Boscov's Inc. plans to open its stores at Monroeville Mall and South Hills Village in former Kaufmann's locations by late August with 800 employees, and it continues to search the region for locations for two more stores.
"We are currently renovating the two stores and have begun hiring and training the 400 employees to staff each store," said John Hlis, Boscov's senior vice president for real estate and development, on Thursday.
He said Boscov's is looking at other potential sites in the Pittsburgh market but declined to identify the areas.
There has been speculation in the Lower Burrell area that Boscov's might be interested in occupying one of two vacant stores there that formerly housed a JCPenney and a Montgomery Ward.
"We wanted to expand into the Pittsburgh market, and the availability of the two Kaufmann's stores made that possible," Hlis said.
Previously, Kenneth S. Lakin, Boscov's CEO, said, "In the Pittsburgh market, you need four to six stores. Two are not enough."
Boscov's, based in Reading, Berks County, already has stores at Clearview Mall in Butler and Beaver Valley Mall, Beaver County.
Tuesday, Boscov's completed the purchase of the former Kaufmann's stores at Monroeville Mall and South Hills Village for $34.6 million. The family-owned department store chain also bought eight others in Pennsylvania and Baltimore.
Those include three in Baltimore, one in the Allentown area, another in Altoona -- which is scheduled to open Aug. 11 -- and three in the Philadelphia area. All will be opened by Nov. 1, he said.
Boscov's acquired the 10 stores from Federated Departments Stores Inc. of Cincinnati after its $11 billion acquisition of May Department Stores of St. Louis.
In the Pittsburgh market, Federated will convert Kaufmann's stores in seven other suburban locations to Macy's stores. Kaufmann's former flagship store in Downtown Pittsburgh also will be converted to the Macy's name.
At Ross Park Mall, Federated will relocate its Macy's store to the Kaufmann's location. The Macy's store will be demolished, and Seattle-based Nordstrom will occupy a new store there.
Boscov's now has 40 stores in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
Boscov's, along with its financing partner Cardinal Capital Partners Inc. of Dallas, paid about $17 million each for the Monroeville and Bethel Park stores. Cardinal is helping finance eight of the 10 former Federated Department Stores, Hlis said.
