High-end shopping malls aimed at the top 5 or 10 percent of consumers are thriving even as shopping meccas targeting middle and lower income shoppers continue to struggle.

According to a report in the New York Times over the weekend, “about 80 percent of the country’s 1,200 malls are considered healthy, reporting vacancy rates of 10 percent or less. But that compares with 94 percent in 2006.”

Why the down-turn of the once venerable real estate segment?

Industry experts point to income disparity and online shopping as two of the the leading causes of mall’s nationwide demise.

Income disparity and online shopping however, don’t tell the entire picture.  While average weekly wage increases over the last ten years are flat and a growing number of consumers prefer the convenience of shopping online, only 10 percent of retail sales take place online and those sales, according to the New York Times report, “hit big-box stores harder, rather than the fashion chains and other specialty retailers in enclosed malls.”

The real culprit and why mega-malls continue to struggle across the country is the glut of retail stores, “the result of a long boom in building retail space of all kinds.”  The fashions and consumer goods once available only at mega-malls are now available in neighborhood strip malls closer to home.

The Exton Square Mall at the intersection of Route 30 and 100 in Exton, Chester County’s only mega-mall, has not been immune to the downward slopping shopping trends.  Despite losing J. C. Penney’s in March of 2014, the mall’s marketing team has aggressively pursued both traditional and non-traditional fixes to counteract national shopping trends.

The marketing team led by Mary Kay Owen, has aggressively marketed its location and county demographics, including an average countywide household income of $84,000, a statistic that ranks Chester County in the top 50 counties in the United States, to retailers attracting several new retail chains and the Red Star Craft House, a new destination restaurant, in the last year.

In addition, the mall’s marketing staff beefed up its community calendar, offering an array of special events and activities including college fairs, art exhibits and puppet shows in an effort to draw shoppers,

In 2014 mall management reached beyond its traditional retail roots, creating space for Main Line Health to open an outpatient center offering same-day appointments and complimentary valet patient parking.

The strategy seems to be working.  On Monday Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), the Philadelphia-based company that owns Exton Square Mall and 30 million sq. ft. of retail space in a dozen states, announce it intended to sell five of their troubled Pennsylvania shopping centers.

Significantly, Exton Square Mall was not on the list of PREIT properties getting a “For Sale” sign.

This excerpt from the Philly.com blurb describing PREIT’s announcement:

Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, the Philadelphia shopping-center landlord that owns the Gallery at Market East, Cherry Hill, Willow Grove and other area malls, said today it is looking for buyers for five more of its Pennsylvania centers: Springfield Park, a strip of stores near Baltimore Pike in Delaware County; Palmer Park, Easton; Uniontown Mall, Uniontown; Lycoming Mall, Williamsport; and Washington Crown Center, Washington, Pa.

Exton Square’s management team continues to be confident of their property’s future with PREIT.

“Exton Square Mall is perfectly positioned,” according to Owen, “from location to short- and long-term planning, Exton Square Mall will remain an integral and successful part of PREIT.

“From the recent success of Main Line Health in 2014 to the opening of Red Star Craft House last month, our future with PREIT is on firm ground.”

Read more about the state of mega-malls in the New York Times here and PREIT’s announcement to put five properties up for sale on philly.com here.