ANCHOR ‘AWAY’
Century III Mall to lose another store as Dick’s Sporting Goods shutters
A sign at Dick’s Sporting Goods, one of two remaining stores at Century III Mall, says it will close on Saturday.
A photo of the sign was posted on the Facebook group Century III Mall Memories. The sporting goods store is one of two anchor stores left at the once-thriving mall — the other being J.C. Penney.
A spokesman for Findlaybased Dick’s Sporting Goods confirmed the upcoming closure but declined to comment about any additional plans for the area.
Century III Mall PA LLC, an affiliate of Las Vegas-based Moonbeam Capital Investments, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 3 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Western District of Pennsylvania to stave off a looming sheriff’s sale stemming from a legal dispute with Sears, which was another anchor there.
Earlier this month, a bankruptcy judge granted a request by the West Mifflin mall to reject Dick’s Sporting Goods’ lease.
In February, other tenants began packing up their stores after being given a 30-day notice to vacate. Shortly before that, the courts said the mall’s owners could borrow up to $5 million to ensure it can continue operating during its bankruptcy case and perform “maintenance and repairs reasonably necessary for continuing operations and/or preserving and maximizing the value of its estate.”
The sign at Dick’s urged shoppers to visit other locations at Monroeville Mall, The Waterfront in Homestead and South Hills Village.
Though the 1.3 million-squarefoot mall now sits nearly empty, Century III Mall once was a prime shopping destination. At its peak, it boasted 200 stores and restaurants. Moonbeam Capital bought the 40-year-old property for $10.5 million in 2013.
A legal dispute with Sears dogged the struggling mall in recent years. When the department store chain, which has been shuttering stores across the country over the past several years, told Century III Mall that it planned to close its store in 2014, a question about what would happen to the now-vacant property ended up in court.
Eventually, a judge said Moonbeam Capital owes Sears about $4.2 million after failing to buy back the department store location when Sears terminated the lease early. The mall was expected to go up for sheriff’s sale three times until the owners declared bankruptcy.