More
than a dozen stores have closed at a shopping center on Kissena
Boulevard in Queens. The remaining store owners in the Kew Gardens Hills mall say they do
not know how much longer they can survive in a shopping center with so
few stores. A spokesperson for the center’s leasing agent Pelcorp
Management, said the landlord is not trying to force businesses out to
sell the property, and that they are actively looking for new tenants.
The spokesperson said the stores were left empty because the anchor
tenant, National Wholesale Liquidators, was expected to expand and
renovate the space, but the company filed for bankruptcy a few months
ago. Pelcorp is now talking to other national retailers about becoming
an anchor tenant.