M@C Discount signs lease with Pittsburgh Mills mall to expand its locations

One of the largest empty spaces in the Pittsburgh Mills mall has a new tenant.

M@C Discount announced it will open a location Dec. 1 in the space formerly used by Sears Grand.

The online bidding store signed a five-year lease with the mall. Spirit Halloween occupied the space during the Halloween season this year.

Shawn Allen, one of M@C’s co-founders, said the store was looking to expand its space to store larger items to be sold at another location. The company has a Washington County facility where it sells larger items such as hot tubs, he said.

“Empty large retail spaces are ideal for us,” he said. “We didn’t have a presence in northeast Pittsburgh, so we thought (the mall) was a perfect spot to do it.”

Allen did not disclose financial terms of the lease.

M@C Discount has been around for four years. It has facilities in Butler, McKees Rocks, Washington County and Beaver Falls.

The store buys returns from big box retailers like Amazon and auctions them through its mac.bid app or website. Buyers can purchase and pick up items from any of the locations.

The lease deal was made possible by Mason Asset Management, Namdar Realty Group and Colliers International after discussions about occupying the space began in early summer. The deal took six months to work through, Allen said.

Set to hire 60 people

The store will be looking to hire 60 employees when it opens. Allen said the added employees at a new location will help boost employment as the store has struggled to maintain employees during the pandemic.

“We have seen lots of growth,” he said. “The biggest struggle is to keep quality people to keep things rolling.”

Mall general manager Ernest Diaz said he looks forward to working with M@C and the potential for growth the deal offers.

“We are extremely glad to have filled one of our very large box spaces during these times, and we are looking forward to the influx in foot traffic brought to the property by M@C,” Diaz said.