Moorestown Mall owner PREIT plans food market, new-to-region stores at former Macy's

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust plans to buy the former Macy's building at Moorestown Mall from the department-store chain and redevelop the site for a food market and two other retailers.

PREIT and Macy's have reached an agreement on the property's sale and are exchanging documents concerning the transaction, Joseph Coradino, chief executive of the Philadelphia-based mall owner, said in a conference call with analysts Wednesday.

Plans call for dividing the building in three, with two of the spaces going to retailers that Coradino said do not now have a presence in the region. One of the two will be among the first of its kind in the country, he said.

The food market will occupy the third space.

Earlier this year, Cincinnati-based Macy's announced that 68 locations, including Moorestown, would be shuttered to cut costs. A Macy's Inc. spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the deal with PREIT.

During the conference call, Coradino also said that discussions are underway about adding a residential component to PREIT's redevelopment of the former Gallery at Market East shopping mall in Center City.

That property is being transformed into an outlet center for high-end brands that PREIT and its Santa Monica, Calif.-based development partner, Macerich, have named the Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia.

Other area malls owned by PREIT include Cherry Hill and Willow Grove Park and Plymouth Meeting in Montgomery County.  A Macy's store also close at Plymouth Meeting.

PREIT chief financial officer Robert McCadden said during the call that a new "entertainment concept" had been signed at Plymouth Meeting, where the region's first Legoland Discovery Center began operating earlier this month, but he did not provide any other details. It was not clear where in the mall the new feature would be.