Is Target Targeting a Milwaukee Mall?

Target Corp. (Minneapolis) has reportedly been in talks with Southridge Mall in Milwaukee about taking over the vacant anchor space formerly occupied by a Younkers department store. The report indicates that either a Target store or a Marshall Field's store would be the likely new tenant for the 210,000-square-foot space.

An agreement would be complicated, according to sources, because Saks Inc. (Birmingham, Ala.), Younkers'parent company, has a long-term lease on the space. Also, Boston Store, another Saks Inc. subsidiary, is an anchor tenant at Southridge.

Saks closed two Younkers stores in Milwaukee in early 2000 because of an overlap with various Boston Stores in the area. Both former Younkers stores have remained vacant since then, though Saks Inc. continues to pay the rent. Edward P. Carroll Jr., executive vp of marketing for Saks'Carson Pirie Scott & Co. division (which also operates Boston Store), said Saks would be willing to sublease the space to an acceptable tenant.

Interestingly, the mall store space — originally a Gimbels department store – was also a Marshall Field's store from 1986 to 1992. The Field's store was closed when the owner of the building sold it to Younkers, then an independent Des Moines, Iowa-based department store chain, in 1992. Younkers became part of the retail chain now known as Saks Inc. in 1996. Citing that history, several industry sources said Target Corp. would be more likely to want to place a Target store there rather than a Marshall Field's. But they also said Target was “less desirable” as a tenant. “Target can hurt the other retailers in the mall,” said a local real estate expert. “It sells such a breadth of merchandise.”

Nearly all the parties – from Target Corp., Marshall Field's, Saks Inc., the owner of the building and the mall itself – have refused to confirm the rumors, first reported in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.