I believe the reason UTC is being overhauled is because they are currently in trouble. UTC mall has declined in quality and appeal. It's suppose to be a more upscale mall in the past, but lately it's really been in decline. With the macy's/robinson-may closure, they never found a decent replacement for the robinson-may. The stores are middle end stores, unlike fashion valley.
I have a relative that does financial analysis of the retail industry. Part of my relative's job is to go shopping to check out what's good and what's bad. It's that person's opinion that UTC is a terrible mall…. and the sales comps from the stores seems to indicate so.
Part of the new Crate and Barrel store is to start to make that mall more upscale. Imho, so long as you have a Sears predominantly in the mall, it's not going to happen. But that's just my opinion. Frankly, I love Sears when it comes adding to my tool collection. I had a field day yesterday with their "1-day 15% off anything you can fit in the brown paper bag" tool sale…Sidenote: I'm slightly disappointed because it's getting harder and harder to find tools made in the USA..While a lot of Craftsman is still USA, I noticed Sears started to sell some of the knock-off brands like "Companion" which is a chinese/indian subpar brand imho. But at the cost of those , I guess you could go through 3 sets of knock-off brands before breaking even in the cost of buying an equivalent craftsman brand set.
