Andy Weiner, president of Weiner Development and the new owner of The Pines mall, met with a group of business and civic leaders at the Pine Bluff Convention Center recently to explain his plans and solicit community comment on the developer’s future plans to turn things around at the mall.
Residents of Pine Bluff and Southeast Arkansas have an investment, like Weiner, in the success of the shopping center. A growing retail center translates into jobs and a stronger local economy, both needed in Pine Bluff.
A successful retail center paints a positive image about a community.
A site selector for an international company was in Pine Bluff several years ago and made two stops at The Pines in one day. He walked through the mall on the first stop to count the number of active retailers and shuttered stores.
He carried a small device in one hand used to record the number of people he observed shopping. A count was made on the cars in the parking lot. He approached store employees without identifying himself and inquired about sales and product lines.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
He repeated many of the same procedures that same evening, noticing the number of vacant parking spaces, shaking his head at one point. He visited Pine Bluff’s downtown twice the same day.
He described the darkened buildings along Main Street as a “sign of a dying town.” The mall and strip shopping centers provided more optimism, with a cautionary note.
We fell short on his scorecard for a number of reasons, including a declining population, what he termed “an under-educated workforce” and shrinking retail sector. The latter, he explained, reflects a community’s health, along with parks, the arts, schools, volunteerism and civic pride.
If a site selector — a consultant hire by companies to scout out potential sites for new plants and other commercial businesses — turns in a negative report, the town is quickly eliminated from the list. A positive report will mean a more extensive look before the list is narrowed even further.
It does not make sense for a company to invest millions of dollars in a manufacturing plant, call center or big box store without scouting out the territory.
Weiner has invested money in The Pines and, we can safety assume, he expects to see a return on that investment. If we remember the classes from Economy 101, that’s how business works.
He has enhanced security at the shopping center and contacted potential tenants to fill some of the empty spaces at the mall. Weiner elaborated on the latter, noting he had spoken with representatives of 11 potential new stores so far, but cautioned that “there is a big difference between interviewing and opening a store.”
Weiner said that he plans to make the mall a center for community events, with emphasis of activities for children. The children are accompanied by parents and grandparents who shop. Allowing church and civic groups to use the common areas for free has paid off in one of the company’s shopping centers in Vicksburg, Miss., and he hopes to repeat that success in Pine Bluff.
Pine Bluff is aligned with the success of the mall. Turning The Pines around will require an attitude change for many individuals. It can’t be done with smoke and mirrors.
Keeping people in Pine Bluff so that they spend their money here — not in Little Rock or elsewhere — is a win-win situation for his investment and the community. Sales tax revenues pay for municipal services, from streets to public safety. That’s where local residents have their investment, in addition to their homes.
A large dose of patience is required because it won’t happen overnight.