How has Covid-19 and the ever-evolving retail landscape affected Jacksonville in the past few years?
· The Avenues Mall
The Avenues, now 30 years old, is slowly declining. The defunct Sears remains blocked off and has not been replaced, even after a year. This does not mean that it won’t be filled by something in the future.
More and more brands have made their exit from the Avenues, leaving empty spaces for rent that are getting filled by off-brands, bottom dollar fashion lines and small independent retail ventures such as a wine boutique and an olive oil specialist.
The Gap, Banana Republic, Jos A Bank, New York and Co, Cotton On, PayLess Shoe Source and now Francesca’s have all shuttered their stores at this location. Some of these brands have closed in other locations as well. In the case of NY and Co and Payless, all of the stores have closed.
Major retailers JC Penney and Forever 21 have seen some financial woes and face possible bankruptcy, which could mean the shuttering of two more anchors in the future.
· The St. Johns Town Center
The Town Center continues to add on to itself and change, but it also has faced some decline in parts. Most recently, when a high fashion brand left its spot on the corner outside of Nordstrom, Tommy Bahama’s new concept restaurant and Marlin Bar took over. After months of remodeling, it is open.
A new large structure is being built across the main strip from Nordstrom.
An entire line of shops that was directly outside of the Nordstrom, that opened in 2014 with the new department store, have all vanished except for Free People. An independent boutique, Disney Store, Yankee Candle, a formal wear store and Natural Life have all closed down. This is in the newest part of the town center.
In the older portions, most of the stores are still open and only a few have been replaced by something else. The Gap and Baby Gap closed and are still vacant, Justice for Girls is also gone.
Along the lifestyle plaza section of the town center, the Pier One has gone alone with all other Pier One stores. A Christian bookstore and the Dress Barn brand have all closed in the past few years.
Across Town Center Parkway, where a series of new restaurants and an Aldi were built along with a new location for Best Buy, and on the other side where Best Buy used to sit, several of the restaurants have failed.
Brio Tuscan Grill has gone this year, BlackFinn closed at least a year ago, a Moe’s location has closed and Pei Wei has closed. Toys R Us and Buy Buy Baby closed when Toys R Us went bankrupt. A large furniture store has also closed down.
· Regency Square Mall
I have not had a logical excuse to drive over to the Arlington district of Jacksonville for a long time, but from a recent update I saw that Regency has continued to dwindle to almost nothing and the Dillard’s Clearance was the only anchor left. The mall suffered an air-conditioning failure last year and it was unclear if that was repaired or not. Plans for a large company to turn it into outlet stores fell through. A new investor was recently considering taking the mall on and possibly demolishing part of it to create shopping centers. A church has taken over the Belk space in the center of the mall and has also shown interest in utilizing other parts of the mall.
· The Jacksonville Landing
The Landing, which counted as a shopping mall, was opened in the late 1980’s. When I would visit it in the late 2000’s, most of the mall shops were closed or occupied by bottom dollar independent retailers. There were only a few restaurants left, and they were tourist-trap style establishments with “so-so” food. There was a nightclub, but this later closed. The whole interior portion of the Landing had a tired old “inner city subway” vibe to it, with its dim lighting in places, dirty tiles and musty smell. It was clear, even ten years ago, that it was on its way out.
City of Jacksonville developers had been proposing ideas for replacement structures since the early 2000’s, but only recently was something done.
In 2018, a deadly shooting occurred in a gaming bar inside the main building.
This hastened the City’s decisions to make change happen.
In spring of this year, amidst all of the Covid-19 shutdowns, the entire Landing structure was demolished.
Now as 2020 draws to a close, a plan for the vacant site to be sodded temporarily has been called for. I have been near that part of downtown this year, but have not gone close enough to the site to see if it was covered in lawn grass or not. Over the course of the next few years, proposals have been made to build apartments, restaurants and maybe a museum.
· The St. Augustine Outlets
The Premium, outdoor-facing outlet mall has lost some stores in the past few years including Zales, Nine West, Cotton-On and a few others. Nine West and Cotton-On closed all of their stores nationwide from what I understand.
Overall, the mall is still very busy. Perhaps it is not racking in the sales numbers that it was ten or fifteen years ago, but it is still packed out on some days with minimal parking.
The Prime Outlet, on the other hand... it continues to shrink much like Regency Square Mall. Now almost every forward-facing external shop that was newly opened in the 2008 expansion has closed down. On the left side of Saks (Which is still open), only Talbots and Guess remain from the original lineup. Vanity Fair filled in the old Cold Water Creek, but had only moved from its former space where Old Navy is now. Francesca’s opened in the mid-2010’s but was formerly Juicy Couture in 2008. Hugo Boss, Kenneth Cole, BCBG, 2B Bebe and Escada have all gone. On the right side of Saks, more stores have survived than on the left including Michael Kors, Loft, Cole Haan, Dooney Bourke and a sunglasses store. Gucci was the first to close just one year after the new stores opened, and American Apparel closed when most of the stores nationwide were shut down.
Inside the mall is another store all together. Entire corridors are vacant now.
To me, it seems like the mall is basically kept afloat (just barely) by Saks, Old Navy, Vanity Fair, Bealls Outlet and H&M. Lucky Brand is still open as well. It opened on the interior in 2008 when the exterior opened. There is also a Famous Footwear, Bon Worth, a tool store, Bath and Bodyworks, Zales, Nautica, a fudge shop and a couple of NFL and college football themed stores.
Stores like Disney, Body Shop, Coleman and Dress Barn left some time ago. One by one, the other interior stores on the more populated side of the mall have shuttered. Journeys, Rue 21, Papaya and Charlotte Russe closed a few years back, as well as the “as seen on TV” store on the other side.
Pacsun shut down not too long before the pandemic, as a bankruptcy filing caused them to close a few but not all stores. New York and Company closed this past summer, along with its other stores.
In the food court, one space has been vacant for years and the Pretzel Twister shut down recently. The other four spaces are (I think) still occupied.
· Brands that vanished in 2020
Label scars are not just peppering local malls. Some big names in retail have met their demise this year possibly at the hands of Covid-19.
o Stein Mart stores are completely gone, the last of them having closed this fall.
o Pier One imports began liquidation of all of its stores and officially closed down at the end of the summer.
o NY&Co closed all of its stores, but is still operating its website.
o Jos A Bank and Mens Warehouse, owned by the same parent company, filed for Bankruptcy but so far have only planned to close 500 stores and not all of them.
o Justice For Girls was already ailing but closed its remaining stores, or made plans to close them in a few months, this year in the midst of the pandemic.
Brands that may still vanish in the near future
o Ascena, the company that owns Justice, also owns Ann Taylor, Loft and Lane Bryant. The company has filed for bankruptcy and closures of a number of those stores is yet to come in the next year or so
o Brooks Brothers will close a number of stores after its bankruptcy this year.
o GNC has been closing stores as malls fall into decline, but the entire chain may soon be defunct.
o JCPenney filed for bankruptcy and was already ailing before the pandemic. It plans to close many more stores, but not all yet.
o JCrew filed for bankruptcy this year and may close many stores next year
· Brands that will shrink by a few hundred locations because of the pandemic
o Bed Bath and Beyond
o GameStop
o Tuesday Morning
o Victoria’s Secret
o Chicos
o Forever 21
o Walgreens
o Office Depot
And these lists only cover the affected stores we have in the Jacksonville Metro area... there are many other brands, such as Lord and Taylor or Modell’s Sporting Goods, that don’t have locations near our area.
