingency of a casino license being approved for the property. Al Boscov did not bid due to the high requested price and plans to continue negotiations with LNR Partners, but estimates it could take $10–20 million in investments to modernize the Mall.
Zamias Services, Inc. Zamias Services, Inc. is a Commercial property, commercial real estate leasing and management company based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The company was created by shopping mall developer George D. Zamias and traces its history back to 1957. Hist ...
took over management of the mall after the sheriff's sale.


2015 auction

LNR Partners was to put The Mall at Steamtown up for auction on auction.com from June 1–3, 2015 with a starting price of $1 million. The auction was delayed until June 22–24, 2015 with a lowered starting price of $700,000 to allow for more bids. Concerns about the mall include deferred repairs and parking garage repairs. Boscov's was planning to bid on the mall but also holds veto power in its lease on any major changes. Their lease runs through 2024 and Al Boscov was against converting the mall to a
farmers' market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...
and other ideas proposed. The Mall at Steamtown reconstruction (including parking garage) was estimated to cost $33.3 million with money coming from state grants and loans backed by Scranton. Mayor Bill Courtright initially supported the plan, but later came out against it until repayment of $18 million in loans owed to Scranton is complete. The winning bid for The Mall at Steamtown was $5.25 million, with the auction ending a half-hour late due to bidding, and Boscov’s not the buyer. Announcing who won happened four weeks later due to finalizing of the complex deal. The mall was purchased by John Basalyga for $5,512,500 (total with five percent buyer's premium) from LBUBS 2003-C5 Lackawanna Retail Partnership and operates it under the name Steamtown 300 LLC. The First National Community Bank of Dunmore financed the purchase with a mortgage of $4.2 million. Basalyga has commented that the mall will not be re-purposed at this time.


2016 rebranding

In May 2016, Basalyga announced that the mall would be renamed "The Marketplace at Steamtown". Along with the rebranding, Basalyga announced that one of the former anchor stores would be converted to a
Luzerne County Community College Luzerne County Community College (LCCC) is a public community college in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania. LCCC offers over 100 academic, technical, and career programs. The institution uses an open admissions policy for most programs, and has over 35,0 ...
satellite campus, and that a movie theatre, a large indoor playground, and a space for local vendors were all expected to open during the summer. The Marketplace remains active, with new stores and businesses joining the retailer. Places of interest include Delta Medix, Luzerne County Community College, and
Crunch Fitness Crunch Fitness is a US-based brand of over 500 franchising, franchised and corporate owned health club, fitness clubs located in the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Costa Rica, and Australia. Founded by Doug Levine in 1989, it ...
. An area for local vendors, the Scranton Public Market, opened in late 2017. The public market features eateries and craft sellers from throughout the region.


References

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External links


Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mall At Steamtown Shopping malls in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Scranton, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Scranton, Pennsylvania Shopping malls established in 1993 1993 establishments in Pennsylvania