U. to fill most 3401 Walnut vacancies

Salad Express will open in the food court, and the Gap could expand to include Foot Locker's space. The game of musical shops continues at the 3401 Walnut Street complex. Recent retailers in motion include Salad Express, which will soon replace Everything Yogurt in the food court; Foot Locker, expected to depart in the near future; and the adjacent Gap, which may expand its existing store, University officials said yesterday. Penn is also negotiating with University Jewelers, currently located on 37th and Walnut streets, to fill the location formerly housing Metro Hair. Penn recently decided not to renew the leases of four retailers in the complex -- Metro Hair, Software Etc., Everything Yogurt and Bain's Deli -- in an effort to change the retail mix in the building. Those departures brought the total number of vacancies in the complex to five, including the storefront vacated by Sam Goody in January 1997. If all goes as planned, the changes may cut total vacancies in the complex to two, leaving only the Sam Goody and Bain's Deli sites vacant. Salad Express has signed a lease to replace Everything Yogurt in the food court, Penn Managing Director of Real Estate Tom Lussenhop said. He said construction on the site will begin soon. No plans have been announced to fill the vacancy left by neighboring Bain's Deli. Lussenhop said negotiations with several possible vendors are ongoing. Lussenhop also said Penn will terminate Foot Locker's lease in the coming months. That will create room for a possible expansion of the neighboring Gap store into the Foot Locker site and an adjacent vacant site previously occupied by Software Etc. Foot Locker's lease is currently renewed on a month-by-month basis, Lussenhop said. Such a leasing arrangement is typical near the end of a long-term, multi-year lease. Leases typically require 45 to 60 days notice of termination. Lussenhop could not comment on the specific provisions of the Foot Locker lease, but did say that notice of termination had not yet been given. Store employees and officials at Foot Locker's corporate headquarters in New York said that they had not heard anything about the University's plans for the store. A second storefront in the complex, previously occupied by Metro Hair, may be filled by University Jewelers, presently located at 3734 Walnut Street in The Book Store building. Lussenhop said Penn has submitted a lease proposal to University Jewelers. The store will lose its current site when The Book Store building on the 3700 block of Walnut Street is demolished this fall to make way for a new building for the Wharton School. The Book Store, currently located in the Plaza, will move this summer to a larger location in the Sansom Common project on the 3600 block of Walnut Street. Lois Green, who owns University Jewelers with her husband, said she sent Penn a letter responding to its lease offer. The letter suggested some minor adjustments, she said. But the couple has not heard from University City Associates in two weeks. UCA, Penn's for-profit real estate arm, is conducting the negotiations. "Right now, we're playing a waiting game," Green said. Officials at UCA were unavailable for comment on the status of the negotiations. Green said that if the 3401 Walnut complex space doesn't work out, University Jewelers is out of other options. "There aren't any [vacancies] on campus, and our business needs to be on campus," she said.