Large, empty storefronts once home to major retailers has become a common sight on the Jackson side of County Line Road in the last few years with the departure of two others by the end of next year promising to make the situation worse.
But one bright spot has emerged.
The 33,000-square-foot Circuit City building that has sat vacant for four years has been leased “to a national retailer,” said Josh Burmeister, senior vice president of SRS Real Estate Partners, a Dallas company that’s leasing the building. He wouldn’t identify the retailer.
“The sky isn’t falling on County Line Road,” Burmeister said. “When tenants close or relocate, it creates opportunities for other retailers.”
Still, a shifting retail landscape battered by the recession makes it tough to find new tenants to fill such large spaces. And Jackson’s County Line has plenty of them. Sam’s Club is moving to Madison by the end of next year, and Haverty’s Furniture is closing in April.
Jackson’s County Line retail corridor faces many issues. Open-air retail developments in Ridgeland, Madison and Flowood have drawn shoppers away in recent years, just as those cities have drawn population from Jackson. Planned developments like Pearl’s The Outlets of Bloomfield could exacerbate matters.
“If it was just a recession, things would turn around after a full recovery. That (broader) shift is going to continue,” said Blake Wallace, executive director of the Hinds County Economic Development Authority, adding online shopping is draining traditional bricks-and-mortar retail of its power, too.
Filling the Sam’s Club location with a major tenant could prove tricky, with reports indicating Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which owns Sam’s Club, often places deed restrictions on its buildings to prevent competitors from moving in once the spaces are vacant.
Company officials haven’t commented on what its plans for the building are after Sam’s Club departs. Jackson city officials hope to lure another large retailer, perhaps Costco, which has no Mississippi stores, to the site.
Sam’s Club cited structural problems with its existing building as its reason for leaving. Haverty’s is shuttering its only Mississippi store because it said it couldn’t find favorable terms to extend the lease. Fifteen people will lose their jobs.
The days of a clutch of large retailers opening scores of big-box stores each year seem to be vanishing. Circuit City went out of business in 2009, shuttering its County Line location as well as its other 566 stores across the country. Best Buy has said it will put emphasis on opening smaller, free-standing stores in the future. Barnes & Noble said it will close a certain number of stores each year over the next few years.
Barnes & Noble, which hasn’t announced which stores it will close, moved to Renaissance at Colony Park from County Line in 2008. Old Navy moved to another location in Jackson on County Line.
“Big spaces like that … finding one tenant is difficult, but it happens,” said Mike Niemira, vice president of research and chief economist with the International Council of Shopping Centers, a global trade association. “It depends on what each area can support.”
SRS Real Estate Partners has been marketing the Circuit City building for the last 18 months. Burmeister said he unsuccessfully tried to get Whole Foods to build its first Jackson location there. The company opted for Highland Village shopping center in north Jackson. But he feels a thawing economy where some retailers are looking for smaller spaces while other companies continue to grow will renew interest in County Line Road.
Niemira noted retailer h.h. gregg has bought some old Circuit City buildings in other parts of the country. Still, he said many retailers will look to occupy smaller storefronts going forward to both keep costs in check and provide a more personalized experience for shoppers. Thus, many large spaces are finding new kinds of use.
Niemira said a group of local retailers are sharing a large space recently built in the Mesa suburb of Phoenix, Ariz. Locally, Lifeway Christian Stores is marking almost two years occupying about half of the old Barnes & Noble space in Ridgeland. It moved there from Ridgewood Court Road.
The space is smaller but more visible than Lifeway’s old location. It also is near the vacant Old Navy and Circuit City buildings and Haverty’s.
Despite the plans for the furniture business and the nearby Sam’s Club, Lifeway spokesman Jon Wilke says the company “loves the location and (has) no plans to relocate.”
An example of successfully filling an old, large space away from County Line can be found at the former Winn-Dixie location on Old Canton Road in Jackson. The building is shared by Fred’s Super Dollar and Surplus Warehouse. Space once occupied there by a dry-cleaner is up for lease.
“Most markets change demographics, and the businesses change with that,” said Nancy Lane, whose namesake commercial real-estate company owns that property and the old Michaels site on County Line. She says she’s in talks with several entities about filling the latter site but wouldn’t give specifics.
Fred’s and other discount retailers have robustly opened stores in the last few years, and the old Winn-Dixie site benefited, she said.
While many property managers may look to subdivide large empty retail spaces, Niemira says perhaps a better use would be for something other than retail. He says roughly 40 percent of space at larger open-air shopping centers nationwide is used for something besides retail or restaurants, such as movie theaters, bowling alleys or other “entertainment” purposes.
He suggests such use for some of County Line’s empty buildings could give motorists on the well-traveled road reason to stop there instead of continuing on to other shopping destinations.
“Whether it’s one or 10 or 30 tenants, look at what people are spending their money on.”