The question now is, what is next for Atlantic North after Belk opens?
I'd look no further than Regency and the older strip malls surrounding it, further down on Atlantic. Any chain making a decision to reinvest or upgrade in an area store, would probably evaluate shifting to a newer location with more favorable demographics. In the case of Regency, Belk's departure will cause some retailers in the east mall to consider leaving as well.
A major difference is that Belk leases its space at Regency. Sears and JC Penney own their buildings outright. JC Penney in fact stayed put (they owned the building as well) when Palm Center was torn down. The new developer ended up building a whole new facility around it.
I fear both JCPenney and Sears won't be around as chains long term. Not just for Regency's sake but malls all over the country.
However, I remember driving by Randall Park Mall outside Cleveland and Macy's, owning their building were the only store open...period. The rest of the mall was completely dead. The surrounding stores around the mall were all closed and shuttered. They were like an island in a retail desert.
Reminds me of Winter Haven Mall in my hometown. In 1996, a new mall opened and the Byron's chain closed, leaving Winter Haven Mall with Burdines as the only anchor. The mall's specialty shops quickly closed with no additional anchors to generate foot traffic their way. A few years later, a new developer purchased the property and tore down everything except Burdines, which had become a Macy's. They lured Belk from a nearby strip mall, got Macy's to expand and filled the rest of the old mall site with a Lowe's, a power center, and a few restaurant outparcels.
Winter Haven Mall - 1994
Citi Centre - 2014 (Mall torn down in 2000)
The old Macy's mall entrance.
