Across Gottard Boulevard from The King of Prussia Plaza is a strip mall with a few restaurants, Best Buy, Nordstrom Rack & Regal Cinemas. You could walk it, but the access was intentionally designed for only auto traffic. If they made it easier for padestrian movement the level of unnessessary traffic would drop to zero. I’ll bet the same could be said for Monroeville.

As this example shows moving a store can have consequences. If the customers feel they’re being put into a posission of having to jump through hoops to get to a store, most of them will go somewhere else.

As far as Monroeville is concerned, I would like to see them put a megaplex theater in the mall. The closest ones are about 10 miles away in the Waterfront and North Versailles and it would be more convenient if there was one in Monroeville. They could also move Dick’s into the mall since the store in the annex is small.

As far as I know, all ten stores that Boscov’s closed last year remain vacant. I fully expect them to remain that way until the recession ends.

If they want to keep it upscale, I would be very interested in seeing Saks open in that space. However, that space is a lot bigger than a normal Saks store and I think there is a stand alone Saks nearby.

I do agree that Target could work, Boscov’s probably not.

When all else fails, there’s always lifestyle space…

Speaking of Boscov’s, I wonder what will be done with their former space at Oxford Valley Mall…

According to Albert Boscov, there is a possibility that the chain will open new stores in 2010. Of course, this does make me very nervous, since the huge expansion of 2006 is what almost made Boscov’s go out of businees in the first place.

Putting aside this nervousness, there are several places where I would like to see a new Boscov’s open: First and foremost would have to be the vacant John Wanamaker/Strawbridge’s in the King of Prussia Mall. (I find it absolutely shocking that KOP has been unable to fill this space after all this time. Yet, I still highly doubt Boscov’s will open here since the cost of operating at KOP is probably equivalent to the cost of operating three locations at “average” shopping malls.) Additionally, if Boscov’s ever wanted to enter the northern New Jersey market, a good location for them would be the vacant Fortunoff at (what used to be known as) the Wayne Towne Center.

Finally, there’s always the very slim chance that Boscov’s would be interested in re-opening one of the stores that they closed last year. Out of all the stores they closed, I feel that their best options would be to re-open their locations at White Marsh Mall, South Hills Village, and Monroeville Mall. They may also want to consider the vacant Strawbridge’s at Willow Grove Park Mall, which is where the chain said they would open a new store (yet never followed through due to their bankruptcy).