Dead Malls

[roadman65]

Looks like Rutland, VT is dead.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yx1qX3yfDGM2mSFSA
Abandoned anchor store at south end.

[Flint1979]

I just heard that Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights, Michigan is permanently closing on July 1, 2024. This one comes as somewhat of a surprise considering the area around Lakeside isn't doing too bad. The mall has lost a lot of tenants over the years but I wasn't aware that the mall was in danger of permanently closing.

[dvferyance]

Looks like Brookfield Square is headed in the direction of a dead mall. I emailed the Mayor of Brookfield recently about it but have yet to get a reply. The area around it is thriving so I think the only reason why the mall itself is failing is due to poor management. Looks like the Milwaukee metro area could soon be down to just 2 indoor malls.

[mgk920]

Looks like Brookfield Square is headed in the direction of a dead mall. I emailed the Mayor of Brookfield recently about it but have yet to get a reply. The area around it is thriving so I think the only reason why the mall itself is failing is due to poor management. Looks like the Milwaukee metro area could soon be down to just 2 indoor malls.

As I have typed in here many times before, the late 20th century mall is a hopelessly obsolete business plan nearly everywhere,  The only one in Wisconsin that appears to me to still be doing OK is Bay Park Square in the Green Bay area (Ashwaubenon).  (I don't have any recent experience with the Madison, WI area.) Heck, I still barely remember Capitol Court in Milwaukee (it was at Capitol Dr/FdL Av) from a visit during my childhood.

Mike

[Flint1979]

Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights is closing for good tomorrow. Macy's and JCPenney will remain open while the mall around the two anchor stores is demolished for redevelopment.

[noelbotevera]

Here's a small eulogy to my local mall, the Chambersburg Mall (1982 - 2023).

The dang thing was dying in the 2000s and we all thought the Recession would kill it. It didn't.

Then the last anchor stores closed in 2018 and we all thought losing those would kill it. It didn't.

Then COVID hit and still the movie theater plus Bath and Body Works hung around. We really wanted it to die, but it didn't.

Finally it was sold July-August 2023. I was last there July 2022 with a friend, and we saw nobody around us. We were convinced we were breathing in black mold from the air vents.

Fun fact, there was a Pepsi vending machine advertising the Star Wars prequels, namely the Phantom Menace. That thing stood for 25 years and was updated to take a credit card. No clue what happened to it.

[ErmineNotyours]

^^  Heh.  I remember when a latte stand opened in front of the parking garage entrance to a movie theater in Downtown Seattle.  The same faded and waterlogged poster for Crocodile Dundee In Los Angeles was left up here long after the movie opened and closed because the theater conceded the space to the coffee maker.

[roadman65]

Manhattan Mall in New York City ( the former Gimbels Store on Herald Square) is dead.

It was one of a kind having 13 stories with an atrium in the center and two basement levels. The first basement had an entrance to/ from PATH trains while the second connected to/ from the Sixth Avenue IND Subway.

[TheCatalyst31]

Looks like Brookfield Square is headed in the direction of a dead mall. I emailed the Mayor of Brookfield recently about it but have yet to get a reply. The area around it is thriving so I think the only reason why the mall itself is failing is due to poor management. Looks like the Milwaukee metro area could soon be down to just 2 indoor malls.

As I have typed in here many times before, the late 20th century mall is a hopelessly obsolete business plan nearly everywhere,  The only one in Wisconsin that appears to me to still be doing OK is Bay Park Square in the Green Bay area (Ashwaubenon).  (I don't have any recent experience with the Madison, WI area.) Heck, I still barely remember Capitol Court in Milwaukee (it was at Capitol Dr/FdL Av) from a visit during my childhood.

Mike

The two big malls in Madison, East Towne and West Towne, are both surviving but not exactly thriving. I was at East Towne today to visit the Barnes & Noble, and parts of it still have good foot traffic but one wing is almost completely empty. They still haven't found anyone to replace the Sears or the Boston Store, the latter of which closed six years ago. I think West Towne is doing a little better, but I haven't been over there in a while.

Hilldale is doing great, but it's an outdoor mall with upscale stores, so it's not the traditional business model (which is probably why it's thriving).

[Road Hog]

Walking a mall was the thing when I was a kid. That is the main cultural change. Nowadays that is the domain of 60-ish grandmothers who were the teen mall rats of the late 70s and early 80s. They can get their steps in elsewhere.

[mgk920]

Looks like Brookfield Square is headed in the direction of a dead mall. I emailed the Mayor of Brookfield recently about it but have yet to get a reply. The area around it is thriving so I think the only reason why the mall itself is failing is due to poor management. Looks like the Milwaukee metro area could soon be down to just 2 indoor malls.

As I have typed in here many times before, the late 20th century mall is a hopelessly obsolete business plan nearly everywhere,  The only one in Wisconsin that appears to me to still be doing OK is Bay Park Square in the Green Bay area (Ashwaubenon).  (I don't have any recent experience with the Madison, WI area.) Heck, I still barely remember Capitol Court in Milwaukee (it was at Capitol Dr/FdL Av) from a visit during my childhood.

Mike

The two big malls in Madison, East Towne and West Towne, are both surviving but not exactly thriving. I was at East Towne today to visit the Barnes & Noble, and parts of it still have good foot traffic but one wing is almost completely empty. They still haven't found anyone to replace the Sears or the Boston Store, the latter of which closed six years ago. I think West Towne is doing a little better, but I haven't been over there in a while.

Hilldale is doing great, but it's an outdoor mall with upscale stores, so it's not the traditional business model (which is probably why it's thriving).

The Fox River Mall here in the Appleton area also in a steady, inexorable decline.  They have not found replacements for the former Sears and Younkers/H.C. Prange stores (Sears still owns their space), Macy's and JC Penney are uncertain at best and now Target is having serious corporate-level problems.  To top it off, the township that it is in seems to be showing now concern over the neighborhood's future.  As an Appleton city resident, I am seriously concerned that that area will become a serious blight on Appleton's 'front porch'.

Mike

[Rothman]

Syracuse has that fun tiny extension to the west to maintain control over part of its water supply:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/KsJ5nKAVK9kdzhkM7

[hotdogPi]

Syracuse has that fun tiny extension to the west to maintain control over part of its water supply:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/KsJ5nKAVK9kdzhkM7

Since when is the water supply part of a mall?

[Rothman]

Syracuse has that fun tiny extension to the west to maintain control over part of its water supply:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/KsJ5nKAVK9kdzhkM7

Since when is the water supply part of a mall?

Wow.  This thread mix-up is definitely one of the weirder ones browsing by phone has inflicted upon me.

[GCrites]

More computers, less phones

[Road Hog]

Malls need water, sewer and other utilities too, so understandable.

[SectorZ]

Syracuse has that fun tiny extension to the west to maintain control over part of its water supply:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/KsJ5nKAVK9kdzhkM7

Since when is the water supply part of a mall?

It's the part of the mall with the Olive Garden.

[roadman65]

Malls need water, sewer and other utilities too, so understandable.

And like the late Rodney Dangerfield told the Economics Professor in Back to School. " Then there the matter of the waste disposal. I don't know if your familiar with who runs that outfit, but I assure you it's not the Boy Scouts." 

[bing101]

Here is one to look at and it resembles malls from the 1980's given some of the styles seen at KoreaTown Plaza in Los Angeles.

[dvferyance]

Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights is closing for good tomorrow. Macy's and JCPenney will remain open while the mall around the two anchor stores is demolished for redevelopment.

I thought they would be moving to the nearby still thriving Partridge Creek Mall since they have both of their anchors spots vacant. That would make a lot more sense.

[dvferyance]

Looks like Brookfield Square is headed in the direction of a dead mall. I emailed the Mayor of Brookfield recently about it but have yet to get a reply. The area around it is thriving so I think the only reason why the mall itself is failing is due to poor management. Looks like the Milwaukee metro area could soon be down to just 2 indoor malls.

As I have typed in here many times before, the late 20th century mall is a hopelessly obsolete business plan nearly everywhere,  The only one in Wisconsin that appears to me to still be doing OK is Bay Park Square in the Green Bay area (Ashwaubenon).  (I don't have any recent experience with the Madison, WI area.) Heck, I still barely remember Capitol Court in Milwaukee (it was at Capitol Dr/FdL Av) from a visit during my childhood.

Mike

The two big malls in Madison, East Towne and West Towne, are both surviving but not exactly thriving. I was at East Towne today to visit the Barnes & Noble, and parts of it still have good foot traffic but one wing is almost completely empty. They still haven't found anyone to replace the Sears or the Boston Store, the latter of which closed six years ago. I think West Towne is doing a little better, but I haven't been over there in a while.

Hilldale is doing great, but it's an outdoor mall with upscale stores, so it's not the traditional business model (which is probably why it's thriving).

The Fox River Mall here in the Appleton area also in a steady, inexorable decline.  They have not found replacements for the former Sears and Younkers/H.C. Prange stores (Sears still owns their space), Macy's and JC Penney are uncertain at best and now Target is having serious corporate-level problems.  To top it off, the township that it is in seems to be showing now concern over the neighborhood's future.  As an Appleton city resident, I am seriously concerned that that area will become a serious blight on Appleton's 'front porch'.

Mike

I was just there yesterday the place was packed. I don't think that mall is going anywhere anytime soon. It would be nice if Von Maur would take one of the vacant anchors though. That would be a great location for a 3rd Von Maur in Wisconsin. And I also visited Bay Park Square in Green Bay again that place was packed too. Kohl's is the only anchor department store there but having Steinhafel's and HyVee as the other anchors still must work for that mall. My only complaint is that Hyvee doesn't have an entrance from inside the mall.

[Flint1979]

Last Monday I rode down to Cincinnati and went into Piqua Mall for a bit and walked around. Might be the deadest mall I have seen but it looks like they are renovating it so I dunno but it only had a few stores if that open and no anchor stores other than Dunham's if you could even consider that an anchor (I don't).

[Stephane Dumas]

There's a Archie comic story from Life with Archie #256 who depicted the Riverdale Mall dying and that story was published in 1986 but back then Archie and the gang found a way to resolve that problem.
https://readallcomics.com/life-with-archie-256/
and you can bypass all the pop-ups ads via the archived version on Archive.today. https://archive.ph/xdAV1

[bing101]

[dvferyance]

Looks like Brookfield Square is headed in the direction of a dead mall. I emailed the Mayor of Brookfield recently about it but have yet to get a reply. The area around it is thriving so I think the only reason why the mall itself is failing is due to poor management. Looks like the Milwaukee metro area could soon be down to just 2 indoor malls.

As I have typed in here many times before, the late 20th century mall is a hopelessly obsolete business plan nearly everywhere,  The only one in Wisconsin that appears to me to still be doing OK is Bay Park Square in the Green Bay area (Ashwaubenon).  (I don't have any recent experience with the Madison, WI area.) Heck, I still barely remember Capitol Court in Milwaukee (it was at Capitol Dr/FdL Av) from a visit during my childhood.

Mike

The two big malls in Madison, East Towne and West Towne, are both surviving but not exactly thriving. I was at East Towne today to visit the Barnes & Noble, and parts of it still have good foot traffic but one wing is almost completely empty. They still haven't found anyone to replace the Sears or the Boston Store, the latter of which closed six years ago. I think West Towne is doing a little better, but I haven't been over there in a while.

Hilldale is doing great, but it's an outdoor mall with upscale stores, so it's not the traditional business model (which is probably why it's thriving).

I recently visited West Towne and I would say it's thriving. Very few vacancies in fact I think it's even doing better now than my last visit there 2 years ago. They even have a Build a Bear as a kiosk because there is no available spaces you can't do better than that.