Rural King Ready to Open at Nittany Mall

Rural King’s first Centre County location will open on Saturday (March 13) morning at the Nittany Mall, according to a post on the local store’s Facebook page.

Occupying the former Sears anchor spot at the mall, the farm and home store will be open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Rural King sells a wide range of goods including farm supplies, tools, housewares and other household items, clothing, sporting and outdoors items, pet supplies, lawn and garden equipment and firearms.

The company first signed a long-term lease for the 83,000-square-foot space in 2019 about a year and a half after Sears closed. Rural King later acquired the property from mall ownership and a subdivision plan was approved last month by College Township Council.

With Bon-Ton’s closure in 2018 and Macy’s closing in 2020, Dunham’s has been the Nittany Mall’s lone anchor tenant for the past year.

The first anchor tenant to open at the mall in almost exactly five years, since Dunham’s opened its doors in March 2016 at the former J.C. Penney, Rural King marks the beginning of an anticipated revitalization for the mall’s biggest vacant properties.

Gabe’s discount department store plans to open in the former Bon-Ton sometime this year, Mason Asset Management, which oversees leasing for the mall, confirmed earlier this month.

The former Macy’s property, meanwhile, is the planned site for a proposed category 4 casino to be developed by Bally’s and investor Ira Lubert. College Township officials received at the beginning of March local impact report, part of the Pennsylvania Control Board’s licensing process, that identified the location.

The new casino is will have 750 slot machines, 30 table games, sports betting and restaurant and entertainment facilities.

Pending regulatory approvals, construction is expected to begin later this year and take approximately one year to complete.