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Some wonder if Mason City’s Younkers store will survive 2018

Mason City’s Younkers store,
at Southbridge Mall

MASON CITY – It might be too late for Mason City’s fabled Renaissance Project to save it’s biggest downtown retailer.

The Younkers store in Mason City’s Southbridge Mall has been an anchor in the shopping center since it opened in 1985. Younkers, along with its parent company Bon Ton Stores, Inc., have fallen on hard times with the advent of online shopping, changing consumer tastes and habits over the years and of course, the construction of the Indianhead shopping district west of town. Southbridge Mall is a shadow of what it once was in it’s short-lived heyday that ended in the mid-1990’s when, NIT is told by former elected officials, mall owners first sought an easement of property tax burdens and assessed value. Today, Younkers remains open and even sought to expand in the mall, recently, with a renovation. The city council had approved in 2016 a $250,000 forgivable loan to Bon-Ton for relocation of its Home Store into the now-closed movie theater area of the mall. The plan never materialized, as New Yorker Michael Kohan bought the mall for just $1.5 million later that year.

Proposed hotel from
G8 Development, near Younkers

As the sun sets on 2017, ominous signs paint a dreary picture for Bon Ton and Younkers, even as Mason City inches closer to someday breaking ground on the elusive Renaissance Project – a development that would surround Younkers with possible vibrant goings-on like a hotel, convention center, arena, museum and pavilion.  The project might not be ready in time to deliver the souls with paper and plastic so vital to keeping a retail business alive that seems on the brink.  Just last month, Bon Ton Stores, Inc, said they expect to close dozens of stores.

“We expect to implement a significant store rationalization program and plan to close at least 40 locations through 2018,” the company said on November 16.  The company hasn’t named which stores might be on the list.

Reports pop-up in online searches of possible imminent bankruptcy for Bon Ton Stores, Inc.  According to MSN Money, “When it comes to bankruptcies, the worst is yet to come, especially for Bon-Ton Stores Inc.

Southbridge Mall parking lot,
possible home to new hotel
located outside the
main entrance to Younkers

“While Sears has held on for longer than anyone could’ve imagined, Bon-Ton is facing an imminent filing, according to (an economist they interviewed). He predicts the department store will declare bankruptcy in early 2018. It skipped a $14 million bond payment, due Dec. 15, and is now in the middle of a 30-day grace period before facing a default. Typically, a company files for bankruptcy at that point.”

The word from Yahoo News isn’t much better for the once-vibrant retailer, whose stock now trades at around 34 cents a share. It lists Bon Ton as one of “17 Retailers on the 2018 Death Watch“.

“Bon-Ton Stores has not been left unscathed,” Yahoo reported this month. “The chain saw its comparable-store sales drop by 6.6% in Q3, and its loss climbed from $31.6 million in Q3 2016 to $44.9 million in Q3 this year. Bon-Ton has also been closing stores and plans to shutter at least 40 of its locations in 2018. The company has retained AlixPartners LLP and PJT Partners Inc. to provide operational and financial advisory services.”

As Bon Ton follows through with its planned store closures next year, it’s unclear whether company officials will take into account the circumstances in Mason City that might give their store here a better chance of survival.

A Marshalls store was
under construction in Mason City
but never opened.  It sits much
like it is pictured, above.

The city has learned to deal with the failures of big retailers.  JC Penny closed in January of 2015, dealing a blow to Soutbridge but creating on opportunity to re-purpose that end of the mall; KMart closed in April of 2014, but that big box has been re-configured into the Ashley Furniture Store and other shops; Sears closed in 2015 and remains dark; a Marshalls department store was under construction in Mason City but failed to open in 2014 when it was discovered a waiver from Kohl’s stores would be required for the business to open – Kohl’s never gave the waiver; a TJ Maxx store opened in August of 2016.

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