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twitterThe Economy:
Wide open spaces, hint of optimism
At a once-thriving suburban ‘power center,’ there’s hope of new tenants and a pickup in customer traffic
Sam Morris
A storefront formerly occupied by Wild Oats is one of several now empty in the Stephanie Street Power Center. The store was closed after the Wild Oats chain was bought by Whole Foods.
Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Recession: Major legal challenge to small biz (10-16-2009)
- Commercial developers hope there's nowhere tog o but up (10-9-2009)
- Vacancies, poor sales slow retail development (10-2-2009)
- Landlords get creative to combat retail vacancies (4-17-2009)
- Store closings, new retail space drive vacancy upward (4-17-2009)
- Turning away business? (6-13-2008)
- Slowdown not sparing many Vegas locales (6-2-2008)
Sun Coverage
The parking lot is so vast and so empty, neighborhood kids could play stickball here.
Back in the go-go years, this commercial plaza at Warm Springs Road and Stephanie Street in Henderson was a bustling retail bazaar, a strip of concrete that could fulfill so many wants and needs — shoes, carpets, clothes, books, giant televisions, hot tubs, fatty foods, pharmaceuticals.
But for too many of us, unquenchable human desires were temporarily sated with goods bought with borrowed money.
There’s no more to be had.
Both unemployment and foreclosure filings were up in September, as the valley’s descent continued.
So this plaza, known as the “Stephanie Street Power Center,” sits half-empty, with a whole slew of empty storefronts at its south end.
Wild Oats, the high-end grocer, was bought by Whole Foods, which closed this location. It still pays rent. Longs Drugs was bought by CVS, which then shuttered the store. Copeland Sports shut its outlet here. Shoe Pavilion and Circuit City went bankrupt, victims of capitalism’s Darwinian churn.
Penny Mendlovic of C.B. Richard Ellis, which leases space for the landlord, Harsch Investment Properties, says a turnaround is coming for the plaza.
“All good things are happening,” she says. “We do have vacancies, but we are negotiating with exciting new users that we hope to announce soon.”
A restaurant space that has been vacant for at least four years could be filled in 2011, she says.
The plaza’s remaining stores, which include such blue chip retailers as Old Navy and Pier 1, had a slow but steady stream of customers one morning last week.
Paddock Pools was empty of customers, however. The store had shut its doors in January only to reopen in September — a hopeful sign.
Rich Mazanec is a preternaturally cheerful salesman for Paddock, who moved here two years ago from Cleveland because he’s in the pool business and figured the Sun Belt is a better place to sell pools than the Midwest, with its heavy snows.
Which would be true if the economy here weren’t so depressed.
“They were dropping like flies,” Rich Mazanec says of the vacancies in the plaza.
“I was hoping you were a customer,” he adds, laughing.
Because the store reopened in September, it missed the busy summer season, but Mazanec hopes things will pick up before Christmas; it sells lots of Christmas wares, too.
Mazanec says he’s still happy he moved to the valley because there are far more opportunities than back East, he says. “There’s opportunity if you’re a go-getter.”
Pier 1, the upscale home decor store, smells of scented candle wax. It smells like prosperity.
“The Age of Aquarius” is playing on the speakers.
Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions.
Discussion: 22 comments so far…
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The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
it not getting any better. let see what happen the suppose xmas rush us. more closer more unemployment
"A restaurant space that has been vacant for at least four years could be filled in 2011"
Is that a typo? Did you mean 2010? Or is that what we are down to - saying a space MIGHT be filled in a couple of years?
They got an awful lot of retail in that neck of the woods so it's no real surprise a lot of it's empty.
The whole area is a mess. Across the street was a Comp USA. Gone. Further down, a Homestore. Gone.
Copeland Sports was way overpriced. Circuit City was a sad joke. Pier 1 is close to bankruptcy nationwide, may happen any day. Most of these chain stores are in trouble everywhere, not just in Vegas or Henderson.
Most troubling to me was the flooring store at the mall, don't know if it's still there. They had a special on granite countertops, and I went through the whole process to have the tops installed. Except they never, ever called me to start the installation. I'm guessing they were in financial trouble, too, since they used a subcontractor. I ended up using "Discount Countertops" found in those mags that come in the mail. Did a great job, people from Taiwan.
when i first moved to vegas in 2001 at mountain vista / sunset, i probably spent 80% of my retail dollars in that strip mall.
circuit city ( that i never spend $1.00 at...hated that place ) closing probably started the chain reaction of store closings.
then all the wild oats people are now wal-mart people, all the other stores didn't have the foot traffic to keep going.
and yes, like someone mentioned...there's SO much retail there and that's part of vegas' problem. we devoted so much of the land to homes, casinos, and retail that it's got to be hard for a major employer to build a factory here...if they even WANTED to build a factory here.
no water, no raw materials, hundreds of miles from the next major metro area. Yeah, I'd build a factory here. Maybe two. And look at how that's working for Detroit, Cleveland, etc. Get real.
What's crazy is that some commission up in Carson City sets a "prevailing wage" each year, and of course it's nearly identical to the Union wage. In a right to work state. So if you wanted to build some specialty factory, you'd have to pay through the nose and fight the Unions to get it done. With our construction industry facing utter failure for years, you'd think common sense might prevail. Never gonna' happen. Pack your bags, guys.
Does anyone remember the golf driving range on stephanie and warm springs? If i'm not mistaken, It looked liked the Stuart Anderson's was closed also.
Thank Obuma, he was the one who said not to do business in Nevada!!!
Hope all you liberal dumbacrats are happy with your selection.
Hey VegasInsider,
Don't lie; Obama never said "not to do business in Nevada." What he said was "You can't go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer's dime."
So you support Citibank and AIG bigwigs living off the bailout Paulson and the Bush administration gave them, going to "Las Vegas on the taxpayer's dime." Glad we got that cleared up.
Meanwhile, even if Obama had never said a single thing on the topic, this strip mall in Henderson would still be in the exact same toilet it's in now. Too many VegasInsiders in the Valley saw to the inevitable failure of the local economy. Thank you VegasInsider. Thank you for all you've done.
another bad article trying to ramp the property market...
greenspun there are regulations you know!!
Just because you guys control a lot of property it doesnt mean you can try and ramp market with false articles or bad reporting..
Tony Roma's will be closed soon. So will Macaroni Grill.
DTJ is right vegasinsider, look at all of the taxpayer money that virtually disappeared into the bottomless lair of AIG. We are in the toilet because of the Bush administration's relaxed oversight of the markets over his eight year fascist regime. The ghost towns that exist in this city are only going to turn around under a national recovery plan Mr. Obama is working on. Bet you wouldn't want to trade places with him...
I wonder who will be President in 2020?
President in 2020? How bout Justin Timberlake
If it can't make it as a retail mall maybe they could divvy it up into offices.
we could use trader joe, deli, shoe shop, game/toy/hobby shop, walgreens, 24 hour fitness, sandwich or pizza place....ixnay on the circuit cities, flooring, espensive dress shops etc.
Make ME your President! I'll fix ALL your problems! Just vote for me and everything will be rainbows and unicorns! And I'll hire Birdie to write my campaign slogans. Start sending your checks...
So what aren't we still capitalists here? Stores come and go, when lots go then rents go down and competitors go down. Then before you know it the conditions are ripe for a recovery as the survivors or the new entrants fill the void. There is tons of traffic in that area and it is the only good retail hub for almost a third of the valley, it won't ever have a lack of demand for long. The economy as it stands is pretty much insuring no other viable competition is going to come online.
If people were smarter and didn't just jump on any bandwagon of blame they'd realize these basics and the Sun probably wouldn't be printing these stories.
davidwayne, if you're not joking then i guess you're unaware that the office vacancy rate here is like 23%. not much demand. a trader joes? now THAT is a great idea. those places are like gold mines.
What's taking so long for the old Von's on stephanie to turn into the new King Ranch?
i always thought someone should bring back the automat.
you know where there's like a wall of glass boxes with food in them. you put in 50 cents or $1.00 and the lid opens and you get that item like pie, a sandwich, ice cream, etc.
there's a kitchen in back that makes the food and re-fills the boxes as needed.
and there's tables in the middle for you to sit and eat and watch t.v.