The Wyoming Valley Mall, outside of Wilkes-Barre, PA, began construction in 1968 on land previously owned by the Blue Coal Corporation. Sears was the first of four anchors to open in 1971 and even opened before the mall itself. Zollinger and a short-lived Pomeroy's served as two other anchors, with JCPenney becoming the fourth in spring 1972. The Zollinger space became a Hess's department store in 1978 and later likely became a Kaufman's to eventually become a Macy's as it is today. Bon Ton took over the Pomeroy's space in 1971.
The mall saw a major renovation in 2006 and a H&M was added in 2017 causing a few tenants to relocate. The mall has been on a downward trend since losing both Sears and Bon-Ton in 2018 and even more so when PREIT turned over the mall to its lender in fall 2019.
I've visited the mall two times- once in 2015 and later in 2019. You could tell a lot had happened during that time frame. This first batch is from 2015:
Bon-Ton updated this store to have a new logo signage before the chain went bankrupt and shuttered.
Ashley Homestore (previously HH Gregg) relocated here next to OfficeMax after its former location was destroyed by a June 2018 tornado. Both Ashley and OfficeMax are located in the mall parking lot by Macy's.Sadly, this OfficeMax will soon close.
As for the future of the mall,