A Dick’s House of Sport planned for the vacant Sears spot at Westmoreland Mall would be the second House of Sport concept store in the Pittsburgh region.
It also follows a trend as malls evolve to remain relevant in the wake of the collapse of former retail giants like Sears.
“Changing consumer habits continue to drive the need for malls and retailers to offer newness and innovation,” said Stephanie Cegielski, vice president of research and public relations for the trade group the International Council of Shopping Centers. “Smaller stores typically can navigate changes more quickly and adapt with less investment than larger stores.”
Dick’s is not alone in its strategy of filling a vacant anchor tenant space.
“Malls are filling vacated spaces with larger footprint retailers that can use just one of the two floors that anchor tenants occupied,” said Cegielski. “The space would be separated and filled by two tenants rather than just one.
“We continue to see demand from consumers for convenient services like wellness, health care and child care, as well as entertainment options like arcades and food-and-beverage offerings that offer them the opportunity to spend time together with friends and family.”
Though he could not comment on specific mall properties, Mark Cohen, retired director of retail studies at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business, said such complexes that have transitioned to mixed use — perhaps filling vacant anchor retail spaces with offices — typically are not successful in increasing foot traffic for the remaining shops.
He questioned whether people who are primarily coming to a mall to spend time in a sports facility would also be interested in visiting its retail stores.
Some malls have replaced former department stores with video gaming venues, he said.
“That’s providing the mall owner with rent, but I don’t know if it’s driving traffic for the (retail) survivors in the mall,” Cohen said. “It’s a hit-or-miss process. It’s very difficult to foretell.”
The House of Sport concept stores are billed as places where weekend athletes and all-stars can scale a rock-climbing wall, practice baseball, softball, lacrosse, field hockey and soccer at a cage and golfers can perfect their swing, according to a real estate prospectus.
Dick’s wants to renovate the first floor of the former Sears, Roebuck & Co. anchor store at the mall to be home to its House of Sport that will give athletes of all levels an opportunity to try the gear and equipment before buying.
Dick’s has not made an announcement about the House of Sport but a real estate prospectus from Howard Hanna Real Estate Services of Pittsburgh is offering 78,000 square feet on the second floor of the old Sears store, with the enticement that the House of Sport is planned.
Kevin Langholz, Howard Hanna commercial real estate agent, referred questions about the development to Findlay-based Dick’s Sporting Goods, did not return requests for comment.
For now, Dick’s has just one House of Sport store in Western Pennsylvania and that is located at Ross Park Mall in Ross, according to its website. That store opened this spring.
Dick’s has 17 House of Sport concepts and the Westmoreland store is not the only House of Sport that Dick’s intends to open in 2025, according to its third quarter report released last week. About 15 House of Sport stores will open in 2025, but did not specify when and where the stores would be opened, according to a report on its website.
Dick’s already has two of its stores in the Greensburg area. One sporting goods store is at the Westmoreland Crossing strip of stores behind Westmoreland Mall and another is along Route 30 west of Greensburg.
The sporting goods company, which posted $9.5 billion in sales in the first 39 weeks of this fiscal year, sees growth in the House of Sport concept, which it started in 2021. It anticipates having between 75 and 100 of those concept stores in three years, according to its 2003 annual report.
Dick’s will lease the first floor of the building that Sears had occupied as one of the four anchor stores when the mall opened in the mid-1970s. The Sears store was bought by Transformco Properties of Chicago in February 2019 and the store closed the following month.
Transformco announced in February 2024 it signed a lease with Dick’s to occupy 200,070-square-foot space on both floors of the building at the mall’s western end. By comparison, the space at Dick’s House of Sport at Ross Park Mall is about 100,000 square feet.
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The terms of the lease were not revealed, but Dick’s stated in a financial report that it leases substantially all of its stores and that its initial lease is typically 10-to-15 years in length.
Stacey Keating, a spokeswoman for CBL Properties of Chattanooga, Tenn. the mall owner, said she is aware that a Dick’s House of Sport is scheduled to occupy the first floor and the second floor will be available for leasing. Keating said she has no further details, since the building is not owned by CBL Properties.