Future is Uncertain for Former J.C. Penney Space at East Brook Mall

A large, dark and barren space with a gray metal gate greets East Brook Mall shoppers at the center’s north end. A couple of lights shine on the store’s bare walls.

The former 35,522-square-foot J.C. Penney store in Mansfield closed last month and a sign refers shoppers to visit the nearest J.C. Penney at the Shoppes at Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester. That two-level 128,000-square-foot store is about 3.6 times larger than the small one-floor East Brook Mall location.

While the marquee letters have been removed at the East Brook Mall, mall maps still have the space marked as “J.C. Penney” which first opened in this small northeastern Connecticut community mall 17 years ago.

A July 20 map on the Northeast Retail Leasing and Management Company, LLC, the company responsible for leasing space at the mall, shows the  space as “available”. 

What is the future of this anchor space which previously was home to Sage Allen (1975-1993) and Cherry & Webb (1993-1995)?

This reporter wrote two e-mails to Sue Williams from East Brook Mall’s management office first on May 26 and then again on Sept. 8 stating, “I wanted to find out whether the mall is seeking a tenant or tenants to fill the J.C. Penney space or whether a tenant has already been secured. If the mall is still seeking a tenant for the space, what type of tenant is being sought? Would it be another department store/junior anchor store or would it possibly be split into sections for additional specialty shops or food outlets? If a tenant has been secured, what is the name of the tenant or what type of merchandise does the tenant sell if the name cannot be released? I thank you in advance for your help as I would like to help promote the mall and am hopeful you are able to fill the J.C. Penney space shortly. Any quotes a mall manager can give regarding this space would be helpful, especially those that discuss how successful the mall is, how it is fully occupied, has a variety of local and national retailers, etc.”

A similar e-mail was written to Northeast Retail.

No response was received.

Joey Thomas, Media Relations and Corporate Affairs representative from the J.C. Penney Communications Department, was also sent an e-mail by this reporter on Aug. 19 asking, “Will J.C. Penney be actively working to lease the space in the East Brook Mall for subleasing or to transfer its lease? Or did they just terminate the lease early? How many years of the lease did they sign up for and how much did they use? Any word on what may be going in this space?”

No reply was received.

Thomas previously told this reporter that this J.C. Penney location, which had 35 team members, would be the only one in Connecticut closing its doors.

“It¹s never an easy decision to close a store, especially because of the impact on our valued team members and customers. Changes such as these are essential in helping us achieve our long-term goals.  We would not have moved forward with this difficult decision if we did not believe it was absolutely necessary for the future growth of our Company.”

J.C. Penney previously occupied the present-day BJ’s Wholesale Club space in the Willimantic Plaza from 1976 to 1995 before moving to the mall.

Mansfield Town Manager Matthew Hart told the Willimantic Chronicle this past May that he believed the community would miss J.C. Penney, that they were a good corporate neighbor, and hoped a new store would move in to help the mall. He said the town is concerned any time the mall loses a major anchor but that the mall has done a good job the last several years filling vacant spaces.

The last time the East Brook Mall had a major vacancy was when its southern anchor space sat unoccupied from 2002-2005 after Ames went out of business and before Kohl’s moved into the mall.

Hopefully the mall will be able to secure a northern anchor tenant this holiday season.