Staunton Mall

Posted: Friday, November 26, 2010 12:00 am | Updated: 11:33 am, Mon Jan 28, 2013.

A few days before Black Friday, the annual launch of the holiday shopping season, a dozen shoppers strode through an otherwise desolate Staunton Mall.

Several storefronts remained unfilled inside the aging shopping center surrounded by parking lots marked by a spider web of cracks.

“It’s very slow every time I’m here,” shopper Virginia Ramsey said.

While economists predict retail sales will increase by more than 2 percent this year, it’s unclear whether that will help revive the Staunton Mall.

Realty LLC, a New York investment company, recently purchased the mall for $4.05 million.

That’s less than a fourth of the $21.7 million the mall’s previous owner, First Republic Realty Group LLC, paid in May 2008. The property’s current appraised value is $17 million, according to Augusta County property records.

Still, Augusta County Economic Development Director Dennis Burnett expressed optimism about the mall’s future.

“We’re seeing spending increase, the holiday season is coming and we’re seeing some relief in unemployment,” he said. “It all ties together.”

Brad Doremus, a retail analyst at Reis Inc. said he expects newer developments such as Waynesboro’s Town Center to outpace older developments like the Staunton Mall, which opened in 1965.

“What we often see is a game of musical chairs that hurts older properties disproportionately,” Doremus said. “As leases expire in older properties, tenants migrate to newer properties. There are plenty of examples of healthy and sickly retail properties existing side by side, and more often than not, the healthy properties are the newer ones.”

The Staunton Mall lost a major tenant, Books A Million, when the store relocated to the Town Center, tapping that site’s ease of access from Interstate 64.

“I hope the new owners will do something,” said Janice Scott, owner of Uptown Flo in the mall. “Everything’s moving to Waynesboro.”

Burnett likewise said he hopes the change in ownership will be good for the struggling mall.

“The previous owner has multiple properties in bankruptcy,” he said. “I’m really optimistic about the mall’s new owners. We’re fortunate we have major national brands there.”

First Republic, which owns 11 malls throughout the southeast, filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

The mall’s anchors include Belk, J.C. Penney, Peebles and Goody’s. It also includes a six-screen movie theater and Gold’s Gym.