By Michael Bradwell

Business editor

mbradwell@observer-reporter.com

When JCPenney moved from Washington Mall to its brand new store at The Foundry shopping center more than a year ago, the old store was left without a tenant.

But after being forced to temporarily close its new store because of soil movement beneath its site, JCPenney could find itself back at its original store, just a mile down the road.

JCPenney spokesman Tim Lyons said Friday that relocating to the Washington Mall site is one of several options the company is considering.

"It's hard to determine what's going to happen at The Foundry site," Lyons said during a telephone interview from company headquarters in Plano, Texas. "We still look at this as a temporary closing."

That doesn't mean that JCPenney isn't considering other options, he said, which include the possibility of going back to Washington Mall.

"It's an option, but it's one of several options that we're looking at," Lyons said, adding that with the abrupt closing at The Foundry, the store "had to have a contingency plan. We haven't committed to any one direction, but we're working as fast as we can."

Art DiDonato, a leasing representative for Oxford Development Co. in Pittsburgh, which represents Washington Mall, was out of the office Friday and unavailable for comment.

JCPenney's decision to temporarily close its store June 7 followed the late-May closures of Bed Bath & Beyond and Ross Dress-For-Less, which also stopped doing business at the site because of safety concerns over soil movement beneath their stores.

The three closures leave Max & Erma's restaurant as the only operating business in the development.

While Bed Bath & Beyond and Ross said they were moving employees to other area stores, several Ross employees told the Observer-Reporter they had not been offered other positions. Ross has removed its inventory from The Foundry store. A Bed Bath & Beyond spokeswoman did not return a call Friday afternoon seeking an update on the local store's status.

The Foundry was being developed by Indianapolis-based Premier Properties, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. As a result of the bankruptcy, ownership of The Foundry site as well as several other Premier projects reverted to Atlanta-based Dominion Capital, which had loaned substantial amounts of money to the developer. Dominion appointed DeBartolo Development of Tampa, Fla., as property manager for The Foundry.

Lyons noted that with The Foundry site under new ownership and a new property manager it's difficult for JCPenney to know what might happen there in the future.

Randi Laferney, DeBartolo's director of development and leasing, said Friday the company isn't ready to comment about its plans for the site.

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