MALL SALES FLOURISH DURING '95

Despite the sluggish Christmas sales season in Cape Girardeau, West Park Mall celebrated a good year in 1995.

While malls and retail outlets nationwide were reporting a dip in sales during the holiday season and an overall decline in 1995, West Park Mall was pleased with the 1995 figures as they were tallied.

Suzanne Yoder, the director of marketing, said of the 25 centers and malls owned by the parent company, West Field Inc., West Park Mall was ranked fourth in sales per square feet last year.

That figure is remarkable when taking into consideration that the mall is the second-smallest mall in the company's chain and competes with malls in larger markets like Los Angeles and St. Louis.

"We did well compared to the other malls," she said. "We were even up from a year ago."

Not only is the management at West Park Mall pleased, Yoder said many of the 75 merchants are happy. She said those merchants talk to merchants at sister stores in larger markets that aren't doing as well as the stores in the Cape Girardeau mall.

"A lot of our merchants are pleased," she said. "Our corporate office is pleased too."

In 1995, six stores opened their doors in the mall including The Buckle and McDonald's Express. "They're doing really well," Yoder said.

Three businesses left the mall in 1995 when their leases expired including Mercantile Bank. "But the ATM machine is still there," Yoder said.

Space for seven businesses remains at the mall.

Yoder said the mall has a 95 percent occupancy rate, which leaves a 5 percent vacancy rate.20"That's extremely low," she said. "But we have a very aggressive leasing agent who has a goal of 100 percent occupancy."

The problems with achieving 100 percent occupancy have much to do with the location of the remaining spaces; much of the vacancies are in locations that aren't high-traffic areas.

"But we're trying to have events and displays in those areas to try and draw traffic through those wings," Yoder said.

She said the overall success of the mall has a lot to do with location.

"We're a little different because we're not in a metropolitan area," she said. "So there's not a mall every few miles."

The mall's primary coverage area serves more than 250,000 people, she said. And since West Park Mall is the only mall for several miles, it does a good business.