Mayor hopes closure will lead to redevelopment negotiations for shuttered mall
Sears announced May 31 it will close its store at the Burlington Center Mall in early September.
The store is the last open business at the beleaguered mall, which shut its doors in January after water damage caused by a burst pipe. Burlington Township Mayor Brian Carlin said he hopes the Sears announcement will spur talks about redeveloping the property.
“Obviously, it’s unfortunate that the final business has left that site” but it also gives someone else the opportunity to do something with it, Carlin said.
Carlin said one of the difficulties in redeveloping the mall is that it has multiple owners. Sears owns its store and the adjacent parking lot, while Moonbeam Capital Investments owns the rest of the mall.
Moonbeam Capital and Sears have never been able to agree on what should be done with the property, Carlin said.
“Until Sears and Moonbeam Capital come to some understanding, nothing is going to really change,” he said. “That was always the stumbling block with redevelopment.”
Representatives from Sears and Moonbeam Capital did not respond to separate requests for comment on the future of the Burlington Center Mall property.
Carlin said he hopes news of the Sears closure will encourage discussion between Moonbeam and Sears and attract additional interest in the site from developers.
“It provides an opportunity for somebody to get those guys on the same page,” he said.
“It’s a good business opportunity,” Carlin added. “It’s a great location.”
Many developers have approached the township with redevelopment ideas in the past, Carlin said. He said a company came forward recently with a proposal that included some retail and a heavy warehouse component. It wasn’t a plan Township Council fully supported, Carlin said.
“We would like to see the retail redeveloped there, but we recognize the practicalities,” he said.
The Sears at the Burlington Center Mall was part of a round of closures that included 48 Sears stores and 15 Kmart locations, according to Sears Holdings.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to streamline the company’s operations and focus on our best stores, we have identified approximately 100 non-profitable stores, many of which will begin store closing sales in the near future,” the company said in a statement.
Liquidation sales at the stores scheduled to close will begin as early as June 14, and affected employees will receive severance and have a chance to apply for jobs at other stores in the area, the company said.
The Sears Auto Center at the store in Burlington Township is set to shut down later this month.
