When the Pecanland Mall opened in 1985, it was a sensation. It drew thousands of shoppers to Monroe from as far away as Ruston and it boosted the Monroe economy. Much to the frustration of the Black community, the mall made no provisions to insure that black businesses were a part of its retail tenant list.
Now, as big tenants leave, file bankruptcy or make plans to leave the mall, its owners are looking for ways to sure up its tenant base and has focused on African-Americans as a way to sustain its operations in high-density minority populated communities in the South.
That’s interesting because 25 years ago the mall ignored appeals from the NAACP and other minority groups in Monroe to make arrangements to help minority businesses have a presence in the mall.
Then blacks were welcomed as consumers, but were effectively locked out as mall tenants.
Recently, Brookfield Properties which owns Pecanland Mall and several similar properties across the nation, announced its plan to save its malls in communities like Monroe. Monroe’s general population is declining and surrounding communities such as Ruston and West Monroe are expanding their own retail bases leaving the Pecanland Mall with a huge complex and empty units.
That’s when the company decided to focus on its only other option: African-Americans.
Its new plan is wrapped in a public relations package filled with all of the correct buzz words. The company suddenly wants to partner with African-Americans to help them get started in the mall.
The new plan is called “Partner to Empower.” In theory, it is designed to help underserved communities grow their business with a brick-and-mortar location at the Pecanland Mall. The focus of the program is Black businesses. In reality, it needs to get new tenants in a hurry or in a few years the mall with be a ghost town.
Brookfield Properties owns properties, like most mall owners is executing plans to change its focus as trends change. However, COVID 19 has forced them to move faster in new path. Brookfield Properties is not executing it empowerment program in all of its properties, nation-wide, only in Southern communities like Monroe with large black populations.
The goal is to train new black tenants, help get them started, then plant them in the mall.
There have only been two black-owned businesses in the mall in its 36-year history in Monroe: Aro-Centrics, owned by Rick Saulsberry, and Cafe Roma owned by Octavious Poe. Neither received any assistance from mall owners.
Saulsberry opened Afro-centrics in 1996 but was never given more than a four-month lease. The lease required a monthly lease payment, plus a percentage of his sales. The lease did not include his utilities. Afro-Centrics sold fraternity-based clothing and novelties so its general sales did not meet mall expectations. The four month lease meant he could easily be evicted if a better tenant came along.
Around 2002 another tenant with higher retail sales potential wanted Saulberry’s slot and the mall gave him a two-week notice to move out, after six-years.
The Free Press, the local NAACP and other groups accused mall owners of racism and the mall backtracked. It offered Saulsberry a permanent lease, but the rent was set at $5,000 month, plus a percentage of his sales. The increased cost pushed him out. The mall was not willing to work with any small businesses.
Poe’s, Cafe Roma’ suffered a similar fate. High rent, percentage of sales, and dining area cleanup fees, was just too much for an otherwise flourishing pizza business.
The advent of e-commerce is slaughtering malls across the nation as America turns away from large retail centers to e-commerce.
Most of the 517 African-American businesses in Monroe are small mom-and-pop operations offering services and e-commerce based retail. The retail operations are avoiding high monthly overhead with websites that offer fingertip shopping and same-day deliveries. Many of them operate from home.
Small retail businesses locally have latched on to the national underground trend of staging “Pop ups.” A pop-up is a one-day in-person sales event. A large number of e-commerce and home-based retailers will show up to the one-day event that attracts large crowds thanks to social media. The businesses pay small fees of $50-$75 to participate.
At present, the Mall only has five Big names as tenants: Belks, J.C. Penny, Dillards, Dicks, and Burlington. The others have moved out including McDonald’s. All are victims of the changing retail market. Customers can buy online and get it delivered to their door, cheaper and with less hassle.
Malls are reconfiguring themselves to attract tech-savvy tenants who can compete in the digital age.
Brookfield Properties is targeting minority startups. It will train them, and even provide them with initial financial backing and special help. That’s a good thing. It would have been even better in 1985 when it opened or in 1996 when the community protested its refusal to help blacks.
Now that malls are about to become retail dinosaurs in markets like Monroe, the company wants black businesses to flock to its empty parking lots, pay extremely high rent, and sell the same products they can drop ship from home with little or no overhead.
Good luck with that!
