March 23, 2001
Peebles store waiting results on Stage
By Jefferson Wolfe
Staff Writer
If a court approves the results of the auction, the Stage store in Westgate Village Shopping Center soon will be a Peebles.
The lease of Tiffin's store was one of nine acquired by the South Hill, Va.-based department store chain, said Steve Hannah, vice president of sales and promotions for Peebles.
"It is pending a formal approval by the court in early April," he said. "If there are no problems that come up there, then we'll acquire those locations."
Peebles and The Dunlap Co., of Fort Worth, Texas, were the bidders on the lease, said Michael Fratus, director of operations for Visconsi Cos., which operates Westgate.
"We're still waiting to hear from Peebles as far as what their plans are," he said "They definitely are a good department store operation."
Toni Darr, the manager of the Tiffin Stage store, said Thursday the store had not been notified of the auction's results.
After Stage announced it was closing, Stage employee Paulette Shaw had circulated petitions asking Westgate Village and the Chamber of Commerce to replace it with a similar store.
"Actually, I'm extremely happy about it," Shaw said. "This is great. This is great for the community."
Shaw has never been in a Peebles store.
"All we knew was it was kind of similar to what Stage is," she said.
Peebles has four stores in Ohio, in Alliance, Chardon, Madison and Washington Court House.
Peebles stores carry men's, women's and childrens' clothes, accessories and shoes, as does Stage. They also carry home fashions.
"There are similarities," Hannah said.
The first Peebles store was opened in 1891 by W.S. Peebles Sr. By 1930, there were two more stores.
Now, it operates more than 120 stores in 15 states: New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, West Virginia, Missouri and Indiana.
Stage Stores filed for bankruptcy in June 2000. Stage announced in January that Tiffin's store would be closing, as the company filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
The lease on Tiffin's Stage store was one of 118 leases in 16 states that the Houston-based chain auctioned.