Center of concern [The Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.]

Nov. 13--EDWARDSVILLE -- Two months after the September flood, the Mark Plaza shopping center off Route 11 remains shuttered and fenced off, leaving some tenants uncertain about their future. --The 216,000-square-foot complex, which prior to the flooding housed anchor stores Kmart and Redner's Warehouse Market and six other businesses, took on at least 8 feet of water when the Susquehanna River crested on Sept 9.

Long John Silver's restaurant, located in a standalone building across the parking lot from the main strip mall, has reopened, but the other stores remain closed and cordoned off by a high chain-link fence.

A building permit for a new Kmart sign has been filed with the borough -- an optimistic sign, Borough Manager Charlie Szalkowski said -- but no other permit applications have been made.

Some of the building's tenants said they aren't sure how long they can wait for the center to reopen.

Diane Cowman's drop-in daycare center, PlayCare, opened just a month before the flooding totally destroyed the business. She said she was allowed into the store about a week after the flood to recover property and equipment, but since then she has not had any contact with the landlord, White Plains, N.Y.-based Acadia Realty Trust, leaving her frustrated and contemplating relocation.

"Unfortunately, the realty company has not had any contact with me since the week after the flood," Cowman said. "They have not made any attempt or responded to any attempts to determine the status there about reopening -- nothing."

Cowman said she has begun looking at other storefronts, even though she may be bound by a lease to pay rent at Mark Plaza should it reopen. She said she did not have flood insurance for the business.

"We can't continue to hang in limbo," Cowman said. "That's why I've begun to look at reopening other places."

Acadia Realty Trust'sKingston office and the person listed on the company's website as the contact for Mark Plaza referred comment about the center to Senior Vice President of Investor Relations John Grisham. Grisham did not reply to voice mail and email messages left Wednesday and Thursday.

Larry Barnes, owner of That Bounce Place, an indoor inflatable amusement park and bounce-house rental agency, has temporarily relocated his business to the Merchants' Village complex in Pittston Township.

But he said he is anxious to return to because he has lost much of the customer base he had built in the area.

"We're doing about 15 to 20 percent of the business that we would be doing if we were in Edwardsville," he said. "We normally book 18 to 20 parties a week, and we're booking 3 to 6 a week up here ... Every day kids coming to bounce are virtually nonexistent, versus a few hundred a week in Edwardsville."

Barnes said his property losses in the flood were insured, but the revenue he has lost is not covered by his insurance policy. He said he would like to relocate to a permanent storefront closer to Mark Plaza but is locked into a lease with no escape clause or language specifying the amount of time Acadia has to rebuild.

Redner's Warehouse Markets spokesman Eric White said both Redner's and Acadia are going through a mediation process with their insurance companies, and that the store remains "in a holding pattern," until that process has been resolved. He said Redner's is bound by lease to rent the location should the shopping center reopen, and added that all Redner's employees were offered jobs at other local Redner's locations.

At least one tenant has already called it quits at Mark Plaza.

In a letter dated Nov. 7 sent to former customers with a coupon for the chain's Wilkes-Barre Township store, store leader Kimberly Walker announced that Payless would close its shoe store in Mark Plaza.

Payless spokeswoman Sacheen Cicero said Payless, which operates about 4,000 stores, cannot comment on individual store openings, closings and relocations.

Mark Plaza tenants Kmart, Rent A Center and Dollar General did not respond to requests for comment. In addition to those tenants, there are five vacant storefronts ranging in size from 1,500 square-feet to 12,126 square feet.

Borough officials said both residents and Edwardsville's municipal government are anxiously waiting and hoping for the center to reopen.

Mayor Bernard Dubaskas said he is hoping for the center to return but hasn't heard from Acadia.

"I wish they'd come back next week," Dubaskas said. "A lot of people stop me and say, 'You know mayor, I miss Redner's; I miss Kmart.'

"Our patrol cars go down there every once and a while to see how they're doing, and nothing's doing," he continued. "Honestly I wish I knew one way or another ... What I see is nothing going on; nothing at all. No kind of equipment in there. I don't know what they're waiting on."

Borough Manager Szalkowski said the borough stands to lose a significant sum in real estate, personnel, local services and sales taxes if the center shuts down, and that the shopping center was also a major contributor to the borough's recycling program, which helps generate state grant revenue.

The shopping center is assessed at $5.5 million in total value, according to county data, and should pay approximately $121,350 in school, local and county taxes this calendar year.

"The impact is there," Szalkowski said. "It's a fair amount of money; something we would depend on ... Hopefully, they're coming back. It just looks like it might not be until next year sometime. That's definitely going to have an impact on the next couple of months."

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