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Dead Malls

Started by The Premier, January 25, 2011, 05:38:18 PM

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US71

WOW! So sad to hear about Lincoln Mall. I remember going there in High School.  It was "the" thing to do, back then.

I also remember Park Forest South, which was an "open air mall" as some called it.

I vaguely remember Dixie Square, as well.


How is Orland Square doing these days?
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast


Brandon

Quote from: US71 on January 31, 2011, 11:00:53 AM
WOW! So sad to hear about Lincoln Mall. I remember going there in High School.  It was "the" thing to do, back then.

I also remember Park Forest South, which was an "open air mall" as some called it.

I vaguely remember Dixie Square, as well.


How is Orland Square doing these days?

Orland Square seems to be doing rather well as the center of its own retail corridor.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

SP Cook

Unique end to an almost dead mall:

http://www.highpoint.edu/news_events/article.cfm?ArticleID=2381&viewall=false

http://www.myfox8.com/news/wghp-story-oak-hollow-hpu-110224,0,7082497.story

Classic bad mall idea.  High Point is the third of three cities in the "Piedmont Triad" and while HP people seem willing to go to Winston-Salem or Greensboro, the reverse is not apparently true.  Mall unable to compete with the larger malls nor with several new retail outlets on NC 68.  Pretty much down to "anchor stores" and businesses not normally found in a mall, obviously paying low rent. 

HPU campus is about a mile away.  Unclear what their long term goal would be, the mall property is about the size of its campus.  School has made some noise about adding a law school and pharmacy school, but that would only be a tiny fraction of the property.

golden eagle

Anything new on Union Station in Georgia? That was the one that had its electricity and water cut off.

Bryant5493

Quote from: golden eagle on February 25, 2011, 02:10:21 PM
Anything new on Union Station in Georgia? That was the one that had its electricity and water cut off.

I've not heard anything new about Union Station. Macy*s is closing -- or has already closed -- but I haven't been down to Union City in awhile.


Be well,

Bryant
Check out my YouTube page (http://youtube.com/Bryant5493). I have numerous road videos of Metro Atlanta and other areas in the Southeast.

I just signed up on photobucket -- here's my page (http://s594.photobucket.com/albums/tt24/Bryant5493).

hobsini2

For me 4 come to mind.
The first one to close was Old Chicago on IL Rt 53 south of I-55 in Bolingbrook, IL.  This was the Mall of America before the one in Minnesota was built.  Indoor amusement park and roughly 100 stores. It closed sometime around 1981, when i was 6, because someone died on the roller coaster, the family sued, and the mall went bankrupt.  This has now become an Auto Auction that I used to work at.
The second one to close was across the street from Old Chicago called South Commons Mall.  A much smaller mall that had KMart and Carson Pirie Scott if i remember correctly.  This closed shortly after Old Chicago c. 1983?  KMart stayed in it for about 5 years longer then shut.  It later became a Menard's until the newer one was built about 2 miles north.  The land has since been added to the Auto Auction.
The third one was Park Plaza in Downtown Oshkosh.  My grandparents, who live in Oshkosh, used to take me there anytime that we visited them.  This was the first mall i can remember actually being in.  I remember these fountains that line up along the center of each main corridor and always getting Bubblegum Ice Cream from Bressler's. It was roughly 70 stores and 3 anchors.  I remember Sears and JC Penney and i think the thrid was Prange/Prangeway.  When the mall closed in the early 90s, it was for a short time converted into a tech college (Fox Valley Tech if i remember) and the hotel remained there, think it was a Radison.  It's been so long since i was in that part of Oshkosh, i think it is now a convention center.
The last one was Jefferson Square Mall in Joliet IL on US 52 west of IL 7.  It had a huge Montgomery Ward's but when Ward's went under, the mall later declined fast.  For a bit of time, the Illinois DMV in Joliet was inside the mall.  It is now all Menard's.
I knew it. I'm surrounded by assholes. Keep firing, assholes! - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)

Brandon

^^  South Commons had Crawford's, not Carson's, at the south end.  It had a pretty good little bookstore as well.  It failed because people from Romeoville never went that far north to shop, and people from Bolingbrook didn't go south of I-55 to shop.  Kmart later moved to Maple Park Place (Boughton and Naperville Rds).

Jefferson Sq started its long decline when Wieboldt's failed in 1986.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

3467

Old Chicago was the right idea at the wrong time . They were expecting the North South Tollway and the growth years too early.
Most of teh suburban growth was north in Lake and Dupage and as the cenus now shows it Will, Kane and Kendall.

golden eagle

One mall that was dying but managed to re-invent itself is Cloverleaf Mall in Hattiesburg, MS, at the corner of U.S. 49 & 11. Cloverleaf fell victim to the newly-built Turtle Creek Mall in the mid-90s. I was in college at Southern Mississippi (hence my nickname) when this transition went on. Cloverleaf did manage to convert itself into a discount mall. 

Another mall that's on the downswing is Southland Mall in south Memphis.

hobsini2

Quote from: Brandon on February 26, 2011, 07:37:19 PM
^^  South Commons had Crawford's, not Carson's, at the south end.  It had a pretty good little bookstore as well.  It failed because people from Romeoville never went that far north to shop, and people from Bolingbrook didn't go south of I-55 to shop.  Kmart later moved to Maple Park Place (Boughton and Naperville Rds).

Jefferson Sq started its long decline when Wieboldt's failed in 1986.
I completely forgot about Crawford's at South Commons and Wieboldt's at Jeff Sq. TY sir.:)  But I do remember the Buster Brown shoe store at S Com for some reason.
I knew it. I'm surrounded by assholes. Keep firing, assholes! - Dark Helmet (Spaceballs)

MDOTFanFB

Local ones:

Livonia Mall, Livonia, MI: Had I-96 been built along Grand River and an I-x96 built along 7 Mile Road, then it would still be a mall today. It was a victim of how Detroit's western suburbs were "too malled".
Summit Place Mall, Waterford Township, MI: Maybe if the Lodge was built along Telegraph Road or the M-59 freeway extended to Waterford, then it would see more signs of life, at least one of it's outparcel strip malls contained Michigan's first Best Buy.
Universal Mall, Warren, MI
Wonderland Mall, Livonia, MI
Northtowne Square Mall, Toledo, OH: Had the nearby Franklin Square mall not expand and the Frenchtown Square Mall not built, then it would've survived
Portside Marketplace, Toledo, OH: In the early 80's, downtown Toledo was declining, the Lion and Macy's stores closed. The Portside Marketplace tried to revive downtown, but was in a downward spiral from the beginning. Now, despite recent downtown Toledo projects such as the Fifth Third Field stadium and Huntington Center arena, there is still a serious lack of retail.

wriddle082

In Nashville, Bellevue Center has been mostly dark for about the past 3 years (Sears is the only open store).  Back when it was built around 1988, it only had Dillard's and Castner Knott (which became Proffitt's, then Hecht's, then Macy*s) as anchors, but most of the other stores were unique to Nashville.  There were two stub corridor endings where additional anchors were planned, and both of them had 3D sketches of a continuing corridor.  At one point, one of the stub walls had Macy*s banners silkscreened onto it, but it never came to fruition in that location.  The other stub ending later became the Sears that still operates.  The primary factors that led to its death are 1) land around it was already established residential so not as much outparcel growth, 2) what precious little land that was available was overpriced, 3) specialty stores served the locals in Bellevue well who were middle to upper middle class, but didn't serve the working class shoppers in nearby Cheatham and Dickson Counties, therefore not a viable regional mall, and 4) Cool Springs Galleria opened in 1990, was at least twice as big (now has 5 anchors), had tons of available outparcel acreage, and is still a success to this day.  The current mall property owners are still devising plans for redevelopment, which they have time to do considering the state of the economy, but they've worked out an agreement with Metro Nashville Government to build a new Bellevue Public Library branch on the site and receive tax breaks.  Many in the area want Ikea, which currently has no Tennessee presence, to come and be the main attraction.

As for other dead malls, Harding Mall (small neighborhood mall built in late 60's at the corner of Nolensville Rd and Harding Pl, had a Castner Knott (later Dillard's) and a handful of other shops) was completely bulldozed about two or three years ago and a Super Walmart built in its place.  100 Oaks Mall, Nashville's first major enclosed mall with a long history, isn't dead now, but it's currently owned by Vanderbilt University, which is using it mostly as a large medical plaza, but there are still several big box stores still operating and a 27-screen movie theater next door.  Then there's Hickory Hollow Mall, a large regional mall I grew up going to that is almost dead.  The neighborhood around it has been steadily going downhill probably since the mid 90s.  I think Sears and Macy*s are still operating as anchors.  Metro Nashville is trying to find a new use for the property, whether it be to relocate the Tennessee State Fair to the site or to provide adult education services or other government services.  They definitely don't want to see the property abandoned.

huskeroadgeek

Interesting-I've been to several of those(my best friend in college was from Nashville)-Hickory Hollow Mall(which was still pretty nice when I was there in the late 90s), 100 Oaks Mall(I went to a movie at the large theater) and Cool Springs Galleria.

One on the deadmalls.com website I've been to is Bannister Mall in Kansas City-several years before its demise. It was looking pretty deserted at that time-I wasn't surprised when it closed. I was just by there on I-435 a few months ago and it looks as though nothing has been done with the site yet.

These aren't on the deadmalls.com website, but there used to be two malls in downtown Lincoln. The Atrium had two levels, plus a food court in the basement. The Centrum had shops on the ground level, plus a few on the Skywalk level. Its main feature was a 6 story atrium with glass-enclosed elevators that led to an attached parking garage(the garage was 8 levels-so the top two levels of the glass-enclosed elevators looked out on the roof of the building). I used to love to ride the elevators when I was growing up. The Atrium now houses offices while the Centrum is a community college campus. The parking garage is still there, but unfortunately the 6 story atrium isn't, so no glass-enclosed elevators.

AZDude

My dad told me that the Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas has closed many of their stores.  I haven't been in there since 2007.  Can't imagine what it looks like now.  I hope it doesn't close.

DeaconG

I'm actually surprised that Miracle City Mall in Titusville is still open...there are only four storefronts left-the anchor JC Penney, a GNC, an Orange Julius in the center of the mall and a Prison Book ministry.

I went there just before Christmas to pick up some clothing items from JC Penney and they had the mall entrance open, so I walked it.  It wasn't completely full when I moved here in the mid 80's and it's been pretty much the way it is since the mid 2000's.

The people who owned the mall were supposed to convert it into an outdoor "lifestyle" mall including condos about five years ago, but nothing has happened since.  Considering what's about to happen to KSC here in a couple of months, I don't think anyone's going to make much of an investment in this mall.

It's ironic that when I first moved here it was Searstown Mall that was in danger of closing; now it's thriving while Miracle City is on life support...
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74/171FAN

Near Richmond the old Cloverleaf Mall has been closed for years now.

Something was supposed to be done to the property but I have not heard much about it lately.
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Takumi

Quote from: 74/171FAN on March 09, 2011, 12:52:46 AM
Near Richmond the old Cloverleaf Mall has been closed for years now.

Something was supposed to be done to the property but I have not heard much about it lately.

According to a now-dead link on Deadmalls a church tried to buy it in 2005. More recently I'd heard it was supposed to become a housing development. It was demolished late last year.

A mall that was dead for even longer before its demolition was Walnut Mall in Petersburg. It closed in 1991 (it had basically been given a death sentence when Southpark Mall opened a few miles away in 1989) but stood vacant until 2006 when it was demolished and partially redeveloped. I work at its former site, so one morning in 2010 I went over to the undeveloped part of it before work and took some pictures. I just uploaded a blog entry about it, which is why I'm bumping this thread.

http://highcontrastshair.blogspot.com/2012/01/takumis-photo-archives-walnut-mall.html
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

empirestate

Irondequoit Mall (Medley Centre) in Monroe County, NY was dead when I last visited several years ago, and hasn't come back from what I gather. I remember when it was the newest, fanciest place to go in the early 90s. Then all of the other area malls were similarly updated, so shoppers went there instead (they are larger). Another oft-cited factor is the introduction of bus service, which connected the mall to an "urban demographic" that "some shoppers" found "objectionable".

Then there's Midtown Plaza, arguably the original dead mall. It's finally gone now, to be remade along the lines of VA Beach Town Center from what I can tell.

jemacedo9

Medley Center has two anchor stores at either end (Sears and Macy's), and NOTHING in the actual mall...and there's no access to the mall at all.  There is this grand plan to create a mixed-use development, but the developed has defaulted on some of the payments-in-lieu-of-taxes. Though the developer claims he is still going forward, I'm skeptical.

Midtown Plaza is definitely no more...a literal hole in the ground.  I've watched the demolition from my cube over the past couple of years.  There too, a mixed-use development is supposed to be built, including some new streets to fill in the city grid. 

roadman65

Osceola Square Mall in Kissimmee, FL is not what it used to be.  It had three anchor stores back in the early 90s.  It was Ross, Wal Mart and Uptons.  Ross is the only store still in the complex that is doing a great business, while Wal Mart moved into a Supercenter up the street back in 96 and since a regional store named Bealls took it over with less floor space than Wal Mart.  Uptons had went out of business and had been taken over numerous times since. Currrently the third anchor store is Burlington Brands.

The food court, last I was in there, only had one snack bar open when it had over ten originally.  Many vacant stores and a closed bus terminal are now there.  The local bus company Lynx moved there terminal to the street on Armstrong Drive and the area what once was a booming tourist area turned semi ghetto around this mall.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

ctsignguy

Maybe the Central Ohio crew can back me on a few of these....

1 Salem Mall (Trotwood)  One of the first malls in Ohio back in the 1960s, i remember it for the variety of stores...the usual tenant stores like Sears and Rikes, plus a grocery store (Liberal)....They added a full wing in the 80s when the grocery store moved out...then the demographics changed in the early 90s as local neighborhood gangs started to cluster there and drove away many of the customers to other malls that were seen as safer (Dayton Mall)...by the late 90s, the place was barely hanging on.....the old Rikes was closed down and replaced by a Home Depot....which still stands, but the rest of the mall came down after i moved to Columbus

2. Upper Valley mall (Springfield)  This was a 1970s mall that has managed somehow to hang on given the fact that the area is a bit of a distance from Springfield proper, and the local economy has been in the toidy for decades.  Last time i was there, it was hardly worth the side trip...

3. Westland Mall (Columbus)  Still standing off I-270 but well over 75% vacant now.  Many stores left because a new and safer mall opened less than 10 miles away on Tuttle Creek.  A very spooky place to wander into now given its proximity to a high crime area (I lived in that area for 7 years, so i am allowed to say it!).  Most people go there because the BMV License Bureau is still there...but i remember back in the 1970s and early 80s, it was a hopping place to be

4. Northland Mall (defunct)  Torn down a few years ago, this mall was killed by its bad location, plus the opening of Polaris a few miles north, and Easton a few miles east.  Being near a high crime area didnt help matters much either

5. Eastland Mall.    This one is still hanging on even though it is approaching 50% vacant, and it has no easy access off I-70 and none at all off I-270 which passes right next to it.  I go there a few times, and it seems pleasant enough...they do their best to control loitering

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Hot Rod Hootenanny

Quote from: ctsignguy on January 20, 2012, 07:30:34 PM
Maybe the Central Ohio crew can back me on a few of these....

1 Salem Mall (Trotwood)  One of the first malls in Ohio back in the 1960s, i remember it for the variety of stores...the usual tenant stores like Sears and Rikes, plus a grocery store (Liberal)....They added a full wing in the 80s when the grocery store moved out...then the demographics changed in the early 90s as local neighborhood gangs started to cluster there and drove away many of the customers to other malls that were seen as safer (Dayton Mall)...by the late 90s, the place was barely hanging on.....the old Rikes was closed down and replaced by a Home Depot....which still stands, but the rest of the mall came down after i moved to Columbus

2. Upper Valley mall (Springfield)  This was a 1970s mall that has managed somehow to hang on given the fact that the area is a bit of a distance from Springfield proper, and the local economy has been in the toidy for decades.  Last time i was there, it was hardly worth the side trip...

3. Westland Mall (Columbus)  Still standing off I-270 but well over 75% vacant now.  Many stores left because a new and safer mall opened less than 10 miles away on Tuttle Creek.  A very spooky place to wander into now given its proximity to a high crime area (I lived in that area for 7 years, so i am allowed to say it!).  Most people go there because the BMV License Bureau is still there...but i remember back in the 1970s and early 80s, it was a hopping place to be

4. Northland Mall (defunct)  Torn down a few years ago, this mall was killed by its bad location, plus the opening of Polaris a few miles north, and Easton a few miles east.  Being near a high crime area didnt help matters much either

5. Eastland Mall.    This one is still hanging on even though it is approaching 50% vacant, and it has no easy access off I-70 and none at all off I-270 which passes right next to it.  I go there a few times, and it seems pleasant enough...they do their best to control loitering


Demographics have alot to do with the rise and fall of the Columbus area malls you mentioned. When Northland, Eastland, and Westland malls were opened in the mid to late 60s, those locations were literally out on edge of civilization and were cast as the alternative to shopping in downtown C-bus (and the inner suburbs - Bexley, Upper Arlington).
By the 1980s, folks had moved to cities connected by I-270 (which wouldn't completed till 1976). So the neighborhoods that grew up around those malls were just starting to degrade.
In the mid 90s new malls at Tuttle (Dublin), Easton (Westerville/Gahanna), and Polaris (Delaware County) changed the shopping habits of Central Ohio. Westland and Northland suffered the greatest, while Eastland holds due to the lack of viable competition in southeast Columbus/Franklin County.
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WillWeaverRVA

Quote from: Takumi on January 14, 2012, 03:55:12 PM
Quote from: 74/171FAN on March 09, 2011, 12:52:46 AM
Near Richmond the old Cloverleaf Mall has been closed for years now.

Something was supposed to be done to the property but I have not heard much about it lately.

According to a now-dead link on Deadmalls a church tried to buy it in 2005. More recently I'd heard it was supposed to become a housing development. It was demolished late last year.

Cloverleaf hasn't been fully demolished yet, apparently some deal regarding use of the land has stalled, and so the pace of the demolition has slowed.

Another notable dead mall in the area was Azalea Mall, Richmond's first enclosed shopping mall. It flourished from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s, but was killed by newer malls further away from the city as well as increasing crime in the area. The mall was completely demolished and razed in the mid 1990s. The only surviving remnants are the Azalea Mall Garden Center, which is run by the former manager of the Woolworth's garden center, and the old sign at the entrance of the mall.
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Beltway

Quote from: WillWeaverRVA on January 20, 2012, 10:07:52 PM
Quote from: Takumi on January 14, 2012, 03:55:12 PM
Quote from: 74/171FAN on March 09, 2011, 12:52:46 AM
Near Richmond the old Cloverleaf Mall has been closed for years now.

Something was supposed to be done to the property but I have not heard much about it lately.

According to a now-dead link on Deadmalls a church tried to buy it in 2005. More recently I'd heard it was supposed to become a housing development. It was demolished late last year.
Cloverleaf hasn't been fully demolished yet, apparently some deal regarding use of the land has stalled, and so the pace of the demolition has slowed.

It's less than 50% demolished today, there is a tremendous amount of work to dismantle those steel-framed buildings, and to remove and recycle acres of asphalt parking lots.

Here's what is planned --

Revitalization Office - Cloverleaf Mall Project
http://www.chesterfield.gov/content.aspx?id=2772
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

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Takumi

Interesting. I'd read that a Kroger was going there, but nothing else. Next time I'm up that way I'll take some more pictures of the demolition. When I was there in 2010 the sides of the mall were fenced off and being used by the Richmond police department. I'm sure it's at least that restricted now, but the pictures I took weren't very good. I also want to check out the old Best Products store across Midlothian from it.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.



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