Mar. 29--WITH THE local economy zapped, the Toledo area's largest malls and shopping centers are trying to hang on, and improve if possible.

"Everyone is feeling an economic pinch. That doesn't mean consumers have stopped shopping. ... " said Katie Dickey, a spokesman for Westfield America Inc., owner of Toledo's premier mall and largest shopping enclave, Westfield Franklin Park.

"But clearly retailers are putting holds on their expansion. Many are just working to maintain what they have."

Owners of the area's six largest retail destinations -- Franklin Park, the Shops at Fallen Timbers, Woodville Mall, Spring Meadows Place, Levis Commons, and Westgate Village Shopping Center -- say they are in "maintain" mode.

Their strategy: keep vacancy rates steady, sign up new retailers, and attract more shoppers.

The local retail market does not seem to be getting worse. The vacancy rate was 7.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, virtually the same as in the third quarter, according to CoStar Group Inc., a commercial real estate data firm.

Nationally, December sales for nonanchor mall tenants fell 13.3 percent from a year earlier, the largest drop on record. For 2008, mall and shopping center sales fell to $390 per square foot from $411 in 2007, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Challenges are evident in the Toledo area.

General Growth Properties Inc., owner of the million-square-foot Fallen Timbers center in Maumee, planned to have the $125 million project 80 to 85 percent full by this time. Instead, a third of the space is vacant, two retailers have left, and another plans to. The center opened in 2007.

Still, company spokesman Jim Graham said the firm is "pleased at how well sales are holding up" at the center. "It's a tough year all over, to be sure, but [company] properties are doing better than you would think, given economic news from other sectors," he said.

Steve Wagenheim, chief executive of Granite City Food & Brewery, which opened at Fallen Timbers last year, said his restaurant is doing fine but other stores probably will suffer until the area around center grows.

"P.F. Chang's and Granite City, we're sort of destinations. We do well," he said. "But other retail depends heavily on foot traffic. They need it to survive."

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory is among those needing more customers.

Co-owner Stacey Gardner said sales are less than she and her husband, Trent, expected. "Saturdays we are doing well, but weekdays are slow. ... We're not making money.