Sentinel photos by SYDNEY CROSSON
Pictured is the current MC Commons sign along West Freedom Avenue in Burnham on Tuesday.

BURNHAM — No one ever said retail was easy, just ask Brian Gumberg of LG Realty Advisors Inc. in Pittsburgh.

The firm has owned and managed the Mifflin County Commons in Burnham since it opened in 1991. There have been numerous stores that have come and gone over the three decades — Kmart, Sears Hardware, Fashion Bug, Radio Shack and Subway to name a few.

When Kmart closed in December 2016, the Mifflin County Commons looked a bit like a ghost town – at least at the one end. Then Big Lots and Hobby Lobby moved in as new tenants.

“That helped to revitalize the shopping center,” said Gumberg, principal for LG Realty Advisors. “We’ve been fortunate to have Giant Foods anchoring the center for a long time. Adding Hobby Lobby and Big Lots to backfill the former Kmart space was like a shot of adrenaline for the shopping center.”

Now, three more new stores are slated to open by the first quarter of 2024, filling almost all of the remaining vacancies.

T-Mobile is opening a new 2,000-square-foot full-service location in a space that formerly housed Radio Shack. It’s to the left of the current Friendship Bookstore. Gumberg said T-Mobile should open by late September or early October.

As of Aug. 16, 2023, there were 6,188 T-Mobile stores across the United States, including 244 located in Pennsylvania.

Next door, Five Below has leased a 9,500-square-foot space and expects to open by the end of the year. Five Below, which opened its first store in 2001 in Wayne, Pa., located in suburban Philadelphia, has grown to more than 1,200 stores to date.

Finally, in the parking lot for Big Lots and Hobby Lobby, Gumberg is currently building a 2,300-square-foot free-standing Starbucks drive-through. It’s scheduled to open during the first part of 2024.

As of November 2022, Starbucks had 35,711 in 80 countries, with 15,873 in the United States.

“We’re well under construction for all three of these stores,” Gumberg said. “We’re proud to have attracted these new retailers to Derry Township.”

He’s pleased to secure these particular retailers because of their national brand and longevity.

“These are best-in-class retailers,” he said. “They each wanted to open in smaller markets to offer customers a more convenient shopping experience.”