ABERDEEN, Wash. - There's not much after-Christmas holiday cheer at one Aberdeen shopping mall. Despite a return of Christmas shoppers nationwide, the South Shore Mall is seeing its stores leaving.

The parking lot was nearly empty on Monday at this once-thriving mall. On a day when other malls were packed, the South Shore Mall was quiet.

"You can see this building is falling apart," says mall customer Louis Dassow. "The people, they don't like to use it."

"It's not as busy a mall, and they can't afford the rent, and so they don't stay," says customer Beth Dassow.

Famous Footwear recently announced it is pulling out. So is Harry Ritchie jewelers.

Mall store owner Val Hurlbert is watching her neighbors leave. She'll be joining them at the end of January.

"It's tough, really tough," says Hurlbert. "When I got up this morning, I'm like, 'Can I really do it?' Because I feel an obligation to keep it open."

But sales at her Maranatha Christian Bookstore are down at this shopping mecca built in the 1970s.

Just five years ago it gained fame when Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were here for the opening of Mission Impossible III.

But the crowds are gone now.

"This is as busy as this ever gets," says Louis Dassow.

Not that there aren't people out shopping. The Walmart store and Top Foods shopping center is jammed on Monday.

Civic leaders believe the regional economy is turning around with the reopening of a paper products plant and the opening of a facility to build the huge concrete pontoons for the Highway 520 floating bridge.

"We're still struggling," says state Sen. Mike Hargrove, D-Hoquiam. "We kind of go two steps ahead and a step and a half back. People are working really hard. And I think there's real opportunity around the corner."

The company that owns the mall, General Growth Properties, has told its store owners that it's trying hard to get a third major store in besides J.C. Penney and Sears.

The company that owns the mall, General Growth Properties, has told its store owners that it's trying hard to get a third major store in besides J.C. Penney and Sears.

It's like a ghost town in there.

I think most of the tenants who left would suggest the rent was much too high based on the traffic count.

I think most of the tenants who left would suggest the rent was much too high based on the traffic count

Aberdeen Developer Hoping Business Grows in Newly Renovated Building
Posted by David Haviland on December 27, 2011 at 9:50 am
Aberdeen, WA - After news coverage of store closures in the South Shore Mall, and throughout Grays Harbor County, developer John Yonich says it's time to look at downtown business. As renovations near completion on the Clevengers building at the corner of Heron and I streets in Aberdeen, Yonich said he already has at least one tenant lined up, a florist and gift shop. The rebuild of Clevenger's should be completed near the middle of February, Yonich also said one entrepreneur is waffling on either a book or video store but that if they didn't open one, he might. Yonich said he has big plans for the Clevenger's building, and also hinted to a new place to stay in downtown Aberdeen in the works.

Bookstores losing browsers to Web

A bookstore has a better chance of survival than a video store. Blockbuster can't even stay open. A video store is a bad investment. I wouldn't invest in either one.