Store closing in Norwin Hills
Everything must go, including the store.
North Huntingdon retail staple World of Values is closing its store in the Norwin Hills shopping center. Owner Barry Mascowitz said the World of Values locations in Greensburg and White Oak will remain open and that the company hopes to find a new location in North Huntingdon.
Mascowitz said the store had been in lease negotiations for months with Lamar Companies, which purchased Norwin Hills last May. World of Values had a lease with the prior owner, but when that expired Lamar Companies gave the store a month-to-month lease while the two sides attempted to negotiate a longer agreement.
"I can't run a month-to-month and come August have them say, "Here's your 60 days,'" he said.
While Lamar had offered a few longer lease proposals, Mascowitz said none of them was financially feasible for his company.
Phil Schneider, Lamar's vice president of asset management, said the problem was that World of Values could not afford the going rental rate, and Lamar could not afford to offer it the lower rate it had previously.
"They're not willing to pay that market rate," said Schneider, who added the lease his company offered is comparable to leases offered at other buildings in North Huntingdon.
Schneider said the departure of World of Values was unfortunate, but Lamar had to focus on adding value to its property by seeking out tenants willing to pay the market rate. Schneider said Lamar already has lined up two large tenants for the center -- one retail store and one medical facility -- and the company is looking for something to replace World of Values.
The Norwin Hills store will not officially close for two to three months.
World of Values has been in the Norwin Hill shopping center since the center's construction in 1980. It was the first World of Values location, and Mascowitz said it was hard to leave the place where the business was founded.
"We want to be here and we're not real excited about leaving," Mascowitz said.
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer friendly version
- send to friend
- 814 reads
Who is in charge of the planning of retail around here? I think that we have enough drug stores. Some quality retail and new restraunts would be highly sucessfull. Imagine if they made Norwin Town Square into something like that. Half of the stores in that plaza are closed.
I never really cared for WOV,so I will not miss it.A Dollar General would be great in it's place.
I agree.World of Values isn't the greatest store around.A another nice big Dollar General or Family Dollar would be nice in that building.
Norwin Hills plaza needs to decide if they our going to be a retail plaza OR a medical center.Then bring in some nice tentants like the Gap or Staples.
We all ready have a nice bookstore in that plaza,we do not need another one.Applebees restaurant would be nice fit too!
Just mt 2 cents too:)
Really, I went into it awile back just to see what was inside and I can honestly say that it was full of junk. Maybe something can take its place that actully benefits North Huntingdon, like a restaurant, some good retail like a Gap or even better a Barns and Noble. Why cant we seem to attract more upscale store around here? All of these $500,000 house being built and we dont have a large selection of quality restraunts or shopping. I can count six or seven pharmacys just on 30. What is the point of that? It just seems that whoever is planning the development around here has no idea what they are doing. Just look at Peters Twp. Route 19 is very similar to 30 and the development is very smart and useful. Many differnt restraunts, shopping, and many other places. I dont know, I have only lived out here for a year and I really like the area but am I the only one who sees this? Also another thing that bugs me is that all of these stories have hundreds of views and no posts. What is up with that? Say something, thats how dialog starts and maybe things get moving. Just my 2cents.
I agree, there are way too many pharmacies around here. It goes in cycles. Supermarkets such as Giant Eagle, Sams Club and Walmart all have complete pharmacies. Then you have the stand-alone pharmacies. First, it was Thrift Drug, then Eckerd, then Rite Aid, now it is Walgreens. It's the 600 pound gorilla theory. Developers want to build the biggest, baddest stores to run their competitors into the ground. Make no mistake, Eckerd/Rite Aid's says are numbered. Then those will be the vacant buildings until the bigger gorilla moves in. Get the picture?
I don't think the local government has much power in these scenarios. It all comes down to land ownership. If the owners of Norwin Towne Square want to charge outlandish leases and only have 1 50% occupancy rate, they can do that. If Walgreens wants to build on a parcel that was sold to them, they can do that. Township officials cannot legally deny an establishment as long as it adheres to code and zoning requirements.