Another anchor store at the Nittany Mall is closing.
The Bon-Ton in College Township is one of 42 stores nationwide that Bon Ton Stores Inc. announced on Wednesday will close in the next few months.
In November, the company announced a “store rationalization” plan that would shutter some of its locations, but did not reveal the full list until Wednesday. Five other store closings were completed in January, bringing the total to 47.
Bill Tracy, president and CEO of The Bon Ton Stores, said in a statement that the closures are the “next steps in our efforts to move forward with a more productive store footprint.”
The Nittany Mall location is one of eight in Pennsylvania that will be closing. The others include Carlisle, DuBois, Erie, Johnstown, Selinsgrove, Stroudsburg and Trexlertown.
The company is working with a third-party liquidator to manage store closings. Liquidation sales will begin Feb. 1 and will continue for 10 to 12 weeks.
Employees will be offered interviews for available positions at other locations, according to a news release. In addition to Bon-Ton stores, the closures also include some of the company’s Herberger’s, Carson’s, Younkers, Elder-Beerman, Bergner’s and Boston Store locations.
Bon-Ton will be the second Nittany Mall anchor store to close in 2018. Sears recently closed after its parent company announced in November the College Township location would be among 18 closing in 2018. Sears Auto Center at the Nittany Mall remains open.
J.C. Penney closed its Nittany Mall store in 2015. It was replaced by Dunham’s Sports.
College Township Council in December decided it would not join other Centre Region municipalities in opting out as a possible location for one of Pennsylvania’s 10 new Category 4 “mini-casinos,” noting the mall as the only feasible location for one in the township because of the restrictions of its adult business ordinance.
Township Manager Adam Brumbaugh cited the mall’s struggles in recommending council not opt out.
‘Given the ongoing economic struggles of the Nittany Mall and, that the only viable location for a gaming establishment in College Township is portions of the Nittany Mall, and coupled with the fact that all other Centre Region municipalities have opted out of hosting a Category 4 casino – excepting Halfmoon Township – the Manager strongly believes that casino gaming could be a true and powerful opportunity to redevelop both the Nittany Mall property as well as surrounding commercially zoned properties,’ he wrote in a memo to council.
The adult business ordinance in College Township includes restrictions on where a gaming operation could be placed. That significantly restricts potential locations for a casino. One could only be developed in the C-1 commercial district, which runs along the area of East College Avenue/Benner Pike, and can’t be within 1,000 feet of a residential district boundary, place of assembly, school or park.
That leaves portions of the Nittany Mall as the only location a casino could be placed in the township. Brumbaugh said that with the ordinance, the site for a gaming establishment would be very limited and would not include the entire mall or adjacent parcels.
College Township was not among the locations for the first two winning bidders for Category 4 licenses. Brumbaugh said in December that no one had contacted the township about potentially placing one at the site of the mall.