P.OB. Montgomery & Co., a Dallas-based real estate company that bought Franklin Park Mall about a year ago, is grappling with how it can create a new identity for the North Side retail center.


Meanwhile, the mall continues to lose some of its smaller tenants.


P.OB. Montgomery development partner Lance Taylor, whose office is in Dallas, says the 274,000-square-foot shopping center, located at Rowan Avenue and Division Street, has remained profitable during the past year, buoyed by four larger tenants with outdoor storefrontsOutback Steakhouse, Ross Dress For Less, Old Country Buffet, and Rite Aid.


P.OB. Montgomery doesnt own the space that Montgomery Ward & Co. occupies, and that space isnt included in the occupancy rates or square footages that Taylor cites. The Montgomery Ward & Co. store is the malls largest; it operates an about 100,000-square-foot, two-story space there that Montgomery Ward owns.


In the malls interior corridor, the number of empty retail spaces is about the same as the number of operating stores. Taylor says the malls current occupancy rate is about 75 percent, down from 93 percent earlier this year.


The overall occupancy rate will drop further when Rite Aid Inc. moves its Franklin Park Mall outlet a few blocks north to a free-standing location just beyond the Francis Avenue-Division Street intersection. That movepart of a national push by Rite Aid to move its stores to free-standing locationsis expected to happen sometime next year.


Since Franklin Park Mall currently is operating in the black, P.OB. Montgomery can afford to take our time and do whats right for the mall, Taylor says.


Were not where we thought wed be, but were not in a bad position either, he says. Were still as fired up as ever about that property.


Whiz Kids Educational Toys & Books is one of the more recent retailers to leave Franklin Park Mall. Earlier this month, owner Reying Huslid moved her retail shop a few blocks south to a 3,000-square-foot space in NorthTown Mall from a similar-sized spot inside the Franklin shopping center.


Huslid had operated her educational-resources retail store in Franklin Park Mall for 11 years, but says she decided to move it because of a lack of foot traffic.


Huslid describes Whiz Kids as a destination store, asserting that most of her customers seek out the store because of its specialty products. However, she says, You lose a competitive edge when you dont have any walk-in traffic.


P.OB. Montgomery wants to give the mall a new identity, Taylor says, but doesnt know yet what that identity will be. He says the company has had a few ideas for changes, but none of them have been feasible.


For example, the company looked into moving the Outback Steakhouse to a free-standing building that would be constructed in the malls parking lot, Taylor says. That, he says, would have allowed P.OB. Montgomery to reconfigure the entrance and some of the space inside the mall. Construction costs, however, were prohibitive, he says.


Until it comes up with a new format, the company doesnt have any plans for upgrades to the mall, Taylor says.


Joel Crosby, a Tomlinson Black Commercial Inc. real estate agent whos in charge of leasing for Franklin Park, says the company is marketing the property aggressively. He says three retailers have signed letters of intent to take space in the mall. He declines for now to disclose more information on the potential tenants.


P.OB. Montgomery bought Franklin Park Mall, excluding the Montgomery Ward space, from Citicase Corp. on Dec. 31, 1998, for slightly over $6 million. The company currently owns more than 20 malls nationwide.