HESS'S TO REMAIN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993                   TAG: 9302170066
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
HESS'S TO REMAIN
Hess's Department Store Inc. said Tuesday it will continue operating at New River Valley Mall despite plans to close its other Virginia outlets.
Tom Sheets, manager of the shopping center, said one reason the store has been spared is because Hess's parent, Crown American Corp., owns New River Valley Mall.
"To assert that this store would close without a replacement tenant is absolutely absurd," he said, adding that Hess's still could close the store.
"It is being looked at, but right now that remains a rumor," he said.
Wayne Holben, director of public relations for Allentown, Pa.-based Hess's, declined to comment on the future of the Christiansburg store.
He did say that the chain plans to close its remaining Virginia stores. On Monday, Hess's said it would close its two remaining stores in the Richmond market. The chain closed a third Richmond store last month and it has announced plans to close its six Tidewater stores.
As recently as two years ago, the 76-store Hess's chain had 14 stores in Virginia: nine in the Tidewater area, three in Richmond and one each in Christiansburg and Bristol.
Tennessee-based Proffit's Inc. department store chain has taken over six Hess's locations - five in Tidewater and the Bristol store - and Leggett will lease one of the Richmond locations.
Holben, wouldn't say which, if any, retailers would move into the other stores that Hess's will vacate.
Tom Thomson, senior vice president and retail analyst for Wheat First Securities in Richmond, said Hess's Virginia stores were a victim of intense retail competition in Richmond and Hampton Roads.
"They have always been sort of a second- or third-tier department store," he said. "What we are seeing is a survival of the fittest."
Having only one Virginia location will put a strain on Hess's efforts to stock the Christiansburg store and could be a reason to close it, Thomson said.
It's "quite unusual" for a mall to own one of its anchor stores, Thomson said. "Closing the store could destroy the mall."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB