HUMMELS WHARF – Despite the imminent closure of two stores at Monroe Marketplace in Hummels Wharf, the head of the Greater Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce says he has no broad concerns about the shopping plaza’s future. Chamber President and CEO Bob Garrett didn’t have a comment on the lease issue that forced the closure of Bed Bath & Beyond.
When it comes to the Staples closure, Garrett says that’s simply from retail’s competitive nature, “Social media, with online marketing, with bricks and mortar marketing, with delivery services, all those sort of things…and what we know is you have to do them all, and you have to do them all well, and if you don’t do them well, you have a competitor right down the road that’s going to be willing to do it better than you do it.”
Garrett says the biggest reason why’s there’s no concern about Monroe Marketplace’s future is its location, “They’re very strong, very easy to market…location, location, location, location…that’s what we’re talking about. Monroe Marketplace is that place, and I’m quite certain that another company will move into those areas once those stores are vacated.”
Garrett even projects a very prosperous future for the shopping plaza when the ongoing CSVT project is complete, “We have characterized the golden strip as it will become the new main street of the greater Susquehanna Valley. Once we get that mix of commercial traffic and get that heavy truck traffic off of that highway and onto the thruway, I think what you’ll see is a boom, a renaissance of that area.”
Both Staples and Bed Bath & Beyond are expected to close in early 2019.
