HIGH POINT — At a time when the pressing debate locally centers on the city’s economic future and getting High Pointers to shop locally, one major retail property just keeps on humming.
Jack O’Rourke, the managing partner for High Point Mall on Eastchester Drive near the intersection with N. Main Street, recently recruited Staples to relocate its city store to his shopping center.
Staples, which is now on N. Main at Hartley Drive, will fill a space vacated earlier this year by Home Goods next to T.J. Maxx.
“It will be a new state-of-the-art store,” O’Rourke told The High Point Enterprise. “They like the location.”
When Staples relocates this fall to a 14,000-square-foot space, High Point Mall will return to its 100 percent occupancy that has been the track record at the shopping center for the past several years, O’Rourke said. High Point Mall’s other tenants include one of the city’s two Harris-Teeter supermarkets and a Ross Dress for Less clothing store.
“We have a location that’s very accessible and visible. And we’ve put tenants together that’s a dream list,” he said.
In addition to recruiting Staples, O’Rourke is investing in an upgrade to the driveway that connects the front and rear of High Point Mall, which covers 200,000 enclosed square feet over 15 acres.
O’Rourke approached the neighboring Seventh Day Adventist Church about purchasing an easement of church property to widen the driveway and put in a new retaining wall. The work, taking place now, will widen the driveway by 10 feet.
“It’s used a lot,” O’Rourke said about the driveway. “I’ve got a good relationship with the church, and this will improve the drainage on the church property.”
The fate of High Point Mall is a turnaround from when O’Rourke assumed control of the outdoor shopping center in a foreclosure purchase 21 years ago. A week after O’Rourke began operating the shopping center, he lost a major tenant and the mall was half vacant.
But O’Rourke, who lives in Charlotte, had faith in the city and the prime location of High Point Mall near the intersection of two major roadways. He’s steadily built up a mix of tenants who have prospered.
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