The shuffling of several retailers at Fairlawn Town Centre on West Market Street is in full swing, and retailers are preparing for their new locations.
Last summer, plans were unveiled to move Pet Supplies Plus to part of the former Circuit City next to Target and move GNC to another storefront.
That would make way for Lucky Shoes to move from the west end of the Fairlawn Town Centre to the east end for an expanded storefront with some new offerings.
Giant Eagle will then take over the approximately 17,000 square feet being vacated by Lucky Shoes for an expanded grocery store and to have frontage along busy West Market Street.
WP Realty, a Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based company that owns 50 retail strip centers from Ohio to the East Coast and into New England, bought the Fairlawn center in May 2010. The company owns all of the buildings in the center that holds Lucky Shoes, Marc’s and Giant Eagle, as well as the buildings to the west that include Panera Bread and where Circuit City formerly was.
WP Realty does not own the Target, which is under trust ownership. It does own the space that was formerly a Circuit City.
GNC has already moved and construction has begun on Pet Supplies Plus and Lucky Shoes’ new locations, said Dan Fuchs, vice president of development and construction for WP Realty Inc.
Fuchs said construction crews have been doing demolition inside three of the storefronts on the east end of the strip mall to prepare for Lucky Shoes.
“As soon as Pet Supplies Plus vacates, we’ll roll into their space,” Fuchs said. “We’re excited about the progress.”
Fuchs said his company is in discussions with a company for a good balance of the former Circuit City space, about 27,000 square feet.
Pet Supplies Plus District Manager Tim Wysomierski said the new store, which is directly next to Target, will give the retailer 33 percent more space. The current space is about 6,900 square feet and will go to 11,000 square feet.
The store will add a dog wash, pet grooming and a cat adoption center. Currently, the store sells supplies for all pets (everything but equine and bovine, said Wysomierski), but does not sell dogs or cats. The new store will allow for the cat adoption unit, which will be self-contained in front of the animal department, Wysomierski said. There’s a possibility there might be a dog rescue unit offering adoption in the store occasionally, he said.
Being next to the Target will be good, he said.
“Hopefully, it’ll increase volume and customer traffic. Right now, we have no foot traffic, we’re too far off the road. Being next to Target and obviously within eye shot of Giant Eagle, it’ll give us substantially more foot traffic. And with a newer store layout and adding grooming and a dog wash, it’ll hopefully be a bigger draw.”
The new store is slated to open Feb. 4 while the current location will close on Feb. 3. The store is similar in layout to many of the retailer’s newer stores. The Detroit-based retailer has 250 stores and 10 in the Akron area, he said.
Once Pet Supplies Plus moves, the remainder of the space for Lucky Shoes can be constructed, said Fuchs.
Lucky Shoes will be taking four store fronts and creating four stores — a new SAS store, a New Balance store, Stride Rite and Lucky Shoes. Lucky Shoes will go from an 18,000-square-foot store to approximately 20,000 square feet among four fronts.
The full-line SAS Shoes store, which specializes in men’s and women’s comfort shoes from narrow to extra wide made in the U.S., will be the third in Ohio and the first for Lucky Shoes. Lucky Shoes, which is in its fourth generation of family management, was happy where it was, said Tom Luck, chairman and chief executive officer. His grandfather, Joe Luck, originally founded a general goods store called Lucky Store in Firestone Park.
But when Giant Eagle wanted to expand into his space, Luck agreed to move to the other end of the plaza after extensive discussions with the landlord. Luck wanted to stay in Fairlawn and looked at other new spaces in the area, but decided to relocate within Fairlawn Town Centre. Luck said he believes the retailer is a destination store and looks forward to new customers, but still worries that existing customers might not find him on the other end of the strip center.
Lucky Shoes’ target date to open its new store is mid-April. Luck anticipates taking three to four days to move store inventory and the company’s headquarters offices to the new location. Luck said the goal is to try to keep the existing store open during the move with some sale products.
“We are looking at a lot of new and exciting things to do in the new store,” said Luck.
With Lucky Shoes’ move, Giant Eagle will then take over the space. Giant Eagle spokesman Dan Donovan said “while it is still too early to confirm all details, we will begin construction in late spring/early summer to remodel our Fairlawn Giant Eagle, which when complete will include a new drive-through pharmacy.”
Company officials have previously said that the store would be expanded by 17,000 square feet, enhancing several departments including prepared foods, natural and organics, pharmacy, health and wellness and beer and wine.
Giant Eagle already had started on renovations of the store and had plans for a drive-through pharmacy last fall when it abruptly stopped work.
Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty
