Retail slump hits area malls hard

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, May, 2009 | by Maria Panaritis Inquirer Staff Writer

Struggling retailers have delivered a blow to the Gallery at Market East in recent months, leaving empty storefronts just as casino investors eye the Center City mall as a potential home to a gambling hall.

The Gallery is among several area malls owned by Ronald Rubin's company, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, that had trouble during the last quarter.

They are victims of the recession, which recently sent one of the nation's largest mall owners, General Growth Properties Inc., into bankruptcy. PREIT said it was considering selling assets to generate cash.

"The majority of the store closings . . . have been part of tenant bankruptcies," PREIT's president and chief operating officer, Edward A. Glickman, told analysts in a call.

"These are difficult...