Sears closing means Ocean County Mall needs overhaul

TOMS RIVER - Austin Rickmers, a roofer, walked out of Sears at the Ocean County Mall one recent day feeling upset that a store where he bought all of his tools for the past decade was about to close.

He always felt confident buying his Craftsman products here, he said, knowing that if they broke, he could return them hassle free.

"I'm hoping for another store like this," said Rickmers, 26, of Lacey. "But at a mall, I doubt it."

The Ocean County Mall, the linchpin for the region's retail scene for more than 40 years, needs an overhaul to survive in the digital age. In the video at the top, you can see the lengths Monmouth Mall in Eatontown is going to to remain a staple of the community.

The future for regional malls is bleak, and Sears' closing could be a canary in the coal mine, government and business leaders said.

It has prompted them to meet with officials from the mall's longtime owner, Simon Property Group, about the developer's plans. While a company spokesman said it was premature to discuss the project and declined interview requests, township officials said they think big changes are in store.

"We expressed our concern" about the viability of the mall, said Dave Roberts, township planner for Toms River. "They are thinking about it and are doing potential studies of the mall in general."

The Ocean County Mall has been owned by Indianapolis-based Simon since 1998. It is about 800,000 square feet and has nearly 100 stores, including four anchors: J.C. Penney, Macy's, Boscov's and Sears.

The mall was a decade in the making, and when it opened in July 1976, it was a hit. More than 80,000 customers attended the grand opening of Sears, Roebuck and Co., according to an Asbury Park Press account.

The center became a magnet for shoppers and sparked the development of strip malls and big-box stores along Route 37 and Hooper Avenue.

But the internet age and shifting demographics have changed the landscape, putting pressure on suburban malls nationwide. While baby boomers migrated to the suburbs and saw malls as gathering places where they could see the latest fashion, millennials are returning to cities, where they can ditch their cars and shop on their smartphones from anywhere.

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Ocean County's older population seems to have protected its mall; both J.C. Penney and Macy's have closed stores elsewhere.

But experts warn that the trend isn't reversing itself. As many as a quarter of the nation's 1,200 malls will close in the next five years, a report last year by Credit Suisse predicted.

Some developers are trying to shift gears. The owners of Monmouth Mall in Eatontown, for example, have proposed a massive overhaul by adding high-density housing to the mix.

"You have a lot of malls that once they lose their key anchor tenants really need to totally reinvent themselves,” Rutgers University economist James W. Hughes said.

The first blow to the Ocean County Mall is Sears. The iconic retailer said in January it would close the 100,000-square-foot Toms River store, and 38 others. It is having a clearance sale and plans to close by early April.

The retailer started as a mail-order company, selling virtually everything under the sun through its famous catalog. Its bricks-and-mortar stores were similarly expansive. A walk through its Toms River store found mattresses, refrigerators, apparel, electronics and tools.

But competitors chipped away, experts said, first from big-box stores such as Lowe's, Walmart and Home Depot, and then from online retailers like Amazon.

And the company seemed to miss a chance to win over customers through, say, top-notch service that Nordstrom is known for or a treasure hunt-type experience that T.J. Maxx has developed. Sears reduced the value of its brand name by a third, USA Today reported last week.

"Sears was the bastion of consumer confidence – refrigerators, washing machines, back-to-school clothing," said Gene Simko, a management professor at Monmouth University in West Long Branch. "They somehow let go of that. It slipped away somehow."

Bob Shea, an attorney with RC Shea & Associates in Toms River, said the chance that Ocean County Mall can replace Sears with another general merchandise store is slim. Retailers want less space, knowing they can save rent and still fill orders from their warehouse. Watch the video above to see Boll & Branch's idea at the Short Hills Mall.

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To survive, observers said, the mall will need to offer consumers something they can't buy on the internet.

"I would rather start to see more lifestyle pieces," said Noelle Carino, chief executive officer of the Toms River Chamber of Commerce. "I don’t know what that looks like, but a lot of malls are taking that turn to other activities, whether they are indoor ice skating rinks or a dog park to bring people out."

Some ideas, like adding housing, would require the town to change its zoning.

But the transformation already might be underway. BJ's Brewhouse & Restaurant recently was approved by the township to build a 10,000-square-foot restaurant in the parking lot near Sears.

Roberts said Simon could take a page from the Freehold Raceway Mall, which has slowly shifted from an indoor mall to one with a Main Street feel. Visitors can walk into stores and restaurants from the parking lot without needing to go through a department store to get there.

"We don’t know precisely what they have in mind, but from the meeting we had with them last year, part of the strategy dealing with the old-fashioned enclosed malls is to open them up to the outside," Roberts said.

Meanwhile, Sears' clearance sale continues, and it is attracting shoppers for one last look.

Marry Rappa, 76, of Toms River, said she grew up shopping at the Sears in Paramus Park. Sears closed there, too, and is expected to be replaced with a 12-screen movie theater and Stew Leonard's, a supermarket, the Bergen Record reported.

"I'm a little upset," Rappa said. "I've shopped here my entire life."

Michael L. Diamond; @mdiamondapp; 732-683-4038; mdiamond@gannettnj.com