February, 2007 - Labelscar: The Retail History Blog

Latham Circle Mall; Latham, New York

After a rather long dry spell (since November), I managed to get out for a day this past weekend to re-visit all of the malls in the Albany area, one of my favorite metropolitan areas for retail development within easy reach of Boston. I hadn’t actually been out to visit since 2001, so it was a fun (and revelatory, but not necessarily in the good way) trip. I plan on posting a full-scale case study along with posts of each of Albany’s malls soon, but I wanted to cut to the chase with a truly fun one.

When I last visited Latham Circle Mall in 2001, it was a mostly-thriving, older mall with predominantly ancillary tenants that served Albany’s northern suburbs and the Troy area. Too close to Albany’s powerhouse to malls to be truly dominant, the still-quite-large (somewhere around 700,000 square feet) Latham Circle Mall was at the time holding its own. Six years can change a lot, however, and on my visit this past week I was sad to find it’s now somewhat dingy and troubled, pockmarked with vacancies. It’s a shame because Latham Circle is a real doozy, and one of the more curious malls in the northeast.

Latham Circle is one of the oldest malls in the Albany area, originally opening as a 1950s-vintage outdoor shopping center with WT Grant’s, Woolworth’s, and Grand Union as anchor stores. The mall was enclosed sometime in the 1960s or 1970s (I’m not able to pin down an exact date) and added Caldor and The Boston Store (not the midwestern one!) as anchors, while WT Grant became a JCPenney. In the 1980s, the mall was expanded, with JCPenney moving to a new space outside their old one, and converting their old space into a cavernous mall area with a Regal Cinemas stowed on the second level, cantilevered above the mall.

Latham Circle Mall began to experience some uncertainty in the late 1990s. Woolworth closed their store when the chain shuttered, and they were replaced by a Stein Mart that lasted only until 2001. Similarly, the mall’s large Caldor store shut with the chain in 1999. The Caldor, along with much of the wing leading to it, was demolished in 2003 to make room for a Lowe’s Home Improvement store that, perhaps not unexpectedly, does not open into the mall.

What really makes Latham Circle Mall interesting, however, is its exceedingly strange layout and decor. The mall abounds with architectural “treats:” hallways that don’t match other parts of the mall, unusually high ceilings, mysterious second levels that sprout and don’t lead anyplace. I’ve attempted to provide a rough sketch of the floorplan of the mall as it existed in 2000, upon my first visit (and before the demolition of the Caldor and most of the rest of its wing took some of the personality out of the place):

There are basically four vastly different portions of the mall (there used to be five). From north to south:

The newest JCPenney/Regal Cinemas area, with its extremely high ceilings and white walls.
The main corridor, with a pitched roof and “elephant earring” light fixtures (as Prangeway would say). This also includes a special wing for the food court; at the back of the food court is an abandoned and derelict second level (which I included one shot of; I wanted more but two ladies kept eyeing me strangely, perhaps with good reason) that is visibly stuck in the early 1970s, and I have no idea what it was even used for.
The center court area, around Burlington Coat Factory
The former Stein Mart/Woolworth wing, which has two vastly different ceiling heights running straight down the center of the mall
And the fifth, deceased wing is the Caldor wing, which used to be a two-level area with a second level of offices looking down into the mall. Most of this wing is gone, but I included a few pictures that grab some small bits of it for posterity. If you want to know what it looked like pre-2003, check out DeadMalls set of photos, which includes one amazingly awesome shot of the former Caldor frontage as I remember it.

Why is Latham Circle dying? The Capital Region of New York, with a population of about 800,000, was at one point home to no less than 11 enclosed malls, several of which have already shut. The catalyst for the change, however, was the 1984 opening of the behemoth Crossgates Mall, the area’s true powerhouse center. Even though the area is overmalled, Latham Circle stands a chance: but it will need to act fast to clean itself up and attract some new tenants to fill its vacancies. Enjoy the photos, all taken this past weekend.

(Also, visit Jack Thomas’ page on the mall too–he has some photos of his own!)

EDIT 5/20/07: Latham Circle Mall to Explore New Lifestyle

The aging Latham Circle Mall is going to be extensively renovated beginning this summer. While the mall will not be fully disenclosed, much of the focus will be turned back outside, including the addition of an outdoor courtyard in the center of the existing mall, which will feature al fresco dining. The existing food court will also become a new anchor store.

Edgewater Mall (Edgelake Plaza); Manitowoc / Two Rivers, Wisconsin

Manitowoc, Wisconsin is a small port city in east-central Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. With a population of 34,000 and micropolitan area (with Two Rivers and the rest of the county) of just over 50,000, Manitowoc is hardly a large place. Most of its roots are in manufacturing, shipping and agriculture, and thus growth in the region has slowed in recent decades as the economy shifts from that of building things to one of building knowledge. That said, Manitowoc still maintains a retail presence, but it is important to consider that it has always been on a local scale. Being about 30 minutes from both Green Bay and Sheboygan, and less than an hour from Appleton where ample retail offerings exist, Manitowoc has never been the center of super-regional (or even regional) retail activity. Instead, the offerings in Manitowoc and Two Rivers have been just enough to sustain local shoppers, including two enclosed malls right next to each other: Edgelake Plaza, at 210,000 square feet, and Lakeview Centre.

From time to time, we feature guest bloggers here who have their own stories to share. The following entry comes to us from Matt A. (a.k.a. Matt from WI from the comments board on this site) as he tells the story of the newer of two adjacent malls between Manitowoc and Two Rivers, Wisconsin:

My home state of Wisconsin, like many other Upper Midwestern states, was dotted with small community malls of this ilk during the days of the enclosed mall building boom in the late 1960s-1980s. While the cities of Manitowoc and Two Rivers already shared the Mid-Cities Mall, which opened in 1968 and boasted a Wards, Penney’s, and over 20 other shops, most of those shops were the local / regional flavor, save for a large Woolworth, A&P and Osco Drug. Edgewater took up the slack when it opened directly across the street in 1979, bringing with it another 20 stores, most of them featuring a heavy regional / national presence. It was originally anchored on the west end by a Prange’s (now Younkers) and Prange Way flanked the eastern end, with in-line space in between. The newer more modern mall even took away some of Mid-Cities’ stores.I’m not sure as to how ‘successful’ Edgewater Mall was back in its first years of life (’79-’89), but I’d imagine it did well enough when it was 100% occupied, when Wal-Mart wasn’t ‘the place’ people shopped (it was Prange Way or K-mart back then), and the local economy was still in halfway decent shape -but more on that in a moment. At least four reasons account for why this mall died:

1 – A new interstate, I-43, opened in 1981 and finally gave Manitowoc and Two Rivers a major highway link to the major cities of Green Bay and Milwaukee, taking away consumer dollars that otherwise would have been spent locally.

2 – Location. The Mall, while located just off the lakefront on the northeast side of town, is not near the main commercial hub of Manitowoc. The southwest side of Manitowoc is the new retail strip for the area, with big box such as K-mart, ShopKo, and several strip malls that opened starting in the 1970s. While old Highway 42 (Memorial Drive) is / was the main link between Manitowoc (and points south including Milwaukee) and the Door County region, once I-43 was built (shortly after the Edgewater Mall opened), all the thru-traffic going past the mall was sucked away, and with it, the retail heart of the city swung around to the southwest at the intersection of I-43 and U.S. 151. Mid-Cities Mall, renamed Lakeview Centre in the late 1980s, already a dying mall by then, didn’t help either. That building was an eyesore already by 1979 when Edgewater opened, the bottom falling out when Wards, Woolworths and Osco all pulled out and left gaping vacancies that would never be refilled. I believe this had some crossover effect on Edgelake Plaza, especially in the past 10-15 years.

3 – Tenancy. Prange’s switching to Younkers wasn’t such an issue. Hanging onto national tenants was always a problem for small malls of under 300,000 sq ft, or so it seemed. At its peak, Edgewater had names like Id Boutique, Kinney Shoes, Kindy Optical, Regis, Deb, Brooks Fashions, an arcade, several food counters, and various other major stores, at least 20 in all. Bankruptcies and the big blow came in 1996 when Prange Way went bankrupt and shuttered their Edgewater location along with the rest of the 22-store chain of regional discount stores.

4 – Local Economy: During the World War era, Manitowoc flourished due to its shipbuilding industry. There was also the Mirro Company, and several other major manufacturers within the city providing an economic base. When all of this was outsourced starting in the late 1970s and continuing still to this day..well, you can guess what happens over time. No money to spend = retailers struggle and eventually go out of business. Such was the case here.

I’ve attatched two sets of imagery. The outdoor ones I snapped in 2004. The interior shots I took last year. You can really tell this is a 1970s mall. The outside was given a paintjob in 2002, but you can still tell when it was built by the plain boxy look of the building, and the typical vertical-slotted cinderblock details. Inside, the dark terra-cotta flooring, the low tiled ceilings, the fluorescent light fixtures instead of mecury-vapor bulbs (energy crisis in the late 1970s prompted the use of fluorescent lighting), lots of planters and wood-tone benches, and those treated-wood-style storefronts that chains like Brooks, Id, and Regis used back in 1979…very dated and a dead giveaway as to the era this mall opened. The mall only consists of one wide concourse stretching between Younkers and the vacant Prange Way, and a short hallway going to the mall’s lone rear entrance. Two entryways take up the front.

When I visited last year to take the interior pics, all that was left was a tanning studio, a NASCAR paraphernalia store, a nail salon, an eyecare/opticians office, and a Sears Authorized Dealer store that only sells Sears’ hardlines (Craftsman and Kenmore stuff).

I’m not sure how much longer this mall will last, considering there’s not much left. However it seems to still be in operational mode, because when I was there, the floors were getting buffed as you can see in the pics (they’re unusually shiny and look new), and several old storefronts were being repainted, leading me to believe maybe the new owners / management have intentions to lease space. In the end, it’s a dying, yet decently maintained little mall. Trust me, I have seen worse in the upkeep department when it comes to these smaller malls.

With most malls like this in Wisconsin having been either reconfigured into strip malls, or torn down outright, it was a nice find that Edgelake Plaza has been open long enough for me to capture an example of
what we were seeing during the mall boom in the 1970s and is today disappearing in favor of big boxes and
super-mega malls. These were not ‘regional’ malls in the sense of the term, they were community malls
(though they did serve the rural areas within the county as well), and it is quite a shame to see many of them going the way of 8-track tapes and VHS movies. They hold a certain aura and charm that the huge behemoth malls just can’t capture. It sure would be nice to see Edgelake Plaza be fully occupied again someday and thriving once again.

Thanks, Matt. We appreciate the submission. If you have any other comments, feel free to add to the discussion. The pictures featured with this article were taken by me in 2001 and by Matt A. in 2004 and 2006.

Oh, and by the way…Matt submitted an article on Wikipedia about Edgelake Plaza, and their content selectors flagged it for deletion today for not being notable enough. We here at labelscar feel it’s rather ridiculous (not to mention incredibly subjective) to try to decide which malls have notability and which do not, especially considering no precedent has been set for determining shopping center notability. Is a shopping center notable because it has a certain number of stores, or attracts an affluent customer base? What about its sheer size? Maybe it’s just notable for the people who live in the area and shop there regularly.

Whoever thinks that shopping centers, even this one, aren’t notable should thoughtfully reconsider. While Wikipedia is not the yellow pages, shopping malls are an important piece of our collective history and culture. Whether you like them or dislike them notwithstanding, they have proven themselves functionally and have a continued following. In addition, they function more than just systems of utilitarian commerce. In fact, many people do find them interesting as reflections of their own style of architecture, their varied retail presence, relative locations in our cities, and even their varying physical conditions. I would argue that in general, shopping mall articles belong in a reference encyclopedia if, for nothing else, to provide an index of these important historical agents of our collective history, our pieces of Americana. We must continue to be very careful in filtering content so that we don’t become an irrelevant collective source of information.

We don’t usually use the blog to further a specific agenda such as this, but we feel marginalized by those who essentially don’t understand the appreciation and legitimacy of retail places, and who view them as thin and not unique. To us, nearly all retail places are unique in some interesting way, and the claim of a reference encyclopedia asserting it does not wish to index every shopping center is as absurd as saying “We also no longer wish to list every city; some are just not that notable.” So, if you could go to the page and voice your concerns, that would be great. End rant for now…

July 2001

2004

2006

Blue Ridge Mall; Kansas City, Missouri

Opened in 1958 at the corner of U.S. 40 and I-70 in east Kansas City, Blue Ridge Mall was a major shopping center anchored by The Jones Store, JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward. Once the fourth largest mall in the Kansas City area, Blue Ridge Mall slid into a quick decline and today is nothing more than a Wal-Mart Supercenter with a few outparcels. The story is interesting and even somewhat controversial, so read on.

The mall was enclosed in the 1970s following a national trend to enclose large, existing open-air centers in North America, and it also expanded as JCPenney moved into a new location. The newly enclosed mall was well received, despite competition from both nearby Independence Center in the mid-1970s and Bannister Mall, which opened in 1980. Success at Blue Ridge Mall during the 1970s and 1980s was at least partly due to its highly visible location with impressive frontage on I-70.

However, the fate of Blue Ridge changed dramatically during the 1990s. The changing demographics of the area surrounding the mall combined with a general trend favoring only large, super-regional centers left Blue Ridge with more vacancies than ever before. One of the worst blows occurred in 1997 with the closure of the largely popular Woolworth’s store as that chain folded. According to a deadmalls.com submittal, by 1999 the mall had lost many stores; however, all three anchor stores remained open by 2000.

Although Blue Ridge Mall declined dramatically during the 1990s, the first few years of the new millenium proved to seal its fate. In late 2000, Montgomery Ward closed up shop around the same time the entire chain closed. Then, in 2001, JCPenney closed, prompting mall management to think about massive renovations to save the troubled center. MBS Mall Investor-98 LLC, who owned the mall since 1998, contracted plans for the renovation. It was to feature a hybridized enclosed-outdoor combination, retaining most of the old enclosed space but complementing it with new exterior frontage facing I-70, where 216,000 cars pass daily. During the planning process, they also added non-traditional tenants to the mall, including a 97-table dinner theatre and a 91,000 square-foot antique mall. That’s a lot of antiques. In addition, they eagerly announced a national sporting goods and outdoor-supply chain were both interested in space at the renovated Blue Ridge Mall.

Sadly (and rather mysteriously), the ambitious renovation plans disappeared completely after being announced in 2001, which is very similar to what happened at nearby Bannister Mall. This caused many more stores to become frustrated and leave. Finally, The Jones Store called it quits in 2003, leaving Blue Ridge Mall anchorless. Like a car without wheels, the future of Blue Ridge by this point was rather grim, with only Applebee’s and a few stores hanging on.

The following year, in 2004, Blue Ridge Mall’s owners got in bed with Wal-Mart and announced they were going to demolish the entire mall and build a shiny new Wal-Mart Supercenter, while developing some of the outparcels and the whole shebang. But they would only do this once they secured a TIF from Kansas City to redevelop the blighted property. Hmm. And so it goes, I guess.

And so it went. In February 2005, they got their TIF and demolition began in Fall 2005. By early 2006, the former mall was a pile of rubble (with a huge rat problem), and the new Wal-Mart was up and running in January 2007. At least it’s a “green” Wal-Mart, meaning the urinals don’t waste water and the store uses renewable energy, creates less waste and sells products that sustain our resources and environment. That makes me feel better about the tons of diesel fuel they use every day, among other things…

At any rate, the mall is gone now, but lucky for y’all we’ve preserved it here on the interweb for future posterity. The pictures were taken in April 2001. Check out the decor, including the awesome vintage Jones Store scripted logo. The middle of the mall was renovated at some point, probably during the late 80s or early 90s, but the outside of the mall was as old as ever. Also, check out Rod Shelley’s cool demolition pictures. As always, feel free to add your own opinions and if possible, more information about the mall itself.

Tewksbury Mills: Dead in the Water?

Yesterday’s announcement that Simon is mulling a purchase of embattled Mills Corporation has gotten me wondering about one of Mills’ stalled projects right in my own backyard: Tewksbury Mills.

I’ve had an eye on this project for awhile. One of only two new enclosed malls currently proposed for New England, Tewksbury Mills was originally proposed in 2001 or 2002 as a 750,000 sqft, enclosed mall with an entertainment focus. The proposal followed a failed (and slightly more ambitious proposal) by Mills to build a mall on the site of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, 15 miles south of Boston. Instead, their focus shifted to the dense suburbs north of Boston, in particular the town of Tewksbury. With a population of nearly 40,000 and many other large suburbs nearby, the retail climate in the area is a bit unique for such dense suburbia. The proposed mall site is about 15 miles south of the New Hampshire border, and New Hampshire has no retail sales tax. As a result, the entire Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts is somewhat under-retailed (in relation to its population) due to a string of large retail areas located just barely over the state line in New Hampshire, to take advantage of tax laws. The flip side of this, however, is that the populous towns south of the Merrimack Valley–which also includes several populous cities, such as Lowell (with 105,000 people) have to travel relatively considerable distances for more than basic shopping: shoppers either drive to New Hampshire, or south to the Route 128 beltway around Boston. With tax free shopping so nearby, however, there’s always been little hope for any large-scale retail to succeed.

A Mills mall, with its mixture of unusual, off-price tenants and entertainment destinations, may be an exception. Because it would not be competing directly with the large malls on all sides of it, the Tewksbury Mills project seems poised to fill this retail gap without succumbing to the pressures of the existing malls. The following is taken directly from Mills’ informational site on the mall, and it outlines their original plans:

PROPOSED MALL PLAN

Mills Corporation is proposing to develop an enclosed, two-level, 21st century retail and entertainment complex on land owned by the Perkins Trust to service Tewksbury and the surrounding area. Unlike earlier Mills Landmark projects that range in size from 1.1M – 2.2 M square feet of GLA (Gross Leasable Area) Tewksbury Mills will be closer in size to a traditional regional mall but containing a strong entertainment component. Tewksbury Mills will contain between 750,000 and 800,000 square feet of GLA. The term GLA is the standard term used in the real estate industry to measure the comparative size of shopping centers. GLA includes only those areas in the shopping center directly leased to tenants but does not include common use areas such as mall areas and rest rooms which are for the common use and benefit of the tenants and/or the public. The following is a size comparison with other area malls:

Northshore Mall

1,685,000 square feet GLA

Burlington Mall

1,255,072 square feet GLA

Mall at Rockingham Park

1,020,333 square feet GLA

Pheasant Lane Mall

982,191 square feet GLA

Tewksbury Mills

750,000 square feet GLA

As a part of the entertainment component, Tewksbury Mills will contain a theatre complex and a two-surface ice skating facility. Mills has indicated its willingness to make ice time available to Tewksbury residents at a reduced rate. Although firm commitments have not been obtained from retailers for Tewksbury Mills, other Mills projects include factory outlet, off-price and full-price retailers and department stores. In the past, Mills has introduced many new and exciting retail concepts in its projects with retailers such as IKEA, Gibson Bluegrass Guitar Factory, Bass Pro Shops, Off Fifth-Saks Fifth Avenue, Last Call-Neiman Marcus and Crayola Works being but a few. A complete listing of all tenants in other Mills projects is available on the Mills Website, www.themills.com.

As is to be expected, the mall proposal met with skepticism. Tewksbury Mills’ chosen plot had great frontage along I-93, but wasn’t adjacent to any major surface roads, and would necessitate the construction of a long-planned (and long-delayed) system of loop ramps and access roads called the Lowell Junction exit; the interchange would also serve to provide better road access to several office parks and an expanded commuter rail station on the Andover side of the freeway. In addition, residents of the town of Tewksbury were bitterly divided over the proposal, with many fearing increased traffic and damage to local businesses while just as many welcomed the increase tax revenue the mall could generate. The final proposed roadway system would not allow traffic to access any surface streets in Tewksbury, essentially orphaning the parcel (which exists on the far southeastern edge of town, near the Wilmington and Andover lines). Residents proved they were generally amenable to this plan, as it would have very little impact on existing traffic volumes in town. A very close vote to rezone the property for commercial use was approved in 2004, and it seemed Tewksbury Mills would become a reality.

The below map is (like all images in this post) pulled directly from the official Tewksbury Mills site. Note how elaborate the new roadway system is in relation to the mall parcel, and how most of it exists in the neighboring towns of Wilmington and Andover. Also, because the map is a bit confusing, left is north.

Unfortunately, the Mills Corporation’s current financial problems and the state’s inability to construct the offramps speedily enough put the project back into jeopardy, and as it stands now the mall “exists on paper” but may never actually be built. The official website for the mall has been blocked for some time, displaying only the cryptic message that Mills is “updating their website.” While it seems there is a good chance there may still be retail development on the site, it’s seeming increasingly unlikely it will be built by Mills–and by extension, it’s probably increasingly unlikely it will be an enclosed shopping mall.

I admit to being a bit biased since I’m the kind of guy who writes a blog about malls, but I’m in favor of this plan. It has several elements that seem to establish its merit:

The development parcel is a former waste site and an orphaned piece of land not useful for many other purposes
Tewksbury Mills would have freeway access, but have a very minor impact on traffic counts on local streets
The overall development, including the exit ramps, would enhance the area’s mass transit capabilities with an expanded commuter rail station, improved access to the station, and increased parking to the station. It would also be easy to tie to the mall to the station via a shuttle, giving car-free access between Boston and the mall
Tewksbury Mills is an unusual development in one of the only areas of suburban Boston that is legitimately under-malled, and is positioned within the market to succeed against its competitors

Again, of course, I’m biased. If you want to read Mills’ (equally biased!) FAQ, you can still get to it on their site, as well as a few other pages. At this point, my guess is that this may be the end of the Tewksbury Mills proposal, but given our comprehensive coverage of the New England region, it’s interesting to note the mall that never was, or the mall that may still be.

Simon Offers To Buy Mills Corporation

A big-name player in the ownership of retail centers may soon be getting bigger. On February 5, 2007, Simon Property Group Inc., which holds interest in some 286 retail properties, mostly enclosed malls, offered to buy beleagured rival Mills Corp. for $24 per share.

This isn’t the first offer Mills has received recently. Just three weeks ago, Mills received and reportedly agreed to be acquired by Canadian-based Brookfield Asset Management for $21 per share. This deal is still in place; however, a joint press release from both Mills and Simon have indicated this sweetened deal will clear the negotiating table for a possible deal. There was no comment from Brookfield Asset Management, who could also respond with an even better bid than Simon.

According to the president of a Chicago-based retail consulting firm, the Simon offer is much more attractive to many of the properties owned by Mills, because Simon has leverage to attract better tenants, a history of experience in managing retail venues, and immense financial resources for making much-needed improvements or additions to existing centers.

These offers come on the heel of a sour period for Mills, as they have recently tried to unload many of their properties such as Southridge Mall in the Milwaukee area. Up until a few years ago, Mills was a hot commodity, opening their unique brand of off-price, large enclosed malls every few months, many of which are located in large metropolitan areas. Mills began in 1985 as Western Development Company and later changed its name after debuting its first off-price mall, Potomac Mills, in the Washington, DC area.

What do you think about the possible merger? Will it make the Mills properties better overall with Simon’s leveraging power, or will Simon attempt to change them drastically?

The Maine Mall; South Portland, Maine

I was going to write something about football in here, and about how I kind of want the Bears to beat the Colts, but I really just figured I should diffuse the uber-dorkiness inherent in writing blogs about malls while I’m not only watching the superbowl, but also hosting a superbowl party. Ouch. I am so cool it hurts.

A few weeks back, I was up in the Portland, Maine area and managed to swing by one of my favorite New England malls, the massive Maine Mall in South Portland. It’s the only true super-regional shopping mall in the entire state of Maine, and the only real enclosed mall serving the state’s largest metropolitan area, a somewhat cosmopolitan and affluent region with a population of about 500,000. (The next closest major mall is Newington, New Hampshire’s Fox Run Mall, an hour to the south)

Located on Maine Mall Road near I-95/I-295, the mall was built atop some former pig farms in the mid-1960s, in an area on the western side of town that was at the time considered very remote, but is now the state of Maine’s largest retail district. This site covers most of the detailed history of the center, but I’m pretty sure it began as a smaller dumbell-style center spanning between large Sears and Jordan Marsh anchor stores. This concourse is broad, with wildly vacillating ceiling heights and the grandiosity that’s common in most classic malls. The mall was expanded in 1983 with the long, meandering concourse heading to the back of the mall, which also brought new anchors in Filene’s and JCPenney, as well as a space that housed an outpost of Portland’s own Porteous Department Store.

Today, Macy’s occupies the space once filled by Jordan Marsh (whose nameplate disappeared in the mid-1990s), and Sears remains at the opposite end of the concourse. A third anchor in this portion of the mall–which was built in 1994 for Lechmere, who remained until 1997–is now occupied by Best Buy. The wing leading to the rear of the mall has also seen major changes; while JCPenney remains, a large food court was added in 1994, and the former Filene’s store now sits dark. Similarly, the Porteous store was demolished and replaced with a new store carved into two pieces: a Sports Authority on the second level, and a Filene’s Home Store on the first. Obviously the latter is now vacant.

I can’t help but love this mall; despite its success and many attempts at modernization, its retained enough of its classic gravitas that its personality is largely unchanged.

I was able to dig up one really neat vintage photo (of admittedly unknown origin) of the mall. The wintry shot of the mall at the top of this post–taken from the one of the twin cylindrical towers of the Sheraton hotel across the street (which I’ve enclosed pictures of below) was taken sometime pre-1997, as Lechmere was still operating in the front anchor space. The store is now a Best Buy.

EDIT 10/22/2007: Prangeway found this great 1986 Maine Mall commercial on YouTube! Remember when local malls had local commercials?!

Bannister Mall; Kansas City, Missouri

The fountains here are still running, but for how much longer?

UPDATE 5/31/07: The mall has closed permanently.

Our first post from Kansas City focuses on a one-million square-foot behemoth of broken dreams. Opened in 1980, the two-level Bannister Mall is located at the interchange between I-435 and Bannister Road in southeast Kansas City. Once a poster mall for success and the center of retailing for the whole area, Bannister quickly slid into trouble and today is on life support. While many respectable retailers remain, the majority of them are local and some are transient. Most importantly, the last anchor at Bannister left the beleagured center in March 2006. As we attempt to interrogate why this occurred, we can start with understanding the history of the mall.

The decor and layout of Bannister Mall feature a virtually unchanged design from the mall’s opening in 1980. There are many wooden adornments such as the railings, and the floor and fountains sport brownish-red tiles. There are also numerous trees and planters throughout the mall, flanked with wood trim. Also unique to Bannister are several modern art-like sculptures at the two “center court” areas throughout the long, two-level corridor connecting the former Sears on the south end to the former Jones Store on the north. Speaking of the Jones Store, Bannister’s location featured an old cursive logo with a wooden store facade which is still visible in labelscar form. Finally, there is a large, mostly vacant food court on the upper level near the Jones Store on the west side. Check out the pictures for more decor detail.

When Bannister Mall debuted in 1980, the Kansas City Star featured several full-page advertisements inviting would-be patrons to join in the opening festivities. Bannister was the first KC Metro mall which had four anchors: Jones Store, Macy’s, Sears, and JCPenney. In 1986, Macy’s became Dillards as Macy’s left the Kansas City market, but it affected the mall little. Bannister soldiered on successful through the balance of the 1980s, but the 1990s brought a long, arduous decline. According to an article on deadmalls.com, some in-line stores at Bannister during its success included: Petland, KB Toys, Musicland, Pretzel Time, Saturday Matinee, Kinder Photo, Tiny Treasures (a store for little girls), Things Remembered, Mr. Bulky’s (candy), Lady Foot Locker, Foot Locker, two Claires locations, several Jewelry stores, Kids Foot Locker, Waldenbooks and B Dalton.

Although Bannister’s decline began in the early 1990s, it didn’t reach severity until later in the decade, culminating in the departure of many in-line retailers and finally JCPenney during the Summer of 2000. As early as February 1998 there were as many as 15 empty storefronts at Bannister Mall. Then, the movie theatres closed because of too many fights. In addition, more crimes were reported including petty larceny, grand theft auto, and even armed robbery. In 2001, TIAA-CREF eked out a deal for redevelopment between Bass Pro Shops and Bannister Mall which would place one of the outlet’s glorified bait shops within the declining mall. Hopes of resurrection envigorated the outlook of Bannister, but by the end of 2004 the deal collapsed and the store relocated to Independence. Also, in 2002, Dillards closed, leaving Bannister with only two anchors: Sears and Jones Store.

Following the Bass Pro debacle, in 2003 exasperated owner TIAA-CREF sold Bannister Mall to a Texas businessman by the name of Stanley Spigel. Around the same time, local government officials developed a plan to locate a massive mass-transit center near the mall. The same year, Spigel bought both the vacant Dillards and JCPenney stores, and promised to donate the vacant JCPenney space to a non-profit organization and even to give it windows. There was hope for Bannister yet, even if it became a hybridized retail/office conglomeration. However, as with most attempts at salvaging a dying mall by adding non-retail components, this plan has failed or at least has yet to come to fruition. In early 2005, the Jones Store closed and in March 2006 Sears finally closed, leaving Bannister Mall anchorless, essentially a car without wheels.

Today, Bannister Mall is a forgotten jewel in a depressed landscape. In 2006, around 3000 jobs left the Bannister area as the federal government relocated them elsewhere in Kansas City. Many strip malls around Bannister are troubled as well, and in August 2006 Wal-Mart Supercenter closed its location near Bannister Mall to relocate at the former site of Blue Ridge Mall, several miles north. The decline of this once-prosperous retail neighborhood is extensive, as people continue to shop in Lee’s Summit, Independence, or in Kansas and ignore the Bannister area.

Despite these problems, there are still several dozen in-line merchants still operating inside Bannister Mall. With some exceptions, most of the stores inside Bannister today are local and transient, and many keep nonstandard hours. There is also a flea market operating in the former Dillards/Macys location; the stores in the mall would certainly fare better if an actual anchor existded. In addition, Bannister Mall has been renamed according to one article in the Kansas City Business Journal – to Three Trails Village, signifying the three wagon trails which converged here during pioneer days, including the famed Oregon Trail.

What do you think will become of Bannister Mall? Will it remain fallow until it eventually closes for good with no redevelopment initiative, or will something save it? Leave your experiences and general comments here. The pictures here were taken in 2001 and 2006.

2006:

2001: