JCPenney; the final domino falls at the Pine Ridge Mall, Chubbuck mall now under 4th ownership!

“I can confirm that we have been working with Kohl’s to backfill the space that was the former home of the C-A-L Ranch store on the southern side of the mall property next to Hobby Lobby… …Everything north of the old C-A-L Ranch to where Planet Fitness is located in the former Herbergers would be demolished…”-Joshua Simon of SimonCRE, May 2024

The beleaguered Pine Ridge Mall, in the small Idaho city of Chubbuck, now under a new, fourth, owner: Scottsdale, Arizona, based SimonCRE, which just had their demolition plans approved by the City of Chubbuck.

Are they aware of what is underneath the property?:

The lie (starting in the early 2000s) that commercial property developers/REITs, and local officials, propagated:

According to the local newspaper, SimonCRE will begin demolishing the 1980s era mall, replacing it with free-standing businesses, as well as a Target store and a Kohl’s (aka the mall will be repurposed as an ‘outdoor shopping venue’). Supposedly the demolition begins in 2025, a completion date has not been determined, but the last surviving anchor store (also one of the first in the mall) JCPenney is shutting down, apparently by the month of May 2025.

No more indoor car shows, and what happened to ZCMI?:

Some newer buildings at the ‘mall’ will not be torn down because they are technically, and legally by contract, not part of the original mall structure. That includes Hobby Lobby (new built under the 3rd owner), C-A-L Ranch and Big Deal Outlet (both occupying the old Shopko building, which was never part of the original mall), and the Gem Prep charter school located in the old Sears building (which was added onto the mall in 1999 when Sears moved from the dead Pocatello Mall to the Pine Ridge Mall, the Pocatello Mall was replaced by a new expanded Fred Meyer).

A little history tour, and the true beginnings of the demise:

Some of the businesses inside the soon to be executed mall will move to new locations. Contrary to local news reports, Dillard’s was not one of the original anchor stores at the mall, it was a short lived replacement for the original two story Utah based, Brigham Young founded, anchor called ZCMI. Zion’s Co-operative Mercantile Institution was considered the first ‘department store’ in the United States, even though when it was founded Utah was still a territory and not a state. At the end of 1999, the ZCMI brand was sold-off and thus began a rapid confusing succession of owners and name changes, to include Dillard’s in 2001 and Macy’s in 2005-06.

What about the old Shopko/new C-A-L Ranch & Big Deal Outlet?:

2019: No more Idaho ShopKo? There never was a Shopko in Pocatello (it was in Chubbuck)!

As I’ve chronicled elsewhere, 1999-2007 are pivotal years for the U.S. retail market which directly impacted U.S. shopping malls. And this brings me to another point; for decades the ‘industry’ has been blaming the way the U.S. consumer shops for the radical changes the ‘industry’ made to brick-n-mortar operations. The truth is that online shopping has remained relatively steady over the decades, even during the pland-emic the expected rush of shoppers to the inter-web failed to materialize. The majority of shoppers still want to see and feel what they are buying and prefer brick-n-mortar stores. The misinformation postulated by the ‘industry’ was, and still is, a push by corporations, investors/REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) to greatly increase their profit margins by massively cutting labor costs by shifting to online operations only. Those exalted ones have backed off their plan because operating huge online stores has proven to require just as many costly humans in warehousing and delivery, and expensive robots as well.

More history tour, what about the old Sears?:

2014:

Moved from Pocatello to Chubbuck in 1999, this Sears is finally dead!

Finally it’s official, Chubbuck/Pine Ridge Mall Sears going down!

2013: Chubbuck/Pine Ridge Mall Sears was already dead!

The Pine Ridge Mall is officially dead and will supposedly be gone sometime this year, leaving only one of the original three malls in the area; the Westwood Mall in Pocatello (which has been so radically remodeled it no longer has a semblance of the 1970s era mall it once was, with its wall-to-wall carpeting and big indoor fountain). However, in 2016 the City of Pocatello rezoned the Westwood Mall for a planned demolition and building of residential apartments. Eventually there will be no malls at all in the Pocatello/Chubbuck area.

Here’s what happened to the old Sears: