Female students returning in the fall will have to look a little farther to buy clothes thanks to the closing of a prominent retailer.
Ma Jolie, an upscale women's clothing store on the corner of 37th and Walnut streets, shut down at the end of the school year, creating a major void in Sansom Common.
The store phone number has been disconnected, and repeated calls to Ma Jolie owners seeking comment were not returned.
Penn officials attributed the failure to the store, in part, especially because of the store's ritzy merchandise.
"Some of the merchandise was priced higher than [what] maybe the kind of expected clientele would want, but it was high quality merchandise," said Vice President of Business Services Leroy Nunery.
The corporate retail sector, hit by slowing economic growth and a falling stock market, has been hit hard recently, and that might explain Ma Jolie's closing.
Ma Jolie, which was opened in the fall of 1999, was one of the final retail additions to debut in the Sansom Common retail complex, which includes the Inn at Penn, shoe retailer Steve Madden, the Penn Bookstore and the Ivy Grille.
Ma Jolie was different than the other retailers from the beginning because it was an independent operator, while most of the other stores in Sansom Common are chains.
Ma Jolie, founded in the 19'3 by three sisters -- Nickie, Desie and Marianne Boston -- will still retain its original store in Manayunk, which borders Montgomery County on Philadelphia's western edge.
However, Nunery said that people should not view the closing of one store as a detriment to Penn's efforts to boost retail around campus.
"What we can't lose sight of is that Sansom Common, and our whole effort to revive the retail base here, entails that -- like in the real world -- you're going to have some successes and some failures," Nunery said.
While plans have not been made on what will become of the space, Nunery added that whatever venue Penn brings to fill the space, there will be a lot of communication with students first.
"This gives us an opportunity to go back to the customer base and find out what it is [they] want and what future clients will want," Nunery said.
Penn will also not rush to fill the void left by Ma Jolie.
"We need to do some more homework," Nunery said. "It takes a long time to weed through tens of ideas to get one successful deal done."
Planning and construction for the $120 million Sansom Common originally started in 1996, built on top of a parking lot.
President Rodin described Sansom Common at the time as an "urban park" and likened it to Manayunk's Main Street.
