Snohomish County business
Mall owners to polish "diamond in rough"

By Michael Burnham
Times Snohomish County Bureau

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Everett Mall's new owner is in the early stages of a two-year remodeling effort that should add four "big-box" stores.

Steadfast Commercial Properties wants to sharpen the competitive edge of the 100-plus-store mall by recruiting national retailers — particularly clothing, entertainment and home-furnishings sellers — said John Alshuler, the vice president for commercial management of the Newport Beach, Calif., company.

Mall officials are negotiating leases with national tenants, whom they will announce by the end of this year, mall General Manager Linda Johannes said. To make room for the big-box outlets, construction crews are razing two of the 73-acre property's outbuildings: a vacant movie theater and Maynard's baseball academy.

Leases won't be renewed for all tenants, Johannes said, so the mall will have room for new "junior anchors," tenants that occupy 15,000 to 28,000 square feet.

The Bon-Macy's store at the mall is independently owned and will stay where it is.

Construction crews are on schedule to complete roofing, lighting, landscaping and parking improvements in coming weeks, said Kristi Keene, the mall's marketing director.

With the holiday shopping season approaching, the mall has an occupancy rate of more than 90 percent, up more than five percentage points because of seasonal businesses, mall officials said.

The mall's sales per square foot, the industry measurement of overall business at shopping centers, was $336 last year, the most recent period available. The national average is $345 a square foot.

Though Alshuler said he considered Everett Mall's business robust, he conceded that Alderwood mall in Lynnwood had drawn shoppers from Everett. Alderwood had $450 in sales per square foot last year, industry data show. A mall expansion there is adding about 50 stores and 270,000 square feet; most of the stores will open tomorrow.

"By jazzing [Everett Mall] up and bringing in national tenants, we expect to be able to bring a lot of those shoppers back," Alshuler said. His firm expects to spend about $20 million on the project.
 
Everett Mall opened in 1973 and was expanded in 1979 and 1988. The mall's then-owner, the Equitable Life Insurance Society of the United States, remodeled the interior in 2002 but halted expansion plans because of financial troubles.

Steadfast bought the mall June 8. It has developed more than 12 million square feet of commercial property and has extensive housing, resort and business holdings.

"[The mall has] really been a diamond in the rough," Keene said. "It just needed to be polished."

Steadfast owns one other mall in Washington state. It bought SeaTac Mall in February 2003 and renamed it the Commons at Federal Way last March. That 63-acre complex, developed in 1975, is undergoing its first complete renovation.

Michael Burnham: 425-745-7813 or mburnham@seattletimes.com