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A well-known name in women's fashion is expected to exit Liberty Twp. next month less than one year after it arrived.

Charming Shoppes, Inc., which owns nearly 1,000 Fashion Bug stores nationwide, announced earlier this year the closing of about 100 locations. Liberty Twp. Fashion Bug store manager Kelly Johnson said the company's Yankee Road location is one of those.

The store opened in Liberty Commons shopping center last August and its corporate plan called for the center to amass $25,000 worth of sales each week. Instead, the store's weekly sales averaged $7,000. Signs currently posted in front windows advertise drastic price slashing in advance of next month's closing.

Business started sluggish and never improved, Johnson said. Even during the slowest times during her tenure in Lebanon and Eastgate Fashion Bug locations, sales never sagged as low as in the new location.

"It's always been a struggle," Johnson said. "There are some days we don't even do $300 in business."

Part of that struggle, she said, comes from shoppers not finding the store, and part of it comes from neighboring competition.

"We have two big shopping plazas one exit down each way," Johnson said, referring to Voice of America Centre in West Chester Twp. to the East and and Bridgewater Falls in Fairfield Twp. to the West. "We're just kind of here alone."

George Flynn, general manager of North Ridge Realty Group, said it was premature for Charming Shoppes to pull the plug on Fashion Bug's Liberty location.

"I dont think they gave this store a fair shot," Flynn said, noting the August grand opening of Cincinnati Children's Liberty Campus, which will increase traffic patterns thanks to more than 500 employees and an innumerable amount of visitors. He said that should translate into revenue boosts for all the shopping center's storefronts.

In the mean time, NRRG is searching for a "viable replacement" for the site. Flynn said Roth Chiropractic recently signed a lease agreement for a storefront location already under construction and Burger King signed a contingent ground lease for a new location on a 1.3-acre out lot on Yankee Road between PNC Bank and National City. In addition, a yet-to-be-named pizza parlor is on the verge of signing a lease.

"So we do have activity," Flynn said. "Positive activity."

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5126 or eschwartzberg@coxohio.com.

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