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This article is about the shopping mall in Allentown, Pennsylvania. For the street in Cork, Ireland, see South Mall, Cork.
South Mall
South Mall's main entrance in June 2015
Map
LocationSalisbury Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Address3300 Lehigh St., Allentown, Pennsylvania, 18103, U.S.
Opening date1975; 49 years ago (1975)[1]
DeveloperHess's
OwnerNicholas Park Mall LLC (The James Balliet Property Group)
No. of stores and services30
No. of anchor tenants3
Total retail floor area405,199 sq ft (37,600 m2)[1]
No. of floors1
ParkingParking lot
Public transit accessBus transport LANta bus: 104, 210, 323
Websiteshopsouthmall.com

The South Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located on Lehigh Street south of Interstate 78 exit 57 near Allentown's southern border with Salisbury Township and Emmaus in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.

History

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20th century

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Entrance to Ross Stores at South Mall, June 2015

Hess's South, an early satellite location of the Hess's downtown Allentown department store, opened at the site of the mall in 1971.[2] Hess's built a modest enclosed mall on the north side of the department store in 1975, adding a Weis Markets location and several specialty shops.[2]

In 1979, Hess's, which developed and owned South Mall and operated its largest tenant, was bought by Crown American, a Johnstown-based commercial real estate company, and the transaction included South Mall.[3] Crown American doubled the size of South Mall in a 1986-1987 expansion that added a new section of enclosed mall on the southern side of Hess's South.[2] In November 1986, discount retailer Jamesway opened its 100th store at the South Mall to anchor the new expansion, and celebrated the milestone with skydivers landing in the South Mall parking lot.[4] In 1991, the mall expanded yet again, adding discount drugstore Phar-Mor as its third major anchor in the newer portion of the mall.[5]

In 1991, the older portion of the mall on the north side of Hess's was deactivated following closure of Rea & Derick, a drugstore that was acquired by CVS Pharmacy.[6]

In late 1995, Jamesway closed its South Mall location when the chain filed bankruptcy.[7] A year later, Stein Mart leased a majority of the space previously occupied by Jamesway. Stein Mart's South Mall location represented its first store in Pennsylvania.[7] The remainder of the former Jamesway was subdivided between Gold's Gym and Home & Gifts, before being replaced by Ross Stores in 2012.[8]

In 1996, five years after deactivating the north side of Hess's following the departure of Rea & Derick, the north side of the mall again opened, replaced by Staples Inc. and Petco.

In 1999, Weis Markets closed its South Mall store amid poor sales.[9] The space once occupied by Weis Markets has since been subdivided into space for three newer South Mall stores, Mattress Firm, Blick Art Materials, and a Pennsylvania wine and spirits store.

21st century

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In 2002, Phar-Mor closed its anchor store at South Mall as part of the chain's national acquisition by CVS.[10] This was replaced by Steve & Barry's, a retail clothing chain.

In 2003, Crown American was purchased by PREIT, a real estate investment trust, in a $1.2 billion acquisition.[11]

In 2008, Steve & Barry's, another South Mall tenant, declared bankruptcy and closed its South Mall and other locations.[12] The anchor space Steve & Barry's occupied at South Mall was leased the following year, in 2009, to Black Rose Antiques and Collectibles, an antique mini-mall with over 100 individual dealers.[13]

In June 2014, PREIT sold South Mall for $23.6 million to Nicholas Park Mall LLC, a company formed by seven New York area investors led by former Macy's executive Richard Krantz, after South Mall was deemed two years earlier to be one of over a dozen underperforming PREIT-owned malls.[14][15]

In 2016, Yocco's Hot Dogs, a regionally famous Emmaus-headquartered hot dog and cheesesteak restaurant chain with four Lehigh Valley locations, opened a restaurant in South Mall.[16][17]

In January 2017, Black Rose Antiques relocated its South Mall location to Phillipsburg Mall in nearby Phillipsburg, New Jersey.[18] In early 2017, the anchor space Black Rose Antiques previously occupied at South Mall was subdivided with Limerick Furniture occupying most of it.[19] The remainder of the space was revamped to accommodate Full Circle Training, a gymnasium that opened in early 2018.[20]

In 2018, The Bon-Ton, which had acquired Hess's in the 1990s and represented the oldest and largest South Mall anchor, closed all of its national store locations, including its South Mall location.[21] In 2019, Limerick Furniture also closed, leaving South Mall with Stein Mart as its sole remaining major anchor tenant.[22]

Throughout the early 2020s, South Mall has sponsored and hosted community events, including periodic flea markets and weekly summer food truck events. Nontraditional tenants, such as Cave Brewing Co., a full-service craft beer bar with live entertainment, and South Mall Mercantile antiques dealer, have been brought in to fill the voids left by tenants that have departed. However, both of these have since closed.

In 2020, the last anchor of South Mall, Stein Mart announced it would be closing all of its store locations including its South Mall location. On February 10, 2021, Amazon Lockers and Salisbury Youth Association opened South Mall stores, replacing the former Foot Locker that had departed. In April 2021, the franchised T-Mobile store near the mall entrance closed permanently. The corporate-owned store across from it (which was a Sprint store until its merger with T-Mobile in 2020) and Metro by T-Mobile store, however, remain open. Another store, called Uniquely Lo. Co., has opened a South Mall store. In May 2021, Claire’s closed its South Mall location. Spirit Halloween began occupying the former Stein Mart location in 2022.

On November 14, 2023, the Giant Company revealed that in 2025, the Bon-Ton store would be demolished and the Giant food store on W. Emaus Ave. would move into a new 68,000-square-foot location on the former Bon-Ton space.[23] In November 2024, Burlington agreed to lease 19,972 square feet of the Spirit Halloween building, which will be subdivided for other tenants, starting in late summer 2025.[24]

Anchors

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Major tenants

Minor tenants

Former anchors

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Major tenants

Minor tenants

References

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  1. ^ a b "South Mall Fact Sheet" (PDF). PREIT. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
  2. ^ a b c Holton, Ray (1986-01-21). "13-MILLION EXPANSION OF SOUTH MALL TO INCLUDE JAMESWAY, HESS'S RENOVATION". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  3. ^ Salerno, Allison (1994-09-11). "MALL STORES HOPE BON-TON BRINGS GOOD TIMES AS IT REPLACES HESS'S". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  4. ^ Shope, Dan (1986-11-13). "THIRD JAMESWAY OPENS IN VALLEY". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  5. ^ Austin, Josh (2010-04-15), Phar-Mor - Allentown, PA, retrieved 2019-09-10
  6. ^ Austin, Josh (2009-08-02), Rea & Derick - Allentown, PA (South), retrieved 2019-09-10
  7. ^ a b Roach, Michelle (1996-07-09). "RETAILER STEIN MART TO OPEN IN SOUTH MALL * BETWEEN 60 AND 70 JOBS WILL BE BROUGHT TO THE SALISBURY SITE". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  8. ^ "Ross Dress for Less opens new store at South Mall". The Morning Call. 2012-10-06. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  9. ^ Todd, Susan (1999-10-14). "WEIS MARKETS WILL CLOSE SOUTH MALL SITE * OLDER STORE DIDN'T FIT COMPANY'S NEW MODEL OF LARGER PROPERTIES". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  10. ^ Karp, Gregory (2002-07-20). "Phar-Mor holds closing sales ** Prescription list at South Mall store is sold to CVS pharmacy". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  11. ^ Blumenau, Kurt (2003-11-12). "Crown American is bought by PREIT ** The $1.2 billion deal brings many area malls under one ownership". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  12. ^ Staff, Express-Times (2008-11-26). "Steve & Barry's going out of business". lehighvalleylive.com. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  13. ^ Richardson, Tyrone (2009-11-15). "Bringing back a legendary taco". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  14. ^ Kennedy, Sam (June 29, 2014). "South Mall's new owner revealed". The Morning Call. Allentown, PA. Archived from the original on July 6, 2014. Retrieved July 28, 2014.
  15. ^ Mathis, Joel (2016-03-30). "PREIT Sells Off "Lower Productivity" Malls". Philly Mag.
  16. ^ Falsone, Nick. "Yocco's to open 6th hot dog shop in Lehigh Valley, report says". Lehigh Valley Live. The Express-Times. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
  17. ^ "Hot diggety dog! Yocco's to open sixth Lehigh Valley eatery,", The Morning Call, August 18, 2016, retrieved November 30, 2018.
  18. ^ "Black Rose Antiques And Collectibles Opens A Location In Phillipsburg, N.J. | Antiques & Auction News". antiquesandauctionnews.net. 2017-05-02. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  19. ^ Harris, Jon (2017-11-17). "South Mall, under new ownership, on an 'upward path'". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  20. ^ Kneller, Ryan (2017-12-29). "Retail Watch: Resolve to get fit at Full Circle Training at South Mall". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  21. ^ Harris, Jon (2018-04-30). "Life without Bon-Ton: Disaster or opportunity for Lehigh Valley malls?". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  22. ^ Kneller, Ryan (2019-04-29). "Limerick Furniture to join string of recent store closures at South Mall". The Morning Call. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  23. ^ Dornblaser, Christopher (2023-11-14). "Giant to move Allentown supermarket to former Bon-Ton at South Mall shopping center". The Morning Call.
  24. ^ Kneller, Ryan (2024-11-22). "Burlington to open 4th Lehigh Valley store in 2025". WFMZ.
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