Tops Shoes to Close, Evelyn Needs Tenants

David Dickinson plans to close a store for the first time since founding the Tops Shoes chain in 1981.

Dickinson said he will close the store in Fayetteville’s Evelyn Hills Shopping Center by June 1 after liquidating some 50,000 pairs of shoes at half price or deeper discounts.

“When you close a store, you can’t help but feel that you’re failing,” Dickinson said, “but it gets to be a financial decision.”

Dickinson said the Fayetteville store was profitable for years, but as more retail stores opened in the city, it became more difficult to make money with that store.

After the Fayetteville store closes, Tops still will have 11 stores, all of which are in Arkansas, including one in nearby Springdale.

Based in Benton, Tops has had a store in Fayetteville for the past 20 years. The Fayetteville store had been located at Evelyn Hills for the past 17 years.

Evelyn Hills, Fayetteville’s oldest shopping center, still has a 16,800-SF space vacant after Stage closed its store there last year. Bob Nickle, a Fayetteville real estate agent who handles leasing for Evelyn Hills, said the shopping center will have 30,000-40,000 SF of available retail space for lease if no tenants move in by the time Tops closes. That amounts to about 25 percent of the 143,000-SF Evelyn Hills.

“There’s a lot of space available in Fayetteville period,” Nickle said. “Evelyn Hills is not alone.”

April Jones, marketing manager for Weingarten Realty Management of Houston, which owns Evelyn Hills, said she’s not worried about filling the vacant spaces because “they have a lot of contracts out.”