As we have told you, the new owners of the Hutchinson Mall are seeking permission from the city to set up a “TIF” district to help fund renovation of the Mall.
The president of RockStep Capital, Andy Weiner gave a great presentation before a packed crowd at the December Hutchinson / Reno County Chamber breakfast. He told the crowd of the plans for getting more retail and improvements made to the mall.
We got a chance to visit with him after the meeting and he told us that we shouldn’t expect changes to happen overnight. He says next year will be a planning year with the big action he hopes will be coming in 2016 and 2017. He says they have plans to fill the old Dillard’s, Sears and Woody’s spaces, but not with a big department store necessarily. He they could fill it with seven specialty stores instead.
He says they have been trying for two years to purchase the property and that finally occurred in Sept. He says things won’t happen overnight with next year set aside for set up, with them negotiating with national retailers that might want to come to the local mall. Now that doesn’t mean there won’t be any new retailers coming next year, but most he expects will come within the following two years, that being 2016 and 2017. He says new signage will also be a part of the plan for next year.
As for being so close to Wichita, we asked him if that is a concern for having the mall here be successful considering the New Market Square and Town West shopping areas about 40 minutes away? He says that is not a concern. He says many of the retailers in those malls have wanted to come to Hutchinson, but have been waiting for someone who owns the property to negotiate and provide the right incentives. He says there is a lot of Hutchinson area shoppers that go to Wichita because of those stores. He predicts that when he gets the mall to where he wants it to be, it will reduce the need for Hutchinson area shoppers to have drive to Wichita to shop.
He says the retailers who go after teens and juniors are closing dozens and dozens of stores nationwide. An example of this would be stores like Banana Republic or Abercrombie & Fitch. He says it would be very challenging to bring them to Hutchinson. He says their more likely to bring middle market, off price stores which he says are still very very desirable. “The chances of filling up the Dillard’s space, the Sears space and the Woody’s space are very very high”, said Weiner.
As for success rate in taking over smaller market malls, he says they’ve been doing this for sometime and have properties in nine states. “We have had properties that were in much worse shape then the Hutchinson Mall and we’ve dramatically increased occupancy with quality retailers, quality stores that offer great value”, said Weiner
He says they’re also open to bringing in what he says are not typical business for shopping malls. That could include government and medical establishments or what he called “multiple use” for properties of this size.
He says they are on target of where they want to be at this point and have had no bad news so far, only good news. He says when they purchase properties, they expect some bad news and so far have had none. He says next year is the negotiating year because retailers have already made their decisions for 2015, so you have to get on their list for 2016 and beyond.
He also told of the plans by the new owners of the Mall 8 Theater which will renovate that property making it more competitive and comparable with the theaters in Wichita.
Weiner and his group will be before the city council again on Jan. 20, for a public hearing asking the council to consider the tax increment financing designation for the property to help fund over $14 million in renovations to the mall property.
Here is an audio cut of Weiner that we used on air. This is his comment on their success rate.