At year's end JC Penney will become the latest retail chain to vacate the struggling Ogden City Mall.
The move, announced Thursday, comes despite the company's effort to improve slumping sales by converting the department store to a discount outlet, offering slow-selling, discounted merchandise acquired from area Penney's stores.
"I think we were hoping (the transformation) would boost sales and productivity and get some more traffic in the store," J.C. Penney Co. Inc. spokesman Tim Lyons said. "Obviously that didn't work out."
Last year Nordstrom vacated the downtown mall, and empty spaces have become almost as common as operating stores. Mall manager Glen Peterson said the downtown shopping center is operating at 53 percent capacity.
Lyons said Nordstrom's departure and increasingly fewer customers left the store with few options.
"Whether it was Nordstrom pulling out or a variety of factors, the foot traffic was down and occupancy was down," Lyons said.
On the heels of Penney's announcement, a manager at See's Candies said her store would also leave the mall after Christmas.
"It was corporate's decision," manager Pauline Larsen said. "We needed more foot traffic, and we are located right next to JC Penney. They were our anchor."
But Mary Diamond, corporate director of real estate for See's Candies said Larsen spoke out of turn.
See's lease with the mall runs until Dec. 31, 2000, and the company has no firm plans to move the store, Diamond said.
Regardless of See's action, Penney's departure will leave the mall with only one anchor store, ZCMI.
Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey has witnessed the mall's decline and wants the shopping center reinvented. He envisions a more pedestrian-friendly mall with entertainment-type stores and theme restaurants.
"It could involve anything from tearing down the existing mall to tearing the roof off and opening it up," Godfrey said. "I think if you look nationwide you'll see that four-corner, anchor-type malls don't work."
Godfrey, who says downtown redevelopment is the focus of his administration, expressed concern that new ownership hasn't acted on promises they would rebuild the mall after purchasing the property last year.
"There has never been any drawings done, no design planning. They keep talking about a food court, but they haven't showed us any plans."
Peterson said owners are moving forward with construction on the food court and have been in negotiations with an anchor-type retail store that could replace JC Penney.
"This isn't going to stop our plans," he said. "I think if you look at J.C. Penney stock, you will see they are having sales problems nationwide . . .. I think it's more of a J.C. Penney problem than a mall problem."
As for the mall's 99 Penney's employees, Lyons said they may be transferred to area stores or receive severance packages. He added that J.C. Penney has no plans to relocate in the Ogden area.
E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com