The developer said he also wants the malls to be more community oriented. If some organization wants to have a bake sale and set up tables over the weekend in the hallway of the mall that will be great with us. We're going to be as open and accessible as we can to the community. Commenting on the mall's background, O'Neill said he hopes the community will support the mall's new ownership. The community maybe hasn't supported the mall to the level that most communities do.
Any mall is more or less the economic center, from a retail standpoint, of a community.
We've got to make a commitment to the people of Palatka and Putnam County to give them some things that will make them want to patronize the mall. Because the mall has been lacking tenants for years, the community has become used to it not being the retail center of Putnam County. A lot of chain retailers when they breeze through town in a few hours and they see a mall that's been distressed to that level it sends a huge red flag to them. We deal in a lot of other communities that are no bigger than Palatka that have an assortment of retailers that are missing from your community. I think the situation with the mall has been a pretty big contributing factor to that.