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University Center quickly becoming a destination

Anchorage, Alaska - In its heyday, University Center mall had Payless Drugs and Lamonts, which later became Gottschalks. But when those anchor stores pulled out, the mall was adrift.     

But its new owner, a furniture company, has set the mall on a new course.

There's new life for the University Center Mall. Five years ago, there were a lot of skeptics, with vacancies in the mall between 80 and 85 percent. Soon, that rate will drop down to only 5 percent.

The turnaround strategy is unorthodox to use two furniture stores as the main anchors. Sadler's Home Furnishings and La-Z-Boy Furniture Gallery had outgrown their old locations and found a new home here.

"Nobody in their right mind would go out and do new construction and use furniture stores for anchors," said mall owner Dave Cavitt.

But the sale price of the University Center was about the same as the cost of land for a new store.

Part of the deal involved turning the Gottschalks store into a furniture warehouse. The parking lot and the old Payless drugstore created more warehouse space.

Creativity, Cavitt says, is the driving force behind re-inventing this mall. But it's also taken time for these efforts to flower.

"We've had customers come in every day and say, ‘I didn't think anything was in this mall,' or, ‘I didn't think anything was in here but the furniture store,'" said Jan Tharaldson, who owns Wind River Silks.

Wind River Silks opened four years ago, mainly to be next to Habitat Housewares.

"They had adult women shoppers that were interested in their homes," said Tharaldson.

The furniture stores were still on the drawing board but also promised to be a good match.

"You've got to rely on your anchor store for bringing in customers, and then other businesses that bring in customers. That's the key elements in being a mall," Tharaldson said.

One thing that's helped is that many of the stores in this mall fit into a theme.

"It starts out being home furnishing. Home decorating. Home focus," Tharaldson said.

The home focus attracts adult shoppers, and the businesses here say that's fine with them.

Champions Choice is the only store that caters to kids, but since it's the parents who pay, this business fits.

"We're really beginning to get some synergy to it," Cavitt said.

The synergy creates an upscale, trendy shopping environment.

"It's becoming more of a destination place," said Jeremy Kimmel, who is opening Peppercini's Deli.

This spring, Peppercini's Deli will open. With the university in the other half of the mall, it'll have a built-in business.

"It's a pretty unique set-up here," Kimmel said.

The old Sequels store is among the last remnants of the mall's old incarnation. In its place is a buffet-style eatery targeting Midtown's lunchtime crowd. It's centrally located with plenty of parking.

"That's one of the best parts about it -- easy in and out," Kimmel said.

And for Wind River Silks, a new neighbor is moving in across the hall. The Nature Source/Museum Store, a longtime fixture of the Fifth Avenue Mall, is coming here. It's a sign that this mall's time is not over just yet.

The University Center has two owners.  One half is owned by the University of Alaska, while the retail side belongs to Furniture Enterprises of Alaska.

Furniture Enterprises also owns Williams and Kaye and Rooms Express over at the Country Village Mall on Benson Boulevard -- another dying property that Cavitt brought to life.

Cavitt said that furniture stores around the country are buying dead mall space and "de-malling" it. But at University Center, the shopping mall character was intentionally preserved.