Ponderosa to close

Apparently employees at the Grand Forks Ponderosa, located on South Washington Street in front of the Grand Cities Mall, have been told that the restaurant will be closing its doors for good in the next few days.

Big Lots closing Grand Forks store

Grand Forks' Big Lots store is apparently closing its doors after several years in the Grand Cities Mall. The store, which occupies a portion of the mall's old Sears store, is being closed due to a corporate realignment.

According to a national marketing manager for J. Herzog & Sons (which owns the Grand Cities Mall), the Big Lots chain is reducing their Midwestern operations. During the past two years, most Big Lots store throughout the Midwest have closed, including the Fargo location. After this realignment has been completed, the chain will have shuttered 174 Big Lots stores.

I'm sad to see the local Big Lots store close. I shopped there rather frequently...not that I ever bought much...oh wait...I guess that's the problem.

I wonder what the Grand Cities Mall will find to fill that space? Any ideas?

Radio Shack to close one Grand Forks store

The Radio Shack in the Grand Cities Mall is closing. Radio Shack has been a longtime tenant in the mall. This closing, part of a nationwide closure of 480 Radio Shack stores, leaves Grand Forks with one Radio Shack in the Columbia Mall. I have to admit that I always thought it was a bit unusual that we had two Radio Shacks in a city the size of Grand Forks.

By the way, apparently the Fargo Forum hasn't heard that the South Forks Plaza was renamed the Grand Cities Mall years ago. One more thing they'll have to learn if they want to buy the Herald...

What's up at the Riverwalk?

I'm sure we are all well aware of the poor financial record of East Grand Forks' city owned mall, The Riverwalk Center. The city purchased the mall after the Flood of 1997 with the hopes that it would attract businesses and people to the downtown area. It did that...for about a year. The first year or two after the flood actually was a pretty good time for the mall. It had low (or no) vacancy and there was a steady stream of shoppers. Then, that all but dried up overnight. Today, this very small mall has high vacancy, few shoppers, and tenants who haven't paid their bills for literally years (does the city seriously think they will ever see any of that money???). The city would like to sell the property, but this isn't possible at least until next year because federal funds were used to purchase the mall and federal law requires the city to keep the property for at least ten years after the flood...which brings us to 2007. East Grand Forks mayor Lynn Stauss has publicly lamented that the Riverwalk Center was one of the city's...and his...biggest mistakes in the wake of the flood.

Now comes news that "something" is up at the Riverwalk Center. There is a persistent rumor going around that many of the mall's tenants will be leaving the mall and moving over to the Grand Cities Mall in Grand Forks. However, the rumor also has it that it wasn't the businesses decision to leave the Riverwalk Center...the city is asking them to move. Word is that "something" wants to come in and take over most of the mall space. A new store? Perhaps a department store? I know that Herbergers has been sought in the past. Also, it seems that a couple of the tenants do not want to leave the mall and it is plausible that the largest tenant in the mall...I think we all know what that is...would simply close up if they were forced to leave the mall. Like I said, this is all just a rumor right now. However, it is a very interesting rumor in light of all of the construction and development going on in the downtown area of Grand Forks. A department store down there could bring more people to the area. Guess we'll have to see just how true this rumor is.

Update - 5/17/2006
Jack's Shoes appears to be in the process of leaving the Riverwalk Center and moving to the Grand Cities Mall. Also, WDAZ just aired a story about the mall's woes, but didn't say anything about any possible new tenants. I should not that reporter Lacey Crisp was wrong when she said that the city would keep the mall for ten more years and then maybe sell it. As stated in my original post above, the ten years that the city is talking about started in 1997...not 2006. That means that the ten years are up next year...not 2016.