Students tackle issues of ailing mall

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Robotic massage chairs, a paintball event and a Christmas children’s chorus: These are just some of the things area residents would like to see at WestRidge Mall, according to a recent survey organized by students in Cindy Appert’s Fergus Falls High School business class.

On Monday, real estate broker Richard Strimling met with Appert’s class to discuss survey results, mall operations and the realities of retail. Strimling works out of Minneapolis as a consultant for WestRidge.

“It’s not as cut and dry as, ‘Why don’t we have more stores? Why aren’t you doing anything about it?’” Strimling said. “Remember, stores don’t just happen. They have to be created and somebody needs to pay for that.”

Contrary to popular belief, Strimling said, high renting costs are not the reason for WestRidge’s vacancies.

“Dozens of businesses have closed in Fergus Falls over the past 15 years and it’s not because of high rent at the mall,” he said.

The keys to mall health, he said, are strong anchor stores, which attract smaller businesses. When WestRidge opened in 1978, those anchor stores were Herberger’s and Woolworth’s, joined a few years later by JCPenney. The 1998 closing of JCPenney resulted from the company’s decision to close 70-plus underperforming stores across the country, said Jay Dunbar, WestRidge Mall manager. Woolworth’s closed in late 1993 when the entire company ceased to exist.

“As the stores started leaving it became a snowball effect,” Strimling said, explaining how smaller businesses react to the loss of anchor stores. “You lose your dress shops, you lose your shoe stores. You lose your shoe stores, you lose your accessories stores.”

And that’s just part of the problem. Stores all over the country feel the effects of Internet shopping, mergers, and changing shopping and lifestyle patterns. In Fergus Falls, Strimling said, the tendency to one-stop-shop in Fargo, St. Cloud or the Twin Cities does little to help the local economy.

“There’s too much economic leakage to other communities,” he said. “Dollars spent outside the community don’t help the community.”

An online survey created by Appert’s students suggests area residents have plenty to say about the future of WestRidge Mall. The survey, completed by nearly 750 people since late October, asked shoppers about mall attendance, selection and future stores. About 43 percent of respondents said they visited the mall once or less a month, with 76 percent listing Herberger’s as the store they frequented most often. Nearly 45 percent of respondents listed Kohl’s as their preferred potential anchor store.

Companies look at several factors when considering a new store location, Strimling said, among them demographics like the ratio of women to men, the percentage of the population with college degrees and the area’s median household income. Caribou Coffee, for example, targets communities where the average household makes at least $55,000 a year. Every business — from FedEx to Jimmy John’s — has a certain set of qualifications for establishing stores, interested only in the locations projected to maximize profit.

Surrounding “big box” retailers like Target, Home Depot and Wal-Mart generally bode well for WestRidge Mall, Strimling said, because they bring customers out in the mall’s direction. However, a potential concern for a retailer like Kohl’s, he said, is that these stores — offering similar items — will eat into business.

For smaller groups looking to invest in mall space, Strimling says rent shouldn’t be a major obstacle. Rent at WestRidge varies, he said, depending on several factors, including the amount of space, the length of the lease and the viability of the business.

“Rent should not be at such a level that it would scare people away,” he said, explaining that costs are negotiable. “We will make it very reasonable for them to try.”

“From a broad perspective, it’s in everyone’s best interest to see the mall thrive,” said Harold Stanislawski, director of the Fergus Falls Economic Improvement Commission.