Gardners Candies plans return to Galleria; roller rink opens, selfie museum slated for summer

Reporter

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Gardners Candies will return to The Johnstown Galleria in the third or fourth quarter of the year, company officials said.

The confirmation from Gardners, which had left the mall five years ago, is the latest in a succession of businesses populating the mall at 500 Galleria Drive, Richland Township.

The Galleria is becoming a place to shop at boutiques, take photos with friends at the selfie museum, go roller-skating or grab a bite to eat at one of the half-dozen options at the food court – maybe a platter of everything from Eat & Sleep Latin American Food. Cooking tasty, healthy food from her Puerto Rican culture is a passion of chef Dorcas Rodriguez.

Or visitors can go straight to dessert at the Sweet Spot ice cream shop.

Visitors will soon be able to get acupuncture therapy at the mall, pick up some groceries from a mini-market and stop at Gardners Candies on the way out.

By the summer, a young couple will have opened a selfie museum – a combination of a photo booth and a gallery of art installations that has been growing in popularity nationwide.

"The mall used to be a cool, fun place, but over the years it died down," said Brittni Banda, 29. "We want to see it come back to life."

James Barnes (left) and Brittni Banda are opening a selfie museum and boutique at the Johnstown Galleria this summer. The photo-booth/art installation museum combination is one of a growing number of businesses populating the mall.

Banda, a Johnstown native, and her partner James Barnes, of North Carolina, are working daily toward opening That's It! Selfie Museum and Boutique on the lower level of the mall.

"I’ve been coming to Johnstown with Brittni for seven years, and I’ve always said it looks as if it just needs life," Barnes said. "Seven years I’ve been saying that I see the potential here."

Local entrepreneur Jacob Moore opened the Glow Roller skating rink in the mall within the past month. It's open every day from noon to 4 p.m., with an hour break before it reopens from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

In addition to modern businesses, the 126-year-old tradition of Gardners Candies is set to make a comeback to the mall as early as September or later in the fourth quarter of the year, Gardners President Joe DeStadio said.

Based in Blair County, Gardners Candies has multiple retail locations, none of which are in enclosed shopping malls anymore. Last year, Gardners moved out of the Logan Valley Mall in Altoona – the company's most recent mall departure.

But Gardners is committed to returning to the Galleria from College Park Plaza in Richland Township, which has been the store's location for the past five years, DeStadio said.

"Is it risky? Probably," DeStadio said, "but anymore it's risky wherever you go. I think this is a little bit different move. It's going to surprise people. We were leaving all mall locations because, in general, malls are not the place to go anymore."

However, DeStadio said he's hoping to be part of the Galleria's "chapter two."

The Galleria had been the picture of Americana in the ’90s, but as enclosed malls nationwide struggled to keep up with changing tastes of shoppers, the Galleria was no exception. The mall struggled for years with millions of dollars of debt and ownership held by distant corporate entities while local Zamias Services managed leases.

When the mall went into receivership in 2020, a step that preceded foreclosure, then-Zamias president Joe Anthony said the process could be a good thing – with bad debt gone, a new owner could start anew.

That new owner is Florida transplant and developer Leo Karruli, who bought the mall for more than $3 million through an online auction last August after banks foreclosed on previous owners.

The changes Karruli made have been tangible: a food court that was all but empty about year ago is now full of tenants, and new shops are populating previously vacant spaces.

With every interview Karruli takes, he mentions at least one new tenant. On Thursday, he said an acupuncturist has signed a lease for a space next to the former Sears location.

The fountain outside of the Boscov's department store is flowing again, the children's jungle gym is fixed, and local businesses that have been loyal mall tenants through the years have gotten more advantageous locations within the mall.

"I’d like to bring everybody back," Karruli said.

Karruli cold-called Gardners last month.

"I was not aware he purchased it or was even associated with it," DeStadio said of Karruli. "He cold-called. ... We made arrangements to meet and looked around, saw some spaces we’d be interested in. He is very easy to work with. ... He's willing to allow the tenant to create parameters of the lease, rather than vice versa. He's unlike other landlords that are supposed to be in your corner, but are really in the corner of the almighty dollar.

"There's a lot of work he needs to do there, and he understands that. He's willing to do whatever it takes to get tenants back in there. We spoke with a current tenant, and they had nothing but good things to say."

Russ O'Reilly is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @RussellOReilly.

The storefront for the new Sweet Spot ice cream and candy shop at The Johnstown Galleria simply didn't exist a few weeks ago. The mall seems to have grown it out of nowhere.

Reporter

Russ O'Reilly is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @RussellOReilly.

Johnstown Magazine is a positive and forward-thinking monthly publication for the people of our region.

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