OVIEDO — In another major blow to the already struggling Oviedo Marketplace,
one of the mall's key stores will leave early next year.

Bed Bath & Beyond will move across the street into a power center called
Oviedo Park Crossing, store officials said Wednesday.

Catherine Gentile, a spokeswoman for the home-products store chain, said
a major reason for the move is that the current location is too big at 47,000
square feet. At 30,000 square feet, the old Linens 'N Things space in Oviedo
Park Crossing is more appropriate, she said. At Oviedo Marketplace, Bed
Bath & Beyond is considered to be one of the mall's four anchor stores.

The others are Sears, Dillard's and Macy's. Gentile would not elaborate on other
factors that went into the decision. The loss of an anchor will pose new difficulties at
the 11-year-old Oviedo Marketplace, which has been plagued by heavy turnover,
a high number of vacancies and slow traffic.

The mall's owner, General Growth Properties, is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. News of
Bed Bath & Beyond's imminent departure is "a big blow to [the mall]," Oviedo City
Council member Steve Henken said. While Oviedo Marketplace in general doesn't
attract crowds, he said, many in the community shop at Bed Bath & Beyond, he said.

The store's departure can only make matters worse for the mall, one expert said.
"When you start losing one of your major tenants, it gives more consumers pause to
shop there,'' said Britt Beemer, Orlando-based chairman of retail-polling firm America's
Research Group. Anchors have big advertising budgets that help bring shoppers to the
mall, he noted. "They're losing a retailer who's helping drive traffic through the front door.''

The departure "will have an impact on the mall,'' Oviedo Marketplace manager Jonathan
Hubbell said. "I'm not sure what that impact will be." He said Bed Bath & Beyond has an
agreement to remain at Oviedo Marketplace, though he would not say when that will
expire or how much the company would have to pay to break its lease.