When Venneman's Music closed in central Springfield's Tower Center in the spring of 2000, Mars Music opened up shortly after, capitalizing on the Springfield music scene. Now, 2 1/2 years later, the Mars chain filed for Chapter 11, bankruptcy, and left many music fans in the area scratching their heads.
The store seemed to have a steady stream of customers and many times a line at the door when it opened on Saturday. Alexandria resident Chris Studds was there for the close-of-business sale, which is continuing until the end of December.
"I don't play music, but I came in here a lot. There's definitely musicians around here," he said.
Springfield resident Diane Black rented an instrument there for her son.
"It's probably the management. When I went in there, the place was packed," she said.
Mars employee Gary Morgan sat at the door on one of the sale days. He said Dec. 28 will be the last day.
"They're shutting down the whole company. I'm looking for another part-time job," he said.
Mars employee Jon Riha was there when it opened. He claimed to be part of the Mars "start-up" team with another man who was wandering among the guitars on sale.
"We helped build it. We're staying until the end. It's not the store, in my opinion," he said.
He sees a lot of business at Mars and remembered the opening day crowd and the day Stevie Wonder was out front.
"Grand opening, we had 150,000 people. We hold a company record," he said.
The Mars management was located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The company managed 55 stores nationwide, all of which are closing, according to Riha.
Other employees were hesitant about saying anything about the management, but Jim Wheeler, executive vice president of real estate for the Rappaport Management Companies, which manages the center, thought the company grew too fast.
"Mars has been in trouble for a while. They expanded too fast, undercapitalized for their expansion," said Wheeler.
"The store did fine. There was no way to restructure it, so they went out of business," he said.
THE 28,000-square-foot property still had several years on its lease, according to Wheeler. The choices are for Mars to sell the lease or for the court to reject the lease and return it to Rappaport.
"The court will decide what happens," said Wheeler. "We'd rather control the property. We have some tenants that have expressed interest."
At the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, Nancy-jo Manney knew of the closing but hadn't heard of any plans for the space.
"I was not familiar with anyone looking at it," she said, but she plans to stay in touch with Supervisor Dana Kauffman's (D-Lee) office and Rappaport on the developments. She mentioned Linens ‘n’ Things or Bed, Bath and Beyond on her wish list.
"Hopefully it will be a nationally known company," she said.
Although none of the other employees discussed employment plans for the near future, Riha has something lined up.
"I already have another job, I'm going to Safeway," said Riha.
On either side of Mars, Trader Joe's is moving into the Petco space, and Inova Consignment Shop is moving into the space that was occupied by Lay-Z-Boy, which moved to Kingstowne.