Death of a mall

Eastland Mall helped speed the decline of McKeesport’s commercial district. Thirty years later, commerce has passed by Eastland as well.

More: Eastland Mall grand opening coverage and photos

By Jason Togyer
(A shorter version of this story appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in 1999. Since this story was written, Eastland Mall has closed for good, locking its doors in 2005 for the final time. As of September 2006, the mall stands empty and vacant.)

Steady streams of cars come and go from the new Wal-Mart on Route 30 in North Versailles Township. A multiplex movie theater --- one of the largest in the state --- recently opened nearby.

Across the street, workers are putting the finishing touches on a new 24-store strip shopping center, and construction will soon begin on a new Eat'n Park restaurant.

Less than a mile away, panels fall forlornly from the sign welcoming shoppers --- what few there are --- to Eastland Mall. Inside, senior citizens jog past boarded-up storefronts, dodging plastic buckets which catch water leaking from the roof.

The building boom in North Versailles is passing by the Mon Valley's first large shopping mall, which opened 36 years ago next month. Fewer than a dozen tenants occupy a mall that once hosted 60, including five large department stores.

The mall comes alive only on weekends, when thousands flock to an indoor-outdoor flea market.

"What does a flea market bring? Nothing," said Edward McGuire, president of the North Versailles commissioners. A 7-year-old boy was killed last summer when police said he stepped from behind a parked car at the flea market and into the path of a pickup truck.

Flea markets "bring a headache for the township," McGuire said. "We have to give them services and patrol it, and we're paying for all of that."

One of the country's largest shopping center owners, Benderson Development Co. of Buffalo, N.Y., has owned Eastland since 1988, when it purchased the mall from its owner, the bankrupt Gimbels department store chain.

Gary McCormick, who took over as the mall's manager last September, said Eastland's location off of Route 30 isn't attractive to large retailers. "They want to be on the main drag," he said.

And competition from nearby retail complexes and industrial parks in communities that are eligible for tax credits pulls away potential tenants, he said. "We're a private landowner trying to compete with government subsidies and tax incentives we can't offer," McCormick said.

The shopping center can survive, he said, with a mix of warehousing operations, offices and "service businesses." Current tenants include a state driver's license testing center, a printer, a barber shop, a beauty parlor, a shoemaker, a distribution center for Xerox and a discount pop and beer store.

"We have the opportunity to go in multiple directions," McCormick said. "We're going to pull this place out. It's just a matter of bringing the building out of the 1960s."

One former tenant isn't convinced. Stan Savitz, owner of Amer-a-quick Signs, moved out of Eastland two months ago to a warehouse a half-mile away on East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Boulevard.

"The local management (was) very cooperative, but his hands are tied by Buffalo," Savitz said.

Savitz said he was responsible for all repairs to his store except for the roof. For that --- and for general cleaning outside his store --- Benderson assessed a "common area maintenance" fee that amounted to several thousand dollars. He refused to pay it.

"I can empty (rainwater) buckets myself," Savitz said.

He asked for a five-year lease with an option to renew for two additional five year terms. Benderson headquarters never got back to him, Savitz said.

"My business was growing there," he said. But each time he rented additional space at Eastland, Benderson raised his rates.

"I was happy to stay there. But if I can't fix a rate for the long term, I can't build a business," Savitz said. Without a five-year lease, he said, "how can I make a long-range plan if basically, at any time, they can evict me?"

Calls to Benderson in Buffalo were referred to sales agents who did not return repeated phone messages. A public-relations executive was traveling and unavailable for comment.

BEAUTIFUL VIEW, STAR-CROSSED PAST

The mall sits at the peak of a hill overlooking a bend in the Monongahela River, a site earmarked for housing until the Gimbels chain --- which developed Eastland --- came calling in 1961.

Despite the view, Eastland's fortunes have been star-crossed since before the mall opened. Local residents say while the 200,000-square-foot Gimbels store was being built, strong winds blew down its unfinished brick walls.

Constructed at a cost of $12 million, Eastland Shopping Plaza --- its upper level was then open to the elements --- became home to the nation's largest chain stores. In addition to Gimbels, tenants included J.C. Penney Co., Sears, National Record Mart, May-Stern, Kinney Shoes, Thom McAn and F.W. Woolworth.

Downtown McKeesport, the Mon Valley's largest retail center, suffered the consequences. When Eastland opened on Aug. 15, 1963, Sears and Penney's closed their McKeesport stores and three McKeesport retailers --- Immel's, Wander Sales and Richard's Shoes --- opened Eastland branches.

Eastland employed more than 800 people, according to news reports. But it lost some of its luster when Monroeville Mall --- fully-enclosed, unlike Eastland --- opened a few miles away in the late 1960s.

Then on June 6, 1973, a fire gutted several stores and caused more than $1 million damage. A half-million dollar renovation added a roof and side walls to the upper level, along with a new Gee Bee discount store, and Eastland put "mall" in its name.

But Eastland's biggest blow came after Century III Mall in West Mifflin opened in the late 1970s, taking the J.C. Penney store with it. And the steel industry which employed many of Eastland's customers began to decline. Mall owners took out a $5.2 million mortgage in 1980, county records show.

McCormick, the mall manager, said his brother worked in Gimbels' stereo department in those days.

"Even then, when other malls got custom car shows, Eastland got used cars," he said. Cardboard was placed under the cars to catch oil leaks, McCormick said, laughing.

When Eastland's main patron and largest anchor, Gimbels, went out of business in September 1986, most of the mall's remaining tenants left. Eastland Mall had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a year earlier.

According to county and township tax records, the mall, including a vacant two-screen movie theater, now has a fair market value of $1.38 million --- less than the $1.4 million Benderson paid for it 11 years ago.

MALL OWNER NOT BLAMELESS

The mall's downfall shouldn't be blamed on Benderson, said Ed McGuire, the township commission president. But the company's failure to maintain the mall and its parking lot can be, McGuire said.

"It's a shame what they did to let that place run down," he said. "It's becoming an eyesore."

A mall worker who asked not to be named for fear of retribution said her store lost hundreds of dollars in merchandise this winter when its roof sprung a massive leak as snow thawed.

The store's insurance company canceled its policy, saying Eastland is a bad risk, she said. Benderson refused to reimburse the store for its losses.

The old concrete sidewalk slabs on the first floor have begun to settle, buckling the vinyl tiles applied over them. Parts of the brick veneer on the former Gimbels have fallen away and several walls show stress cracks.

One longtime tenant, Harper's Bazaar, a woman's clothing store, will relocate in November to the new Brandywine Shops being built on Greensburg Pike.

"I did real, real well when I first came in," said Carol Harper, who has run the store with her husband Jim for 11 years. Eastland was in the midst of a small resurgence fueled by the flea market --- then held on two floors of the former Gimbels store --- and a host of mom-and-pop businesses like Harper's.

Then mall manager Ed Dale was replaced, and rent on several stores was raised. The flea market was relocated from Gimbels at the center of the mall to Eastland's far end. The move sharply reduced walk-in traffic, Harper said.

"Things started going downhill," Harper said. She has urged Benderson to turn Eastland into a discount outlet mall "but they don't want to hear it."

Not all of the tenants are dissatisfied. Anthony Macchiaroli, whose Valley Shoe Repair has been a fixture at Eastland since the day it opened, doesn't want to leave.

"I hope they don't close the mall," he said.

Another renter, Kennywood Messenger Service, is very satisfied with its corner spot, said Ruth Bovee, general manager.

"They've never raised my rent beyond what was agreed," she said. "We've had no problems with the current management."

Kennywood Messenger, which provides notary service and vehicle licensing, moved into a former First Federal of Pittsburgh branch which closed when that bank was bought out by a larger firm.

"It was in beautiful shape," Bovee said. "As current tenants here they've been right on top of everything. ... When you call Gary (McCormick), Gary moves. There's been a whirlwind of activity since he came in."

'IT'S A GLOOMY PLACE'

Benderson invested a half-million dollars at Eastland last year, McCormick said, including a new roof on part of the mall and $200,000 in spot repairs.

McCormick, who has 12 years experience in commercial real estate, said he shows Eastland to a dozen prospective clients every week. Most of the inquiries are generated through "cold-calling."

"The interest is there," McCormick said. "It's just finding the right deal that will work for the tenants and the owner."

He said Eastland is in much the same situation as the former East Hills Shopping Center in Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg. Yet though East Hills is nearly vacant, it has become the subject of a tug-of-war between competing developers.

"Our center isn't much different than East Hills, but our location and market is very vibrant," McCormick said. "We see this place taking off."

Eastland sits on 57 acres of "prime developable land," he said. The mall is constructed in nine segments, each of which could be demolished or enlarged to suit a tenant's needs, McCormick said.

"Our location can work for a company that's trying to base an operation between Pittsburgh and Greensburg," McCormick said. "That's where I see this center going. It's a destination."

Amer-a-quick's Savitz, who supplies custom-imprinted signs, banners and advertising specialities at wholesale prices, said Benderson has to invest more money and time in Eastland first.

"It's a gloomy place," he said. "It's so gloomy no one wants to go there. (In the winter) they plow snow after we get there. People don't feel comfortable coming there."

"I see nothing happening over there," Commissioner McGuire said. "I've known people over there that have tried to buy the place and they can't connect" with Benderson.

The only thing that would save Eastland, McGuire said, "is to take it --- the whole thing --- down." Township officials would like to see the land cleared for retail use or residential housing, he said. "We'd bend over backward.

"It's just falling down and no one wants to go in there," McGuire said. "Why they're letting it go like that, I don't know. It's a damn shame."

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