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Twitter| 5/22/2008 3:32 AM | Email this article  • Print this article  |
Another store closes at The Foundry This article has been read 4497 times. By Michael Bradwell Business editor mbradwell@observer-reporter.com
Katie Loughnot, spokeswoman for Ross Stores in Pleasanton, Calif., said Wednesday that Ross sent an engineer to look at the chain's Ross-Dress-for-Less store in South Strabane Township on Tuesday. The decision for a temporary closure came just a day after Bed Bath & Beyond announced Tuesday that it was temporarily closing its store because of soil movement beneath the foundation of its store, which opened in April 2007. While Loughnot said the test conducted by its engineers "showed nothing conclusive," Ross decided to temporarily close the store "while we continue to evaluate the situation and study its full impact. We consider this a precautionary measure. The safety of our customers is our top priority." She said personnel were in the process of closing the store Wednesday afternoon. Ross-Dress-for-Less, which is adjacent to Bed Bath & Beyond, opened just a week after its neighbor last year.
When the Foundry's 104-acre site was being prepared two years ago, its developer, Indianapolis-based Premier Properties USA, said crews moved 4 million cubic yards of earth and blasted 1.7 million cubic yards of rock. The company also said it built one of the largest retaining walls in the Western Hemisphere. Gary Stokum of Washington County Conservation District said Wednesday his office, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection, processed the National Pollutant Discharge Elmination System permit that was required before construction began on the site. He added that the permit, which requires a study of erosion and sedimentation that is discharged into nearby streams, isn't related to soil movement beneath the foundation. Jim Barnes, building code enforcement officer for South Strabane Township, said Wednesday all of the structures met building codes when they were completed. He noted that Premier Properties did work to stabilize certain areas outside of the buildings last year.
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Whats next JC Penney? : 5/22/2008
What is South Strabane TWP going to do about this? It must be nice for Premeir to just walk away from all of this and not be held accountable for a tract of land that will soon be nothing but an abandoned shopping complex!!!!
Perfectly Good Mall Gone to Waste! : 5/22/2008
What I want to know is why didn't they just revitalize or tear down Washington Mall and keep JC Penny in it's original location and bring in Bed, Bath & Beyond and Ross for Less? It seems that we are too intent on everything being brand new. So what do we have to show for this brand new location? Stores closing, new businesses probably reconsidering moving into the area and most importantly look at what has been done to the environment? Wildlife has been displaced, mountains of dirt moved and sandblasted all in the name of progress!
Mauled : 5/22/2008
I remember when South Strabane was concerned about having the old Washington Mall sitting their empty. Now it appears it will have two eye sores. Maybe it is time for stores to move back into the city and to forget about burning gas to drive to the mall. The city was mauled by the townships years ago.
Why.... : 5/22/2008
Why would they start building the first string of stores right along the edge of that huge retaining wall anyway??! They could have build those stores on the other side of the development. Common Sense. And the owners of the Washington Mall shot their own foot when they told all of their long-time paying tenants to leave.....
What a joke! : 5/22/2008
As a life-long resident of Washington, it really makes me angry to see our beautiful hillsides leveled in order to build more stores--just for the sake of money! How many stores can our area support, anyway?? Also, driving behind the site on Manifold road, the "biggest retaining wall in the western hemisphere" is so ugly to look at. I makes me think of something medieval. And to think of the poor people on the other side of it! This was a mistake from the beginning and someone has got to face the music and deal with it! Either finish the stupid thing and fix it right or restore the area (somehow!) to it former condition.
Follow the $$$ : 5/22/2008
I remember when the only thing on the west side of Rt 19 was an abandoned farm. It stands to reason that real estate that close to 2 major interstates would be developed someday, but the extent to which the Foundry was designed was a bit excessive. The Washington Mall sitting idle is indeed a sad thing to see, but that's probably the difference between locally owned enterprises (Wash. Mall) and the national ones (Crown Center, Strabane Sq, Trin. Point, etc.). An interesting article about Premier's CEO can be read here: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-7337962/Financial-travails-dog-CEO-Mystery.html
It's all about money : 5/22/2008
The Falconis did the Wash. mall in when they squeezed the tenants out by asking for too much in rent. When renters left the "owners" saw a prime opportunity for a tax writeoff. Premier then thought they could sucker Penney's - and they did - by promising a freestanding building. Who didn't see this coming? If you take trees out, you get landslides. If you move dirt, you get settling. Everybody was in such a big hurry to make their money that they forgot there was already an empty building 1/2 mile away. After all, renovations cost money and heaven knows the Wash. Mall owners wouldn't want to spend any of their fortune......
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