010220...R EASTWOOD 2...Niles...01-02-20...Interior view of the former Sears store at the Eastwood Mall...by R. Michael Semple

NILES — The Cafaro Company will announce Monday the national retailer that will occupy the massive former Sears, but speculation about the mall’s new anchor is that it will be Boscov’s department store.

Neither Joe Bell, director of corporate communications for Cafaro Company , nor Jacob Stein, senior vice president of corporate communications for Boscov’s, would confirm the Reading, Pa.-based chain is opening a store in Niles — but there are strong hints of that partnership.

Cafaro Company officials plan next week to provide details of “one of the biggest announcements” ever made by the company regarding the mall’s future, according to a news release Friday, the same day Boscov’s posted a second clue to its Facebook page regarding a big announcement it plans to make Monday.

Bell said the retailer has a large presence in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast markets and will be the “biggest retailer to open its doors inside the mall.”

“When all is said and done, this will be in excess of 180,000-square-feet,” Bell said.

Said Jim Boscov, chairman and CEO of Boscov’s: “I will give you all of the details on Monday.”

Demolition work has been happening inside the former Sears as crews have been removing the top nine inches of floor for asbestos, according to a permit granted Nov. 6 by the building department in Niles.

The store will inhabit the 119,900-square-foot space of the former Sears and more, including the 25,800-square-foot Tilt Studio, which closed when its lease ended Dec. 31.

In addition, several stores in that concourse will be relocated inside the mall to make way for the new retailer. They include A+ Nails salon, Dafffin’s Candies and St. Joe’s at the Mall.

Boscov’s operates 49 stores in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, according to its website. Its largest presence is in Pennsylvania, where it has 26 stores.

It already has partnerships with Cafaro Company at its Ohio Valley Mall in St. Clairsville — the only Boscov’s in Ohio — and at Mill Creek Mall in Erie, Pa., where it occupies the former Sears.

The chain opened its first store in 1918 in Reading, Pa. Four years prior, its founder, Solomon Boscov, settled in Reading from Russia and began selling household goods to farmers, according to the company’s website.

rselak@tribtoday.com