Local News in Brief : Planned Burbank Mall Still a Store Short

The developer of the planned Burbank Towncenter shopping mall told the Burbank City Council Wednesday that he has not found a fourth anchor department store to replace the Robinson’s department store, which withdrew from the project last year.

John Gilchrist, president of the mall’s developer, Ernest W. Hahn Inc., told council members that, because of the holiday season, he had not yet been able to meet with executives of department stores that might replace Robinson’s.

According to participants in the meeting, Gilchrist said he and Hahn planned to meet with those executives in the coming weeks and that he would report back to the council at the end of the month.

Robinson’s was to have been a featured store in the Towncenter, a city redevelopment project planned since 1971. But the May Co., which in June announced its intentions to merge with Associated Dry Goods, the parent company of Robinson’s, said it would not permit a Robinson’s at the mall.

That decision prompted the three other anchor stores, J.C. Penney, The Broadway and Nordstrom, to say they are reevaluating the prospect of the mall’s success.