SCRANTON -- The Mall at Steamtown will soon welcome a new tenant -- a fitness center -- and it represents a shift for the struggling mall that came under new ownership earlier this year.
The mall's new owner announced Wednesday that Crunch Fitness, a national chain, will open up a gym in the part of the mall that runs over Lackawanna Avenue.
It's the second new tenant that has signed on since the new owner took over the mall.
The Final Cut barber shop has watched the Mall at Steamtown's steady decline in its four years as a tenant. The shop is surrounded by empty storefronts, but that will soon change once construction starts in this storefront.
"It's good for the mall," said Omar Padilla. "New store for the mall, it's different, something different."
One of the largest storefronts will soon see a lot more foot traffic when Crunch Fitness, a national gym chain, moves into the area of the mall that goes over Lackawanna Avenue.
When the Mall at Steamtown was built in the early 1990s, the part over Lackawanna Avenue was intended to be a bridge connecting the mall to other shopping areas in downtown Scranton. It never worked out that way.
The area was a Steve and Barry's, and most recently, Boscov's Furniture Outlet.
There aren't a lot of stores left in the Mall at Steamtown since it was sold at auction earlier this year. Some think a fitness center is the change of pace the mall needs.
"I believe so, it will be beneficial," said Keyser Ray Leepier. "The mall is there and then there will be different places where people can come and, you know, do different things."
Different things: that's what many people who live downtown have hoped for. Downtown Scranton has become a bigger neighborhood in the years that the mall began to decline.
"We do need a grocery store. I think a gym is really great. I would have never thought of that. I think a big grocery store downtown would keep people from having to leave downtown to do anything."
Crunch Fitness plans to open its mall location in March of 2016.
The mall's new owner, John Basalyga, will own half of the Crunch Fitness franchise.
Since buying the mall this summer, Basalyga has also announced a new restaurant that will move into the mall.