Washington Crown Center standing test of time
Observer-Reporter
Shoppers make their rounds on Black Friday in 2018 at Washington Crown Center.
Observer-Reporter
Civil Knox, general manager and marketing director at Washington Crown Center, said tenants at the mall are hiring but lack applicants.
Gone are the days of purchasing an album at Camelot Music store, or buying a couple of slices with cheese and pepperoni at Brothers Pizza, or grabbing a drink at the Orange Bowl for lunch at Franklin Mall in North Franklin Township.
Years have changed much, as enclosed malls are no longer the cool hangout for young or teenage kids to be with their friends or for shoppers to seek most of their needs.
Some of these malls remain.
Certainly, Washington Crown Center – formerly known as Franklin Mall – has stood the test of time.
Civil J. Knox said the mall is still relevant 50 years later. It still has much to offer and it will continue to fight for shoppers, many of whom have turned to the internet to purchase just about anything.
“We’re hanging in there and doing what we can to keep this going,” said Knox, general manager and marketing director for the mall. “You have to think outside of the box. We’re still here. It’s a nice indoor mall. It beats shopping outside in the heat during the summer or in the cold in the winter.”
Next month, Washington Crown Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary.
Knox said several things are planned at the mall, which houses more than 65 stores. At its peak, Washington Crown Center featured nearly 70 stores.
The 50th Anniversary Celebration will be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
WJPA radio will be doing a live remote from the mall. The celebration will feature different characters, including princesses from Washington-based Royal Princess Engagements, a wild world of animal show at 12:30 p.m., special giveaways, a prize wheel and various food and “goodies,” said Knox.
“It will be exciting,” said Knox, who has worked at the mall for 22 years. “Hopefully, over the next six months, we’ll be offering more and different stuff.”
Tracey Comfort, manager at King’s Jewelry, has worked in the mall for 36 years, 35 with King’s. She’s seen all of the good times and the bad.
“We’re still doing numbers that are similar to those in the 2000s,” she said. “Because this is a small town, we have a loyal customer base. We have people and a community that still want a mall.
“We didn’t take a horrible hit when the outlets came in,” she said. “While traffic is down, we’re still doing good. We’re going to ride this out and see where it goes.
“If we were in a bigger place, we might not have survived. But our loyal customers remain with us. It’s a beautiful mall. It’s different, but we’re still here. It’s amazing it’s been here 50 years.”
The mall was constructed in 1969 as Franklin Mall, with Troutman’s, Sears and Grant City – which later became Hills in 1976 – as the anchors.
The mall has undergone many changes through the years.
- An Acme supermarket was located in the mall parking lot, just past Grant’s/Hills. It closed in 1977. Troutman’s closed in 1984 and was sold to Pomeroy’s, which in turn converted to The Bon-Ton in 1987.
- A 1985 expansion to the mall, owned by Crown American Corporation, added Hess’s and a new Hills – while converting the original Hills location to a food court and additional retail space.
- Redeveloped and rebranded in 1999, the mall was renamed Washington Crown Center and underwent another renovation. The changes included the addition of a movie theater on the site of the former Hess’s, which closed four years prior; the conversion of Hills to Ames and the addition of Kaufmann’s as a fourth anchor. The Ames store closed in 2002 and became Gander Mountain in 2003, while Kaufmann’s was converted to Macy’s in 2006.
- In 2003, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) purchased the mall from Crown American Corp.
- In 2013, Marshall’s replaced Old Navy, and in 2014, Ross Dress for Less took 25,000 square feet of former specialty retail shop space.
- The trend of replacing small shops with big box continued through 2014 with the addition of Jo-Ann Fabrics, relocated from the former Washington Mall, Ulta and Books-A-Million.
- In January 2015, PREIT announced it was planning on selling Washington Crown Center with four other malls.
- In August 2016, PREIT sold the mall for $20 million to Kohan Retail Investment Group, New York.
- In 2018, Rural King opened in the former Gander Mountain space. Within the next several months, the mall added Chippers Trains & Collectibles, Dress Haute, Stone Haven Creamery, Hog Father’s BBQ and Ohio Valley Reptiles. Next month, Planet Bounce will be opened.
Longtime tenant Sears will be closing. Knox, however, remains optimistic about new stores and the mall’s future.
“This is my home and this mall is my home,” Knox said. “It’s difficult at times. You do everything you can to stay viable.
“Malls are still surviving,” she added. “We’re not the only mall with empty spaces.”
Hallmark, King’s Jewelry and Jo-Ann Fabrics are longtime tenants. Marshalls, Ross and Rural King are more recent and current anchors.
The Washington Wild Things, who just finished their 18th season in the independent Frontier League, had their first offices in Washington Crown Center and held some news conferences inside the mall when the franchise was in its infancy.
Community County of Allegheny College also maintains at presence at the mall.
“The leasing department with the new owners are working hard to keep it filled,” Knox said. “We’re getting into a really busy time of the year for us. The 50th anniversary celebration, the holidays and other things make it busy. But it’s good and we’re good.”