Dead Malls

[roadman65]

How is Menlo Park Mall doing in Edison, NJ holding?

[GCrites]

I've noticed something with malls. A good portion of the sucessful malls in medium-large US cities have an Apple store. Take Columbus for example. Westland closed off 8 years ago, Eastland will probably close in the next year, Tuttle seems like it's going to close within the next few years. That leaves Easton and Polaris as the 2 dominant malls in Columbus, and both of them have an Apple store. Not saying that this is the main factor for why x malls are more successful than y malls (probably just a coincidence), but Apple stores are the most profitable per square foot.

Eastland Mall is the best place to buy sneakers in the entire metro. I don't even bother with Polaris for sneakers because the selection at Eastland is just better. Tuttle is unlikely to close even in 10 years. A lot of people don't understand how empty a mall has to be to close. When Scarborough Mall actually closed it was down to one store. It went close to 10 years with just the R/C track, video game store, prom/wedding store, dollar theatre and comic shop.

[SkyPesos]

How is Menlo Park Mall doing in Edison, NJ holding?

From the store selections, seems like there's enough foot traffic to warrant a Uniqlo and a recently renovated Apple Store

[Flint1979]

How's Eastland Center in Harper Woods, MI doing? I haven't been in that mall in years. The entire area surrounding the mall is a very violent part of Detroit and the mall has been the site of some shootings. We're talking about one of the first malls in the Detroit area (they were all named for their direction, Northland, Eastland, Westland and Southland. Northland has closed but the other three are still open.

But anyway this is a mall opened in 1957 so it was among the first wave of shopping malls built. A pretty large mall too (1.4 million square feet), it had Hudson's (who developed the mall) which is now Macy's, JCPenney was added many years later, MainStreet (A Chicago based store) which became Kohl's and then Target after Kohl's closed. A Montgomery Ward was added sometime in the 1990's before it closed with the rest of the chain in the late 90's, then JCP closed not long after that.

This mall didn't have a Sears until about 2003 or so when it opened in JCP's old spot. Then it went through numerous management changes after that and I remember that Target did a remodel of their store there sometime around 2005 and it also added a Burlington Coat Factory later in the decade. Sears closed around 2013, Macy's closed about 3 or 4 years ago, then Target and Burlington both closed not long after that.

The area of Harper Woods that it sits in borders Detroit and is among the most dangerous parts of the entire city. Harper Woods has become a total shithole the last 10-20 years and is starting to resemble cities such as Highland Park, River Rouge, Ecorse and other inner ring Detroit suburbs that have suffered the same fate over the last several years.

Today Eastland has a small food court with K&G Fashion Superstore and Shoppers World serving as the remaining anchors and some typical mall stores. I should go in there and see what it's like since I haven't been in Eastland in about 20 years but have been past it several times.

[kevinb1994]

How's Eastland Center in Harper Woods, MI doing? I haven't been in that mall in years. The entire area surrounding the mall is a very violent part of Detroit and the mall has been the site of some shootings. We're talking about one of the first malls in the Detroit area (they were all named for their direction, Northland, Eastland, Westland and Southland. Northland has closed but the other three are still open.

But anyway this is a mall opened in 1957 so it was among the first wave of shopping malls built. A pretty large mall too (1.4 million square feet), it had Hudson's (who developed the mall) which is now Macy's, JCPenney was added many years later, MainStreet (A Chicago based store) which became Kohl's and then Target after Kohl's closed. A Montgomery Ward was added sometime in the 1990's before it closed with the rest of the chain in the late 90's, then JCP closed not long after that.

This mall didn't have a Sears until about 2003 or so when it opened in JCP's old spot. Then it went through numerous management changes after that and I remember that Target did a remodel of their store there sometime around 2005 and it also added a Burlington Coat Factory later in the decade. Sears closed around 2013, Macy's closed about 3 or 4 years ago, then Target and Burlington both closed not long after that.

The area of Harper Woods that it sits in borders Detroit and is among the most dangerous parts of the entire city. Harper Woods has become a total shithole the last 10-20 years and is starting to resemble cities such as Highland Park, River Rouge, Ecorse and other inner ring Detroit suburbs that have suffered the same fate over the last several years.

Today Eastland has a small food court with K&G Fashion Superstore and Shoppers World serving as the remaining anchors and some typical mall stores. I should go in there and see what it's like since I haven't been in Eastland in about 20 years but have been past it several times.

You know, South Florida sounds somewhat similar with Southland Mall (Cutler Bay) and Dadeland Mall (Kendall) both having opened in the early 60s. Except, on the other hand, that it took another decade for Westland Mall (Hialeah) to open.

Southland Mall, the first of the three South Florida directionally-named malls to open (in 1960), has lost half of its anchor tenants due to the retail apocalypse having a drastic effect on the average shopping mall. It should be noted that it was hit by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and that made the mall look newer than it used to.

Dadeland Mall, which opened soon after (in 1962), just lost one of their half-dozen anchor tenants, but is otherwise doing well despite the pandemic. Around 1980, this particular mall would have not really been that safe per se, as a couple of incidents had taken place during that period.

Westland Mall, the third and final of these South Florida directionally-named malls to open (in 1971), also lost one of their three anchor tenants, but, like Dadeland Mall, is otherwise doing well despite the pandemic. Unlike the other two malls listed here, this one (miraculously enough) has not really had much in the way of incidents over the decades.

[Flint1979]

How's Eastland Center in Harper Woods, MI doing? I haven't been in that mall in years. The entire area surrounding the mall is a very violent part of Detroit and the mall has been the site of some shootings. We're talking about one of the first malls in the Detroit area (they were all named for their direction, Northland, Eastland, Westland and Southland. Northland has closed but the other three are still open.

But anyway this is a mall opened in 1957 so it was among the first wave of shopping malls built. A pretty large mall too (1.4 million square feet), it had Hudson's (who developed the mall) which is now Macy's, JCPenney was added many years later, MainStreet (A Chicago based store) which became Kohl's and then Target after Kohl's closed. A Montgomery Ward was added sometime in the 1990's before it closed with the rest of the chain in the late 90's, then JCP closed not long after that.

This mall didn't have a Sears until about 2003 or so when it opened in JCP's old spot. Then it went through numerous management changes after that and I remember that Target did a remodel of their store there sometime around 2005 and it also added a Burlington Coat Factory later in the decade. Sears closed around 2013, Macy's closed about 3 or 4 years ago, then Target and Burlington both closed not long after that.

The area of Harper Woods that it sits in borders Detroit and is among the most dangerous parts of the entire city. Harper Woods has become a total shithole the last 10-20 years and is starting to resemble cities such as Highland Park, River Rouge, Ecorse and other inner ring Detroit suburbs that have suffered the same fate over the last several years.

Today Eastland has a small food court with K&G Fashion Superstore and Shoppers World serving as the remaining anchors and some typical mall stores. I should go in there and see what it's like since I haven't been in Eastland in about 20 years but have been past it several times.

You know, South Florida sounds somewhat similar with Southland Mall (Cutler Bay) and Dadeland Mall (Kendall) both having opened in the early 60s. Except, on the other hand, that it took another decade for Westland Mall (Hialeah) to open.

Southland Mall, the first of the three South Florida directionally-named malls to open (in 1960), has lost half of its anchor tenants due to the retail apocalypse having a drastic effect on the average shopping mall. It should be noted that it was hit by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and that made the mall look newer than it used to.

Dadeland Mall, which opened soon after (in 1962), just lost one of their half-dozen anchor tenants, but is otherwise doing well despite the pandemic. Around 1980, this particular mall would have not really been that safe per se, as a couple of incidents had taken place during that period.

Westland Mall, the third and final of these South Florida directionally-named malls to open (in 1971), also lost one of their three anchor tenants, but, like Dadeland Mall, is otherwise doing well despite the pandemic. Unlike the other two malls listed here, this one (miraculously enough) has not really had much in the way of incidents over the decades.

For Detroit's
Northland opened in 1954, Eastland opened in 1957, Westland opened in 1965 and Southland opened in 1970. I've only actually been in Southland lately. At Southland the Macy's (originally Hudson's) is in the middle of the mall instead of on the end like an anchor usually is. If I remember correctly it was in the middle at Northland too. This mall never had a Sears store. None of the one's you mentioned sound as bad as Eastland Center in Harper Woods though. Actually Northland was located in a similar neighborhood, it sat at the corner of 8 Mile and Greenfield in Southfield and was directly across 8 Mile from Detroit but Eastland's neighborhood is worse. Southfield itself isn't the best of places either.

Southland is the only mall in the Detroit area that I can think of that hasn't lost an anchor store but it only has Macy's, JCPenney, Best Buy and a movie theater and is almost a million square feet. Summit Place Mall is another mall that has completely closed. That was located in Waterford Township on the NW corner of Telegraph and Elizabeth Lake Road. Summit Place has been completely demolished and the site is a big vacant lot. It died after Great Lakes Crossing in Auburn Hills opened in the late 90's and ironically Sears didn't closed until about 5 years after the mall closed.

[OCGuy81]

I feel the clock is ticking on the Salem Center mall in Salem, OR. They lost their Nordstrom a few years ago, the JC Penny in 2020, and Macy's is the last anchor with talk of numerous store closures in 2021.

[LM117]

Cary Towne Center in NC bit the dust last Sunday.

https://www.wral.com/cary-towne-center-closing-sunday-jan-31/19496757/

[kevinb1994]

Cary Towne Center in NC bit the dust last Sunday.

https://www.wral.com/cary-towne-center-closing-sunday-jan-31/19496757/

I did see a news article about that the other day. What a shame, had my family moved there, we'd have to deal with just another dead mall in the area.

[thenetwork]

Grand Junction's Mesa Mall is having a Renaissance (at least on paper):

Cabellas took over the former Merwin's anchor space several years back.
Home Goods is just weeks from opening in the old Sports Authority spot.
Dillards is allegedly still planning to build on the former Sears location.
And just this week, it was announced that Dick's Sporting Goods was moving into the old Herberger's anchor spot.

Target is still chugging along.  Only JCPenney is on death watch.  So anchor-wise, Mesa Mall is stronger than most, but the smaller store vacancy rate is still over 50%.

[jakeroot]

I feel the clock is ticking on the Salem Center mall in Salem, OR. They lost their Nordstrom a few years ago, the JC Penny in 2020, and Macy's is the last anchor with talk of numerous store closures in 2021.

That's definitely sad. Downtown shopping is never good to lose.

Perhaps their new-ish logo is scaring people away. Friggin' awful.

[OCGuy81]

Lloyd Center in Portland may be dead soon as well. I remember first visiting Portland in the 90s, and they had an indoor ice arena. I saw Portland's sweetheart, Tonya Harding, there.

[SkyPesos]

I feel the clock is ticking on the Salem Center mall in Salem, OR. They lost their Nordstrom a few years ago, the JC Penny in 2020, and Macy's is the last anchor with talk of numerous store closures in 2021.

Same with Tri-County Mall in Cincinnati. Dillards closed in 2015, and Sears closed in 2018. Macy's is the last anchor, and it's planned to get closed this year.

[jakeroot]

Downtown Seattle isn't faring much better. Pacific Place is operating at about 20% capacity, down from a high of...a lot more than that 20 years ago. Westlake Center is doing okay, from what I can tell, but I have no idea what their maximum occupancy is (there are currently 21 operating stores/restaurants, about 5 more than Pacific Place). The former Bon-Marche building, converted to a Macy's in 2005, closed last February. That was a big blow, especially to some of the older clientele in suburban Seattle, who often made trips downtown just to hit the major classic retailers and their huge stores (Macy's and Nordstrom being the big ones, but also Penny's until the 80s).

If I had to guess: leasing these downtown spaces is just getting obnoxiously expensive relative to revenue. Since they were previously operating fine, we have to assume either (A) lease costs have gotten out of hand, and/or (B) there is less people. My guess is both, but particularly (B); people in Seattle don't seem to care for big names, and people outside Seattle don't seem to like Seattle very much, at least not these days. Kind of a lethal combination.

It's easy to assume that online shopping (*cough*Amazon) is taking a toll, but these downtown shopping districts are designed to be destinations. People who normally shop online would normally take the time to go to these places for the experience. Something about the current experience, then, doesn't seem to be appealing to people.

[I-39]

Serious question. What major department store chain is NOT in danger of bankruptcy/liquidation. It seems almost all these malls listed have anchors that are in danger of collapse.

Heck, even Cool Springs Galleria here in Middle Tennessee is thriving, yet it has JCPenney, Macy's and Belk as anchors, all of which are in danger of going out of business.

[GCrites]

Cary Towne Center in NC bit the dust last Sunday.

https://www.wral.com/cary-towne-center-closing-sunday-jan-31/19496757/

So the building is being taken over by Epic Games? Epic Games as in Fortnite? What are they going to do with it?

[ErmineNotyours]

Lloyd Center in Portland may be dead soon as well. I remember first visiting Portland in the 90s, and they had an indoor ice arena. I saw Portland’s sweetheart, Tonya Harding, there.

A year and a half ago I saw the George Tsutakawa designed Lloyd Center fountain for sale at an auction house in Renton, near Seattle.  This would mean that the mall is selling off its assets to stay solvent, redesigning itself into bigger and better things, or trying to redesign itself and failing.

[Flint1979]

Dort Mall in Flint, Michigan is still hanging on with a few stores left in it. Paradise Express is probably the most popular store in the mall, there is also Star Brothers Coney Island in there but other than that there really isn't much. The mall is pretty well known for it's antique collection most of them are about automobiles and the area. This mall was built on the site of an old drive in theater and is the oldest mall in Genesee County, about 3 years older than Courtland Center and about 5 years older than Genesee Valley Mall.

[dfilpus]

Cary Towne Center in NC bit the dust last Sunday.

https://www.wral.com/cary-towne-center-closing-sunday-jan-31/19496757/

So the building is being taken over by Epic Games? Epic Games as in Fortnite? What are they going to do with it?

They're building a consolidated headquarters.

[GCrites]

Lloyd Center in Portland may be dead soon as well. I remember first visiting Portland in the 90s, and they had an indoor ice arena. I saw Portland's sweetheart, Tonya Harding, there.

A year and a half ago I saw the George Tsutakawa designed Lloyd Center fountain for sale at an auction house in Renton, near Seattle.  This would mean that the mall is selling off its assets to stay solvent, redesigning itself into bigger and better things, or trying to redesign itself and failing.

A lot of malls are going for the minimalism trend. The idea is that all that flair they used to have is "distracting from product" and since minimalism was hot from 2003-2019 it was an easy decision. But somehow I think minimalism is hitting a wall due to COVID. People are really buying a lot of home decor right now. Spending all that time at home might have made them realize how boring their dwellings were inside. I was never a minimalist so not much changed for me.

[Pink Jazz]

Looks like Paradise Valley Mall in northeast Phoenix might soon be dead with only JCPenney and Costco as its anchors.  Surprisingly the area is affluent and the surrounding area is doing well.  Apparently Macerich failed to invest in the mall, and competition from other nearby malls such as Desert Ridge, Scottsdale Quarter, and Kierland Commons as well as Macerich's continued investment into Scottsdale Fashion Square is what hurt the mall.

[OCGuy81]

Looks like Paradise Valley Mall in northeast Phoenix might soon be dead with only JCPenney and Costco as its anchors.  Surprisingly the area is affluent and the surrounding area is doing well.  Apparently Macerich failed to invest in the mall, and competition from other nearby malls such as Desert Ridge, Scottsdale Quarter, and Kierland Commons as well as Macerich's continued investment into Scottsdale Fashion Square is what hurt the mall.

I don't know if I've ever seen Costco as an anchor. Interesting!

[SkyPesos]

Looks like Paradise Valley Mall in northeast Phoenix might soon be dead with only JCPenney and Costco as its anchors.  Surprisingly the area is affluent and the surrounding area is doing well.  Apparently Macerich failed to invest in the mall, and competition from other nearby malls such as Desert Ridge, Scottsdale Quarter, and Kierland Commons as well as Macerich's continued investment into Scottsdale Fashion Square is what hurt the mall.

I don't know if I've ever seen Costco as an anchor. Interesting!

Costco as an anchor is also new to me. Closest I've seen are a Costco across the street from both Easton and Polaris malls in Columbus.

[hbelkins]

There was a rumor recently that Florence Mall (home of the Florence Y'all water tower) was in danger of closing, but the mall addressed that in a social media post denying the truth of the tales.

[SkyPesos]

There was a rumor recently that Florence Mall (home of the Florence Y'all water tower) was in danger of closing, but the mall addressed that in a social media post denying the truth of the tales.

Florence is one of the 2 Cincinnati area malls that are doing well, along with Kenwood. They only lost a Sears for anchors. Not sure why people would think that it's closing. Tri-county is going to lose their last anchor later this year and is the most likely to close at this point. I can't comment on Northgate or Eastgate, except that Eastgate has a nice little card shop I hope doesn't close entirely.