CRANBERRY, Pa. (EYT) – With ideas to bring light manufacturing companies and a variety of local trendy stores in the mix, the managers at the Cranberry Mall are hoping for a brighter future.

(PICTURED ABOVE: Cranberry Mall Manager Jeffrey Clark and Assistant Manager Linda Walker.)

With the closure of three anchor stores—JCPenney, Sears, and Bon Ton—all happening within the past five years, many residents have found themselves asking how the Cranberry Mall can remain in business.

Struggling malls and mall closures are nothing unique to the area.

According to a published article in USA Today, this trend is amplified in rural regions due to the economic distress that already exists there.

“National retail distress is emptying rural regional malls, experts say. But long-term economic deterioration is driving their inability to bounce back,” one report claims.

According to mall manager Jeffrey Clark, the Cranberry Mall is actively attempting to combat this and bounce back in after what can only be described as a rough few years.

“We’ve been getting a few (stores), then it so happens you’ll lose a big one,” Clark told exploreVenango.com.

Nevertheless, Clark says the mall is only going through a phase and will soon bounce back.

Clark, who has worked at the Cranberry Mall for 34 years, has been in management since 2014, so he has seen how the economy dominates the ups and downs of the mall traffic.

“In the middle nineties is when everything started to boom (at the mall), and then it’s bounced around. From the nineties, it went really good, then in the early 2000’s, it took a little dive down, then it came back up.

“It all regulates basically…around the economy.”

Clark explained that a few local individuals have opened stores in the mall in the past few years helping the mall take an upswing in business.

“It’s coming back because we’ve opened up a few stores here in the past years, and they’re basically local people — which is good.”

“It’s fluctuating,” Clark added.

The Cranberry Mall isn’t just hoping for a comeback but is actively doing things to make that happen.

According to Clark, the mall has added trendy new stores like Thriftology, Kreative Kuts, and even a martial arts studio just within the past few years.

The Cranberry Mall also has businesses that have been around for a while that attract individuals from the region, such as God’s Little Garden and Cranberry Wellness Center.

Calvin and Paula Bickel opened God’s Little Garden in the Cranberry Mall in the early 2000’s.

Cranberry Wellness Center hung its shingle in 2009 when the Bickels realized there was a need in the local community for somewhere to go for natural health and wellness.

Both stores are co-located in the Cranberry Mall.

Thinking outside the box, the Cranberry Mall is trying to draw new types of businesses that some might not think of as classic mall stops.

Clark explained that the mall is attempting to get rezoned so that they can bring light manufacturing sites to the mall.

“We are in the process of working on getting (the zoning) changed to a multi-use so it covers everything,” Clark said.

“We’re going to have to rezone the Cranberry Mall.

“It’s good for retail and what we have, but it’s not zoned for the industrial end of it,” explained Clark.

The attempts to bring in manufacturing will focus on the old Sears Auto Center due to the loading docks present in the old storefront.

“I’m hoping once we open it up, we’ll probably get more responses,” added Clark.

For more information on the Cranberry Mall, visit their Facebook page here.