http://www.labelscar.com/wisconsin/centerpoint-marketplace
I’ve gotta go with the local mall from when I was a kid - the CenterPoint Mall in Stevens Point WI. Surprisingly, it is not on deadmalls.com, but the above link probably provides a more accurate and comprehensive story.
Mounds Mall ( http://moundsmall.com/ ) was the second enclosed mall in Indiana. For years, the J.C. Penney there had the only escalators in town. Antique, classic car, coin and stamp, and camper and RV shows along with Boy Scout and Junior Achievement festivals held inside used to really draw in the crowds. Now it seems the only thing keeping it going is the ten-screen movie theater.
Two of the most prosperous-looking malls in this area – Crabtree Valley and Streets at Southpoint – are hybrid indoor/outdoor malls. Crabtree is really interesting; it’s been around since the '70’s, so the bulk of the shopping is indoor, but it has added lots of outdoor shopping areas and restaurants through construction on top of its shopping decks and apparent takeover of a small adjacent strip mall. They responded to the loss of an anchor store – Lord and Taylor – by letting Belk move its men’s department into the upper space, and converting the lower space into smaller stores. They’re also very careful about empty storefronts; they’re kept covered with big drywall ‘boxes’ that frequently advertise what will be moving into the space.
The mall closest to me is Triangle Towne Center; it was reported by The News & Observer to be dying a few months ago. That was a bit of an exaggeration; however, one wing of the mall has lost a significant number of tennants (including those little kiosks), and there are lots of empty storefronts. There’s always plenty of parking. This was also constructed as a hybrid mall; at the time, I remember lots of people saying that the developers were trying to imitate the appearance of The Streets at Southpoint. Its outdoor shopping area is virtually deserted now, and the little stream-like water feature that used to run the length of the area has been filled in.
Cary Towne Center is a 90’s era mall; its developers (the same people who own Triangle Towne Center) haven’t bothered to update it much. I’m not sure how it manages to stay open. They recently added a Dave and Busters; I’m not sure why.
I grew up in Boston. I remember when the Assembly Square opened. I was a kid, and even right out of the gate it sucked. We used to call it a Shoe Store Mall.
But, as much as I hate going to the mall, when I do need to run errands in the shitty weather, I am always going to choose the enclosed place.
I don’t think it’s the mall rats, as they’ve left of their own accord. I think its construction costs and easier repurposing.
Forgot about North Hills! This mall actually did die; developers came in, tore down everything but JC Penney’s (and its parking deck), and constructed a massive outdoor dining/shopping complex. It seems to be fairly popular.
There’s also a former outlet mall in Morrisville…based on its food court, it was constructed sometime in the '80s. I’m not sure if it ever functioned as a real mall; I visited it once when it was full of outlet stores, then a couple of times when it was down to just a handful of tenants. That was very creepy – the owners kept most of the lights off. It’s now being redeveloped into some kind of Chinese American cultural center.
I don’t know what you mean about Mall Rats leaving “of their own accord”. The enclosed malls I’ve seen still have their hangers-on. They haven’t left.
But nobody “hangs out” in a Lifestyle Center in bad weather. If you go into a store, they’re eventually going to ask you if you’re going to buy something. You don’t have to put up with that hassle in an enclosed mall, where there’s a large common area.
I can’t believe it’s construction costs or repurposing – there’s absolutely no gain there. It seems abundantly clear to me that tonier areas are ditching the enclosed spaces to avoid the “squatter” problem. Otherwise I really can’t see why Salt Lake and Boston – which have more than their share of cold, snowy days in winter, and plenty of raw weather in Spring and Fall – wouldn’t encourage their customers with an enclosed mall.
The “mall rats” I see these days have an average age of 70 or so. I can see why they wouldn’t want them around olding the place up.
Dunno if they’re the target, but I know I don’t see them loitering around Lifestyle Centers, either.
Up in the San Jose area, Vallco is mostly dead, having been supplanted by Valley Fair/Santana Row.
Both of the malls in my area where I both worked and played as a teenager have declined so much that they are gone entirely. At least three or four here in the Denver area have either been redeveloped into mixed use facilities or been razed. It’s all rather sad. I can still remember how excited I was as a high schooler to hear that we were finally getting our very own mall! I got a job in one of the anchor stores and was working on the mall’s opening day. We all dressed up to the nines and the mayor held a gala reception in the common area to introduce the community to the new mall.
Every mall that no longer has a bookstore has deteriorated, AFAIC.
I’ve complained long and bitterly about the Decline of the Bookstores. At one time I knew of a mall (Woodbridge Center in NJ) that had four bookstores in it.
The only enclosed mall I know of that still has a bookstore in it is the Prudential Center in Boston (which has always had at least one bookstore in it), which still has a Barnes and Noble. I suspect the only reason it’s there is because they couldn’t really figure out how to put it outside the confines of the mall. Aside from university bookstores, two used book shops, and the Trident Bookstore/Café, it’s the only bookstore I know of in Boston. (Which used to have so many bookstores that I couldn’t tell you at any time how many it had)
There are several enclosed and non-enclosed malls that have a Barnes and Noble nearby, but not actually in an enclosed mall. They seem to really want their own separate entrance.
So if you say that all malls without bookstores are declining, it means to me that virtually all malls are declining.
I grew up in Harvey Il and Dixie Square was where my family shopped. Kinda hard to imagine a more pitiful decline than ultimately being destroyed in a movie stunt.
IIRC the city sued the film makers later, saying that the movie folks had claimed they would repair the damage. Instead they just packed up and went back to Hollywood.
Ironically the Auburn Mall that I mentioned in my OP does have a bookstore in it. They have a Books-A-Million and it seemed to be the only store in there with people actually buying things.
The fastest decline of a mall I ever saw was Mall of the great Plains in Olathe Kansas that lasted no more than about 20 years.
Odessa Missouri built this HUGE place full of outlet stores that I suppose, was supposed to get all the traffic on I70. Now about 20 years later is all dead space.
Does it? it’s been a while since I visited the Auburn Mall. When last I was there the Waldenbooks had closed, so there was no bookstore there. There had been a Barnes and Noble down the road from them, but that closed even earlier. So with the closing of the WaldenStuff there was no bookstore nearby Auburn, Sturbridge, or Southbridge (although I hear that Books and Beans, the charity-run used bookshop, later re-opened in Southbridge. But that’s slim pickin’s). Good to hear a BAM moved in – they’re a good chain.
Unfortunately, near me the trend is still the wrong way. After the regular book stores in Square One Mall in Saugus and Meadow Glen Mall in Medford closed, used book stores moved in. But those have now closed, as well, leaving those two malls without any bookstores.
I wonder what the design life of malls is? Most of them are cheaply constructed, with concrete block walls and cheap facades. I would bet that the are probably designed to last no more than 30 years or so-and probably designed for ease of demolition as well.
You might be thinking of a different Auburn. The one I mentioned is in Maine.
Ah, yes – I’m talking about the one in Auburn, MA.
I don’t know if they were intentionally built cheaply for ease of destruction. I do know of more than one mall that has been substantially rebuilt, and its lifetime this extended. – the Mid-state Mall in NJ, NorthShore Mall in Massachusetts.
there are also malls that were torn down and rebuilt – so evidently they wanted to have a mall there, just not necessarily the one that’s there. Shopper’s World in Natick/Framingham MA was demolished, and the new mall of the same name in the same place has nothing else in common with its predecessor – it’s an “outdoor” mall (although a LOT bigger than a “strip mall”), with no enclosed stores. Assembly Square in Somerville, MA was virtually rebuilot after most of the stores closed, also going from an enclosed mall to a set of big stores only connected by the outdoor routes.