Who will fill Moscow Mall’s void?

Scales may soon start tipping in favor of the floundering Moscow Mall, if a national retailer takes the bait offered by the shopping center’s leasing agents at Spokane and Chicago.

Beryl E. (Bud) Coe of Spokane’s James E. Black and Co. Management, the man in charge of filling the mall with tenants, claims recent talks with an as-yet-unnamed national firm are “more than just a fishing expedition.’’

Another national chain moving into the Moscow Mall just may signal the turning point in the mall’s turbulent 11-year history, he said Thursday. At last count, 18 of the center’s 25 retail spots were empty.

“It’s looking better than it has for some time. We’re looking locally, regionally and nationally I still think the center is very viable,’’ Coe said. “If one or two things happen, things could change rapidly. Something like ShopKo moving in could do it.’’

However, Jane E. Kresim, a spokeswoman for ShopKo’s headquarters at Green Bay, Wis., said Friday the chain’s expansion plans for next year do not involve setting up shop at either Moscow or Pullman. The company Mall 5E E05 Mall 1E opened a store at Lewiston in 1988.

In the last several weeks, two tenants closed their doors at the Moscow Mall, but one reopened under new management last Sunday.

Goldenvisions Jewelers, owned by Richard and Michelle Strasser, closed Jan. 20 after two years of operation. The Strassers, originally from the Walnut Creek, Calif., area, announced plans to open a similar store at Sacramento, Calif.

Ed Townsend, owner of Sweet Ed’s Restaurant, the mall’s eatery, was mailing flyers out last week to sell his kitchen equipment when some family friends offered to buy the business.

Mary K. and Adrian Deane took over the restaurant and its employees Jan. 20, and reopened the eatery as The Deanery last Sunday, Mary Deane said last week.

“We were thinking about either moving to England or staying here,’’ she said. Adrian Deane is a native of England, and Mary is a Moscow native. She recently was a head chef and restaurant manager in Utah, and he is a fish farmer.

“There are no fish farms in Moscow, so we opened a restaurant,’’ she said.

Sweet Ed’s Restaurant was open for about 8 years. Mary Deane said Townsend was glad to see the restaurant stay open.

“It was easier for them to see it go as a going concern,’’ rather than piece by piece, she said.

Townsend was out of town and unavailable for comment Friday.

The only other locally owned business still open at the Moscow Mall is Paris Vision Center. Owner George Paris hasn’t decided whether he will pull up stakes and move, but said he wouldn’t leave the Moscow area.

“I just take it one day at a time I could stay here forever,’’ he said, noting his business doesn’t depend on walk-in traffic like most retail stores.

Paris suggested one drawback to the mall is it doesn’t attract wandering shoppers. People who visit the Moscow Mall usually have a particular purpose.

“When people go out for an evening, they want to go somewhere where they can wander around,’’ he said. “People come here with a specific destination in mind.’’

Paris also speculated the Moscow retail market is overcrowded, and the recent folding of several businesses is just a sign the market is settling out.

“The people in that marginal state have decided that they can’t make it,’’ he said.

But the Moscow Mall isn’t the only shopping center to experience business turnover. The thriving Palouse Empire Mall on the Pullman-Moscow Highway has had four businesses pull out or consolidate in recent weeks, according to mall director Robert Zacha.

Hickory Farms of Ohio, I Love Cookies and The Sticker Shoppe recently left the 10-year-old mall, he said. The Shoe Box consolidated with Naturalizer Shoes.

But Zacha isn’t worried about filling the vacancies. Only 10 of the 74 spots are empty now, and two are close to being leased. The mall’s 12 percent vacancy rate is well below the national average of 25 to 30 percent.

“We have more requests for potential leasees than we have spaces available,’’ he said.

Women’s Corner, a clothing store for large and tall women, will take Hickory Farms’ spot in April, when remodeling is finished, Zacha said. The business is owned by Connie and Larry Kane of Pullman.

Although the Moscow and Palouse Empire malls compete for tenants, Zacha said the continued success of the Palouse Empire Mall also depends on the Moscow Mall’s survival.

“We wish them well. The more businesses that are here, the more people will shop here,’’ he said. “It would make Moscow more of a regional center.’’

This story was published in the Feb. 4, 1990, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.