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When I found that bigg's was going to go out of business, I snagged these from their website. Enjoy.

Retail Reader: Niagara Falls, N.Y.-Area Mall Gets Local Ownership, New Name

Title:Niagara Falls, N.Y.-Area Mall Gets Local Ownership, New Name
Authors:Lisa Haarlander
Source:Buffalo News, The (NY); 01/27/2004

Jan. 27--For the first time in its 32-year history, the Summit Park
Mall in Wheatfield is about to come under local ownership.

The new owners expect to sign a contract today to buy the mall for $5
million. The new owners plan to give the mostly vacant shopping center
$100 million worth of improvements and additions, plus a new name --
Destination Niagara USA.

"A lot of people who come to Niagara Falls don't stay the night
because there's not a lot to do, especially for families," said Samuel
J. Savarino, one of the partners in Niagara Falls Attractions and
Entertainment, the company buying Summit Park. "This gives them a
reason to stay on this side of the border."

While shopping will be a key part of Destination Niagara USA, the
complex would also have an aquatic center leased to Wheatfield, a
three-rink ice arena, year-round Christmas Around the World store and
exhibit, and a 200-room hotel with indoor water park by the end of
2005.

More tentative plans call for a planetarium with a Challenger Center
and a 150,000-square-foot conference center. The mall's anchors,
Sears, Toys "R" Us and the Bon-Ton, will remain.

Howard Hurst, a Toronto businessman, is the head of Niagara Falls
Attractions and Entertainment. As chairman and president of
York-Trillium Development Group he built and manages several
properties including the York Mills Centre in Toronto, a 1.5
million-square-foot retail, office and transportation center.

Savarino, president and CEO of Savarino Construction Services Corp. in
Amherst, and Hurst are also principals in the Niagara Falls Medical
Properties Corp., which will build an expanded emergency room and
cardiac center for Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center.

They decided to buy the 70-percent vacant Summit Park Mall because
they feel it has the potential to become a family recreation and
entertainment destination.

Of the 1,130 malls in the country, 36 are in some stage of being
redeveloped for a use other than a mall, according to the
International Council of Shopping Centers. Some centers were
demolished; others turned into office space or open-air lifestyle
centers.

The Summit Park Mall may benefit from its proximity to the Niagara
Falls International Airport. The Niagara Frontier Transportation
Authority has endorsed spending $23 million to build a new terminal
and is now searching for ways to fund the project. A new terminal
could lead to more people flying into the airport to visit Niagara
Falls or Canada.

"We feel this will become the new commercial hub of the area and the
mall will be at the center point of that hub," Hurst said.

However, upstate New York has seen its share of projects that have not
materialized:

-- E-Zone, a $137 million domed amusement park on Buffalo's waterfront
that died for lack of private investment.

-- Destiny USA, a $2.2 billion entertainment and retail complex in
Syracuse that couldn't get state approval for $630 million in
incentives and tax breaks.

-- AquaFalls, a $50 million underground aquarium near the Rainbow
Bridge that is still a hole in the ground more than four years after
being proposed.

One reason Hurst and Savarino believe Destination Niagara USA with its
$100 million price tag has a better chance of succeeding is that it
needs less public assistance and already has the tax breaks it needs.

Wheatfield Supervisor Timothy E. Demler helped secure the town's
approval to freeze the property's tax assessment. The Niagara County
Industrial Development Agency is giving tax abatements to improvements
to the property that could total $1.2 million during the next 15
years. The Niagara County legislature waived more than $150,000 in
late fees and interest on back property taxes. The current owner James
Anthony of Oberlin Plaza One in Raleigh, N.C., paid more than $550,000
in back taxes earlier this month.

Also working in Summit Park's favor is the possibility that most of
the Lockport Mall may be demolished to make room for a Wal-Mart
supercenter. Some tenants have already inquired about relocating to
Summit Park, Hurst said.

The Seneca Niagara Casino is also bringing more tourists, giving
places such as Destination Niagara USA a chance to keep them in the
area.

"There's no place in the region that has this much parking and is this
close to an airport," Hurst said. "It's close to the casino but far
enough way that it is its own area. ... The casino by itself isn't
going to change this area. What's going to change is keeping tourists
on this side of the border."

-----

To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the
newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com.

(c) 2004, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News. WMT,


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Source: Buffalo News, The (NY), Jan 27, 2004

Courtesy of EBSCOHost

The Retail Reader: Jeepers! Wonderland Mall Sports Fun New Look

JEEPERS! WONDERLAND MALL SPORTS FUN LOOK

MAY 1, 1999 12:00 PM, JOHN MCCLOUD

A MAKEOVER NOW IN PROGRESS at Wonderland Mall in Livonia, Mich., is less a new project than the continuation of a process of change that has been ongoing since Schostak Brothers & Co. Inc. bought the property in 1983.

Originally opened in 1959, the Montgomery Ward-anchored Wonderland Mall was considerably outdated at the time of purchase. At only 600,000 sq. ft., it was small by '80s standards, and unlike most other Snowbelt malls, it was not enclosed, consisting instead of four entirely separate, open-air segments.

Metamorphosis Schostak quickly set about to bring it into the contemporary world. The Southfield, Mich.-based developer hired architects Wah Yee Associates of Farmington Hills, Mich., to come up with a plan to unify and enclose the four segments. The transformation, which was completed in 1985, had the added benefit of creating 100,000 sq. ft. of new GLA from the spaces between the original segments.

In 1989, the company added Target and a six-screen AMC Theatre, and in the early '90s, it brought in Service Merchandise, OfficeMax and Dunham's Sporting Goods for additional anchor spots. By that point, the center had grown to about 80 tenants and 862,000 sq. ft.

In late '97, the company initiated a new round of changes designed to "position Wonderland at the forefront of 21st century retail," says company co-president and COO Robert I. Schostak. Part cosmetic and part compositional, the changes include the $10 million conversion of a full wing into a 150,000 sq. ft. food and entertainment center, addition of new anchors and sub-anchors, relocation and expansion of many existing tenants, and a new focus on family apparel.

New tenants include Burlington Coat Factory, Old Navy and Bath & Body Works. Existing tenants undertaking expansions include Leather City and Foot Locker, which will open one of its first larger-format stores.

Solid demographics On the surface, Wonderland Mall would not seem to have needed a substantial makeover to maintain profitability. The dominant shopping center in its trade area, it has always done well and, according to Schostak, the demographics have changed little in the past 17 years. The area still offers "a lot of young families, great density and good income," he says. Furthermore, it is unlikely to face significant new competition because the area is effectively built out.

So why renovate? As Schostak puts it, "We saw an opportunity to reposition the mall to capture a greater part of the market and boost sales."

The company hired a marketing firm to conduct a survey of mall visitors and a telephone survey of randomly chosen area residents. The researchrevealed that people wanted a greater number of value-priced family and fashion apparel stores, more fashionable retailers, a cheerier environment and, above all, a greater range and number of entertainment choices, especially for families to enjoy together.

Read the rest of the article here.