by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The music is about to stop at the Jacksonville Landing.
Musicland inside the downtown mall will shut its doors. The move is part of a nationwide series of closures by parent company Musicland Holding Corp., which has been driven into bankruptcy by increased competition from big box retailers and the Internet.
Signs at the store’s Landing entrances advertise discounts of 30-50 percent on the store’s inventory. Everything from CDs and video games to DVD porn is selling at a one-third discount until the store closes.
Landing General Manager Janice Lowe expects the store to close in early March. Musicland occupies 2,200 square feet. Lowe said the space is one of the Landing’s best locations. The entrances, one inside and one leading to the mall’s courtyard breezeway, make the space accessible and suitable for an array of tenants, she said.
Lowe said the Landing is looking for a replacement.
“It’s a great location, with the right tenant in there, it could really be something,” she said. “We’re going to look at this as an opportunity.”
The space sits adjacent to a 6,000 square foot vacant space. Lowe said the parcels could be packaged together or rented separately, giving her flexibility in marketing the spaces.
Lowe said she didn’t know how the Landing’s current dispute with the City will affect the search for a new tenant. After months of negotiations the City recently scrapped a real estate deal with Landing owner Toney Sleiman. And the City is still in default to Sleiman on an agreement to provide parking.
“I don’t know what the effect will be. I guess we’ll find out,” she said.
Lowe might not know the impact of recent headlines, but the parking is a two-decade-old problem that Lowe said would continue to be a challenge in drawing new tenants.
“Not having parking is always an issue,” she said.
Musicland’s parent company cited growing retail and Internet competition as reasons for filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Musicland Holding operates retail stores Sam Goody, Suncoast and MediaPlay in addition to its namesake. Including online outlets, Musicland Holding ran more than 800 retail venues.
Lowe said the closures are evidence of a changing dynamic. Malls are no longer thought of as destinations for music shopping, she said. A teenager looking for a chart-topping song is more likely to head to Best Buy or Wal-Mart, or download it from the Internet.
“I mean, what is a music store any more?” she said. “People don’t go to the mall like they used to to buy music. Now they go to Best Buy. Most malls obviously can’t accommodate a big box retailer.”