Mall is evolving once more with the times

Dec. 28, 2017 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

Jennifer Cruz, owner of Springfield Macarons, is among the new local businesses at Eastfield Mall.
Reminder Publications submitted photo

SPRINGFIELD – The co-manager of Eastfield Mall, Nicole Sweeney notes the mall has undergone reinvention before to meet the retailing needs of the times and is currently undergoing another to create a more “Internet-proof” shopping center.

“Every mall is struggling. If you’re smaller you are more obvious,” Sweeney told Reminder Publications.

That effort includes becoming the home of local businesses, many of them offering different goods or services that one might normally associate with a mall filled with chain stores.

Sweeny noted that Springfield Macarons just opened its location, Jennifer Cruz the local woman who has been selling her meringue cookies at famers markets and other venues now has a brick and mortar location.

Cruz is not alone, though, as a local retailer. New tenants at Eastfield Mall include Fresh Cut 2, G.T.’s Creation Station, Youthful Expressions dance studio, Gifts & Grabs, For the Love of Hair and Most Excellent Gaming.

Despite rumors, Sweeney said the mall’s owners, Mountain Development Corporation, are “dedicated to the property.” She added the company has been carefully researching an on-going strategy to address the changes in retail.

“They are looking for the absolute best way to move forward,” Sweeney said.

She added the mall’s owner is looking at the possibility of residential units, but that would mean “reimagining the entire 40 acres and making it a neighborhood.”

The company does own the entire mall property with the exception of the Sears location.

Sweeney said that with some of the local businesses the mall has had to be flexible about their hours of operation. For instance the dance studio is traditionally a business with more evening hours and no reason to open at 10 a.m.

Sweeney and her co-manager, David Thompson, then try to cluster businesses together so there is a synergy between them. For instance, parents can drop their older children off for dance lessons and then bring younger children, while they wait for the class to end, to the inflatable bounce house center across the hall.

“We want to get a little ecosystem in each part of the mall that works,” Sweeney explained.

Sweeney said her DNA is in malls as her mother worked at the former Forbes & Wallace Department Store at Eastfield and has worked at malls and shopping centers for years.

Eastfield was the first enclosed mall in the Springfield region and opened in 1968. Sears, Steiger’s, Forbes & Wallace and McCory’s were among the anchor tenants. Macy’s recently closed, as did JC Penney’s leaving Sears as one of the few original stores.

Sweeney said part of the mall’s problems is despite the fact it has 62 stores, people will comment that there is “nothing there.” She explained the perception problem is caused because the mall does not have as many of the chain stores that are traditionally associated with malls.

“If you give the local guys a chance, you’ll be pleasantly surprised,” she said.
She said many customers come to mall office to make suggestions, and “we absolutely love that people are passionate about this space.”

Many times people have suggested getting Target to move to the mall or a Christmas Tree Shop. Sweeney said the national trend is the big box stores such as Target have built the stores they are going to build and Target realizes Springfield shoppers are willing to go to Holyoke or Enfield, CT.

Sweeney believes “becoming more local more regional can be a good thing.”

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