Smart Leasing, Marketing Keep Small Market Mall Alive and Well

POTTSVILE, PA-When Levin Management took over leasing and management of Fairlane Village Mall in 2006, economic forces and trends were running heavily against small-market malls like the 405,000-square-foot-square-foot Pottsville property. Six years later, new Kohl’s Department Store has just opened, Michaels Arts and Crafts will open later this year, and evidence appears strong that this is a repositioning that worked.

“The industry consensus had been that the days of the small-market malls were numbered, but we think differently,” David Silver, Levin’s corporate director of marketing, tells GlobeSt.com. “Of course, it is going to be location-specific, but we were able to keep this property alive despite the economic crash that hit retail across the country, and the closing of Value City, which occupied nearly 20% of the Fairlane Village Mall’s GLA with 80,000 square feet.”