June, 2007 - Labelscar: The Retail History Blog

Heritage Park Mall; Midwest City, Oklahoma

Midwest City, Oklahoma is a decidedly blue-collar suburb of Oklahoma City with about 54,000 residents, located to the east of downtown and sprawled out roughly along I-40. Over the years its economy has had its ups and downs, but as of recently has sort of been in the toilet aside from the saving grace of Tinker Air Force Base which provides the region’s economic base. General Motors closed its Oklahoma City assembly facility in 2006, and numerous businesses left the area about 20 years ago during the Oklahoma oil bust of 1983, when the economy of the entire region deflated rapidly and dramatically. Though some areas around Oklahoma City have re-emerged successful through the service industry and technology sector, the east side of the metro has fared decidedly worse than the expanding north, west, and south metro areas.

One of the major retail corridors of Midwest City is Reno Avenue, which runs directly east from downtown Oklahoma City and further east off into the boonies. At just over 600,000 square feet, Heritage Park Mall anchors this retail strip in Midwest City, and it opened in the 1970s. I have one source which tells me 1971, and another which says 1978 – which is it? Heritage Park had a fair amount of success in the 1970s and 1980s, as super-regional malls like Quail Springs and Penn Square weren’t as dominant and the local economy wasn’t in dire straits.

As the 1990s progressed, Heritage Park started to show its age. Lacking renovation, stores started to flee the mall in alarming numbers. The rear anchor Wilson’s became replaced by Service Merchandise, and at least the anchor stores were safe for a while. However, the bottom dropped out at the end of the decade when Montgomery Ward left the mall during a round of bankruptcy closures in 1999, and Service Merchandise left in 2000 for the same reason. This left 2 gaping anchor holes at the mall, and the 200,000 square feet of inline space began to bleed tenants. Also in the 1990s, Penn Square Mall on Oklahoma City’s well-to-do north side and Quail Springs Mall in the sprawling far northwest area of the city repositioned themselves as top-tier destination malls, stealing shoppers and therefore tenants from all other OKC-area malls, save for the far-flung ones in Shawnee and Norman.

Since 2000, Heritage Park’s fortunes have really gone south. The mall not only has a vacancy problem, but is extremely dated, having not been significantly renovated since the 1970s. Penn Square and Quail Springs continue their dominance in the area, so Heritage Park’s management has had to make one of two decisions. Either redevelop the mall and make a converted effort to reposition, or do absolutely nothing and wait for all the stores to leave. In 2005, mall owners chose the former idea, to redevelop the mall. Citing a 33 percent vacancy rate, they determined the best way to redevelop the mall is to position big box anchors along the mall’s frontage (along Reno) and accompany them with in-line stores original to the mall’s configuration. This would significantly lessen the number of “small stores” along the mall’s corridor, but at least it would retain some enclosed space and create a hybridized center of sorts. It could work, if they ever get started. As of June 2007, no work has started on this project. As they’ve waited, Heritage Park continues to bleed stores. In 2006, the Dillard’s location closed, leaving Sears as the lone anchor. By the end of 2006, Heritage Park Mall was operating at 50 percent occupancy. It won’t be long now..

The pictures featured here were shot in June 2007. As you can see, the decor is amazingly dated, and I would venture to say the mall never received any sort of renovation, at least anything significant. The sunken brick conversation pits, full sized trees, and the dark floor are all reminiscent of the period the mall opened. As for the mall’s design, it’s a relatively simple straight-shot corridor connecting two anchors with the other two behind them, facing the back of the mall. Thus, facing Reno Avenue are several mall entrances which lead directly into the mall’s main corridor. If you have any more information about the mall, such as when it actually opened, or any other anecdotal notes, feel free to leave some comments at any time.

Broadway Mall; Hicksville, New York

The Broadway Mall is one of the largest–and perhaps strangest–malls on Long Island. The mall opened in the 1956 on the site of a former boys’ orphanage as the open-air Mid-Island Plaza. The Hicksville area of Long Island was in the middle of a building and population boom at the time, as residents were flocking to the suburbs in great numbers. Some of the largest strictly suburban areas on the entire east coast are located in the vicinity of the center, including archetypal post-war suburbs like Levittown and Hempstead (which, with over 700,000 people, is the second most populous census-designated place in New York State).

The original Mid-Island Plaza consisted of 10 buildings and 8,000 parking spaces. The center’s main anchor, Gertz, was a local store from downtown Jamaica Queens who opened a major outpost in Hicksville to follow the population trends. Gertz’ 5-story, 300,000 square foot store dominated the center’s original design, and its rumored that this store is the tallest suburban department store ever built. At some point the mall also was home to an EJ Korvette’s store. The mall was even structured with an underground tunnel (still in use today) that allowed deliveries to be made directly to the stores underneath the mall. The Mid-Island Plaza was being enclosed in 1968 (and perhaps renamed at the same time?), then renovated again in 1989 and 1995. Gertz Department Stores parent company, Allied, united the Gertz stores under the Stern’s banner in the 1980s before becoming a Macy’s in 2001. The mall’s website offers a bit of its history.

The Broadway Mall is located only a few miles from Roosevelt Field Mall, the largest mall in all of New York state and one of the largest on the entire eastern seaboard. As a result, it has an interesting feel and has an unusual store roster. The center is shaped like an “H”, with Macy’s at one of the junctions. Its other two anchors are a Target (which had been a JCPenney very briefly from 1999 to 2001 or 2002) and an IKEA, making for one of the stranger rosters of anchor stores of any mall in the northeast. Broadway Mall also boasts Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, H&M, Old Navy, and a movie theatre as junior anchors. I’m not entirely sure what the IKEA or Target stores were initially, but the mall did boast EJ Korvette’s as one of its original anchors. Korvette’s stores tended to have large footprints, so it’s possible that IKEA took this space after the mall’s major redevelopment in 1995.

MallsofAmerica has some really cool photos of the Broadway Mall during its Mid-Island Plaza days, and our photos were all taken in May of 2007. I’ve been to this mall many times since 1999 (until 2004, this IKEA was the closest one to Boston) and it hasn’t changed much in that time, beyond when Target replaced JCPenney at the rear anchor. The imposing, humungous Macy’s store is certainly a highlight here, as is the cavernous center court and the strange way the food court is cantilevered onto a second level. But really, Broadway Mall is most interesting as an example of how a second-tier mall that would normally be crowded out by larger siblings is able to hang on with some less-than-traditional anchor stores and make out just fine.

Cherry Point Mall; Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin

With nearly 10,000 residents, Sturgeon Bay is the county seat and gateway to the popular Door County tourism region of northeastern Wisconsin. Since the advent of the automobile, tourists have flocked from Milwaukee, Chicago, and other midwestern cities to Door County for a beautiful, relaxing vacation. For those who don’t know, Door County is Wisconsin’s “thumb” – a long peninsula of hilly land with Green Bay on one side and Lake Michigan on the other.

The Cherry Point Mall is a small, enclosed two-anchor L-shaped center which we like to refer to as a “sMall” here at Labelscar.com. Because it’s pretty small, right? It’s very typical of an “up-north” mall, common throughout more sparsely populated areas of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and also very similar to many small enclosed malls in relatively isolated cities across rural America in general.

Anyway, the mall is decently old; I’d guess it opened around 1980. It opened anchored by a Schultz’s Family Store location which was acquired in 1989 by Prange Way, a discount department store based in Sheboygan. Prange Way closed in 1997 with the foreclosure of the entire chain, and was eventually replaced by Dunhams Sports which is still open today. The other anchor, which was a Family Dollar from 2002-2006, was very recently replaced with Dollar Tree in June 2007.

The decor of the small L-shaped Cherry Point Mall is relatively dated. The entire mall is carpeted with a beige berber, and many of the stores inside have wooden facades. Also of interest were the hanging banners from the ceiling with the mall’s name and logo, a throwback to the past and a commonplace in these little up-north sMalls. In addition, the store roster is typical of rural sMalls as well, with a much higher prevalence of local retailers rather than national chains, with the exception of the anchors. Also typical of an up-north sMall are the placement of the ubiquitous Hallmark and the numerous craft stores; one here is named Country Bumpkin, I think that’s all we need to say?

The pictures featured with this post were taken in July 2001. Leave us some comments and let us know how the mall has changed in the past six years, or any other information you have – such as, when the mall opened and what the Family Dollar/Dollar Tree anchor has been over time.

Pierre Moran Mall; Elkhart, Indiana

Elkhart, Indiana is a cozy medium-sized city of about 50,000 people located all the way at the top of Indiana, right in the middle of the state. It’s literally right next to South Bend and a little over 100 miles east of Chicago on the Indiana Toll Road (I-80/90). If you ever played a musical instrument in school, like I did, chances are you have run across the Selmer name. It’s from here, and so are numerous Recreational Vehicle manufacturers. So much so, that Elkhart is known as the RV capital of the world.

If you aren’t yet impressed by now with rows of brass piled side by side with rows of campers, Elkhart probably has something more up your alley. Pierre Moran Mall was not only weirdly named, but one of the most dated relics of a shopping center in the whole area. That is, until it failed, closed and was demolished last year (Spring 2006).

Opened in 1958 as a strip mall, Pierre Moran Mall was enclosed in the 1970s and became Elkhart’s first real mall. In early days, the mall featured a W.T. Grant, then later on Chicago-based Carson Pirie Scott and Indianapolis-based Ayr-Way (Discount store of L.S. Ayres), and most recently it had Kroger, Big Lots, CVS, Target, and a Sears. But by the turn of the century the mall’s age and lack of renovation took its toll, and Target took off for greener pastures south of Elkhart along U.S. 33. Kroger and Sears agreed to stay, but the 416,000 square foot mall had to go. In 2004, this new project got a name: Woodland Crossing. I think The NecroKonicon, which appears to be a lexicon of inside jokes and information relating to this area, says it best: “…as if that will magically make new shoppers flock to the complex to shop with the added convenience of having to walk outside more.” Apparently by demolishing what was there and renaming it, they’ll ~~trick~~ woo shoppers into coming back. Though, according to the developer’s site plan, the stores aren’t coming in droves. Hmm.

So what really killed this mall? I would argue both competition and lack of support from its management put the nails in the coffin here at Pierre Moran Mall. South Bend, which is the center of the entire Michiana region, is a mere 15 miles away, and there is a huge concentration of every Big Box store imaginable centered around the University Park Mall in Mishawaka. Even though Elkhart and Goshen residents complain and would rather have these stores open locally, the stores’ bottom lines don’t support this. In addition, even local competition aided in sealing Pierre Moran’s fate. Throughout the past decade or so, many of the newer and more popular chain stores have gravitated south along U.S. 33 between Elkhart and Goshen, which is today a huge strip. Elkhart’s Concord Mall, which is a great deal more successful than Pierre Moran ever was, is along this corridor, though it too is very dated and in need of some love. Also, Concord Mall is not far from Pierre Moran; both were on the south side on opposing sides of the U.S. 20 Bypass. Finally, management is somewhat to blame for allowing Pierre Moran to go fallow, with absolutely no renovation or repositioning efforts from when the mall was enclosed in the 1970s to when it was torn down in 2006.

Caldor and I first visited Pierre Moran Mall punchdrunk at the end of a long trip through western Michigan in Fall 1998, though we weren’t able to go in due to the lateness of the hour. I finally returned with digital camera in hand during the Summer of 2001, and snapped these pictures. I did also manage to make it back at least once since, and as soon as I find those pictures I’ll post them as well. I also have a few specific questions for the comments. Who was (is?) Pierre Moran? What was the specific chronology of the anchor roster? And, how do locals feel about the new development? The Internets suggest that people aren’t warming up too quickly.

Northwest Plaza; St. Ann, Missouri

Located in the solidly middle class north county suburbs of St. Louis, Northwest Plaza has had a very rich and interesting history. Its ups and downs can be tied to popular trends in retailing, from open air center to enclosed mall; and now, with an uncertain future and new owners, Northwest Plaza is failing again. But why is this? We can point to competition and demographics for some clues as to what happened to Northwest Plaza, the largest mall in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Northwest Plaza opened in 1963 as an open-air shopping center very close to the airport, along the busy Lindbergh Blvd. (US 67) and also very close to the intersection of I-70 and I-270. It immediately became the largest shopping center in the St. Louis area, and was also the first to feature four anchors: Stix Baer & Fuller, JCPenney, Famous Barr, and Sears. Boyd’s, Walgreens, and Woolworth were junior anchors which also opened with the center, and there is also a 12-story office tower at the south end of the mall. Northwest Plaza soldiered on for two decades as an open-air center, but eventually fell victim to competition. By the mid-1980s, while Northwest Plaza was a twenty-year-old open air mall, other more popular enclosed malls sprung up in the area stealing its thunder. In 1976, a large two-story mall opened in west-suburban Chesterfield. In 1984, the massively popular and upscale St. Louis Galleria opened in centrally located Richmond Heights. And in 1987, a large shiny new center opened along I-70 about 10 miles past Northwest Plaza in St. Peters.

In response to this area competition, Northwest Plaza was sold in 1984 to Paramount Group, who enclosed and expanded the mall in 1989. This expansion added about 200,000 square feet of in-line retail space, as well as a new food court with a new cinema stacked on top of it and a family entertainment center beneath it. The total square footage in Northwest Plaza after the enclosure and expansion was 1.8 million square feet, with 1.2 million square feet in anchor space and 600,000 feet in smaller stores. Kids R Us was added soon after the enclosure, and the large two-level Woolworths closed and was replaced by Phar-Mor and smaller in-line store space. Oshman’s SuperSports USA moved into the former Boyd’s location, but by the mid-1990s both Oshman’s and Phar-Mor had closed and the mall was experiencing more vacancies than ever before. Apparently the 1989 enclosure and expansion had not stood up to the test of competition from other more dominant centers, which surround Northwest Plaza.

In 1997 Westfield America purchased Northwest Plaza, adding it to its growing portfolio of malls across the nation. Westfield breathed life into the ailing mall, and under its tenure several national retailers opened in Northwest Plaza, such as Bath and Body Works, American Eagle, Disney Store, and even the Gap which had closed a couple years earlier citing poor sales. Westfield apparently looked into the future and employed tactics widely used today with failing retail relics, breathing life into them by diversifying retail tenants and changing some retail to mixed uses. Westfield touted that the mall’s “layers of convenience” pleased a wide range of shoppers, from the upper class female who shops for designer labels at the department stores to budget-oriented families looking for bargains at Family Dollar. Office Max even opened in the mall, which was one of the first Office Max stores in an enclosed mall. In addition, services such as a Post Office, dry cleaners, and medical offices were available at the mall and its adjoining 12-story office tower. Northwest Plaza enjoyed a great deal of success, bringing occupancy up to a maximum of 96 percent during the late 90s and through the turn of the century.

However, Northwest Plaza’s fortunes changed dramatically for the worse beginning around 2002, when everything began to slowly unravel. The slowdown of the economy, ever-increasing competition, and some failed renovation efforts have sent the mall into a downward spiral, and today it is a hulking shell of its former self with an alarming vacancy rate. Despite Westfield’s efforts which sustained and even raised the mall’s clout in the late 1990s, stores began leaving en masse. Several planned renovations failed, including one which was to feature St. Louis’ first Ikea store and certainly would have saved the mall. JCPenney announced they were closing in 2002, vacating 200,000 square feet of space. Also in 2002, West County Center was rebuilt as an upscale enclosed mall just 10 minutes to the south along I-270. Then, in 2003, both Office Max and Burlington Coat Factory closed, the latter jumping ship for the massive St. Louis Mills mall which is about 10 minutes away in Bridgeton and opened the same year. In 2004, the vacancy rate was just over 20 percent, and in 2005 the movie theatre above the food court closed. The lone reprieve to the mall’s spiral of death has been the appearance of Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear, which has moved into vacant retail spaces in enclosed malls across the country. It replaced the vacant JCPenney in 2004, and at the time was the largest store in the chain.

Today, Northwest Plaza is alarmingly vacant. The Gap, American Eagle, Bath and Body Works, and many other in-line stores have jumped ship very recently. Several corridors are completely without stores. The food court, which in 2002 was nearly full, has only three outlets. Westfield realized the mall was a sinking ship and unloaded it in 2006 to Somera Capital Management with General Growth acting as manager. Famous Barr also became Macy’s in 2006. Interestingly, because Westfield owns its own rather generic signage, once the mall was sold all the signage on the outside and inside had to be changed immediately. A sign currently sits at the food court entrance apologizing for how terrible the mall is, and gives a rather vague promise to do something about that. We’ll see.

I first visited Northwest Plaza on a family vacation in 1993, which was not long after its enclosure and expansion. The mall did seem new to me, and amazingly impressive. Caldor and I visited the mall together in 1999, and I’ve been back several times since. The decor and layout of Northwest Plaza is five-star amazing, with three separate, gigantic center court areas with VERY tall ceilings and mall corridors zig-zagging between them, and also long side-hallways with many more stores. The office tower and south end of the mall also has several stores such as Family Dollar that appear to be mostly predicated on outside access, and the food court featured a sunken entertainment area featuring a Tilt! Family Entertainment Center, which has also since closed. The food court also had large windows which faced out on this sunken area, and several sit-down restaurants also lined the sunken area with outside seating. These have all closed, save for a St. Louis Bread Company which should look familiar to most of you since it is really just Panera Bread in disguise. Finally, here’s what it looks like from space.

It seems Northwest Plaza has fallen victim to other modern successful malls with staying power like Mid Rivers Mall, Chesterfield Mall and St. Louis Galleria, and also extensively renovated malls like West County Center. In addition, the solidly blue collar demographics of the immediate area have not helped it position itself with upscale stores, as the upscale areas around the mall probably shop at West County, the Galleria, or even Plaza Frontenac which is not far away. Those in St. Charles and St. Charles County, which is just a few minutes from Northwest Plaza, definitely shop at Mid Rivers and the massive strip of boxes around it, and ignore this older area around the airport. Despite the 1989 enclosure and expansion, and being the largest mall in Missouri, Northwest Plaza will have to reposition itself even further in the future to remain viable at all.

Here are some pictures from January 2002 when the mall was at the end of its period of Westfield success:

Pictures from June 2007 with many vacancies and new exterior signage:

Watertown Mall; Watertown, Massachusetts

The Watertown Mall is a small, 250,000 square foot mall located on Arsenal Street in Watertown, Massachusetts. A week or so ago, I posted about the Arsenal Mall, which was built directly across the street in the early 1980s. The Watertown Mall is its older and smaller sibling, typical of the tiny dumbell-style malls built around New England in the 1970s. This particular mall opened in October 1975 with much fanfare, anchored by a Bradlees Department Store and a Stop & Shop Supermarket. The small enclosed mall between–which is shaped like an “L”–was considered state of the art for the time.

Over the years, there have been many changes at the Watertown Mall, and it’s perhaps surprising that it even remains enclosed. Stop & Shop left the mall eons ago to be replaced by one of the few Omni Foods locations, which closed in 1999. Omni Foods was replaced by a Best Buy (one of the earlier Boston-area locations) in 2000, only to have the mall’s other anchor, Bradlees, die in early 2001. That space would be filled by Target in 2002, and this relatively compatible pair of anchor tenants has kept the small mall space alive. The fact that the mall is literally across the street from (and thus well within walking distance of) the slightly larger Arsenal Mall has undoubtedly helped it survive.

Beyond its anchor stores, most of the tenants in the Watertown Mall have been relatively typical of smaller enclosed malls. There’s an Old Country Buffet and a Registry of Motor Vehicles–both of which are significant draws–and until 2006 there was a location of New England’s once-venerable Strawberries’ Records and Tapes chain, which was a pretty cool place before being acquired by TransWorld and turned into FYE with a different name (later they would just be FYE in every way). Also until 2006, the Watertown Mall was the location of the only Gap Outlet in the immediate Boston area, but that recently moved across the street to the Arsenal Mall. There’s a Papa Gino’s location and some smaller shoe or clothing stores sprinkled throughout the mall.

On its own, the Watertown Mall isn’t a terribly interesting mall, but because its located across from the unusual Arsenal Mall, it’s kind of an interesting place. Truthfully, the Watertown Mall would easily lend itself to big boxing, so it’s shocking (and neat) that it even exists, even if it’s too small to make much impact.

In March 2007, the Boston Globe ran a piece about the mall’s history, continued existence, and (marginal, given its size) malaise, and it’s well worth reading. Like with the Arsenal Mall, we have a limited number of 2001 photos (most of whom look the same as today, except Strawberries is still operational), and we also have a few photos taken in 2006 before The Gap Outlet moved across the street.

2001:

2006:

2007:

Square One Shopping Centre; Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Located in the sprawling megasuburb of Mississauga, Ontario, Square One Shopping Centre is one of the largest malls in Canada and the second largest in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), behind Eaton Centre downtown. As a mega-regional mall, Square One draws from an impressive trade area encompassing the entire Golden Horseshoe, a term for the highly populated arc of provincial Ontario surrounding the shores of Lake Ontario from Greater Toronto to Fort Erie, also including Hamilton, Niagara Falls, and St. Catharines. With over 8 million people, one out of four Canadians lives within the Golden Horseshoe and thus Square One’s trade area, making it a very important mall. The mall itself is a monster melange of stores and services in a very unique floorplan, as a result of many different updates and expansions throughout the years, but we’re also interested in how the mall has functioned as the centerpiece for the City of Mississauga since its inception in 1974.

Indeed, the City of Mississauga’s existance is relatively recent, and moreso amazing is the fact that it has grown to a population of over 700,000 residents and has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Mississauga emerged from the amalgamation of several existing communities, some of them over a century old themselves, such as Port Credit, Streetsville, Malton, Cooksville and Clarkson. However, most of present-day Mississauga was agricultural until even the first half of the 20th century.

By the 1960s, however, a lot of post-WWII suburban-growth had spilled over from Toronto and many settlements had sprung up such as Meadowvale and Erin Mills, so a provincial decree set up the Town of Mississauga in 1968, which amalgamated many of these towns into one geographic giant. Then, in 1974, Mississauga incorporated as a city, and with it came the plans for the new city center which was to feature government offices, as well as a gigantic mall. Are we loving this already?

Square One Shopping Centre opened in late 1973, just a few months prior to Mississauga being officially incorporated, in order to provide a centerpiece for the newly formed city. It is located at Highway 403 and Hurontario Street. Square One opened anchored by Dominion, Woolco, The Bay, and Sears. Today, however, only a shadow of the original mall exists as it has expanded many times into the piecemeal success story it is today.

As mentioned, Mississauga grew rapidly as a bedroom suburb for Toronto during the 1980s and 1990s, and is still growing rapidly even today. To accomodate this sprawl, Square One was expanded several times during the 1980s, adding over 80 stores and a million more square feet in selling space. Woolco closed in the 1990s as that chain went out of business, and it was replaced by a 220,000 square-foot Wal-Mart store. When Eatons closed in 1999, it was replaced with Canada’s largest Zellers. In 2000, the most recent expansion occurred. Called Cityside, it added a Cineplex Odeon theatre as well as a more upscale, modern wing featuring many fashion designer boutiques as well as stores from the ‘States. Then, most recently, the entire center was given the once-over and remodeled, culminating in late 2006. Three distinct neighborhoods exist within the mall with carpeted transitional areas.

The overall design and decor of Square One definitely reflect how the mall has changed in pieces over the years. The modern, most recent addition features marbled floors and an overall whitewashed look which has been popular in malls as of recent. The older wings vary, from the Milanese Galleria-style glass enclosure popular in the 1980s to darker 1970s tones with dark tiled flooring. Really, the mall is amazing because it has nearly every period of decor imaginable. In addition, the way the mall is set up is similar to that of the Mall of America, only modified and not as tall. A square perimeter of enclosed space connects all four anchors on the upper level, with a triangular series of hallways appended onto one end. The lower level is more curiously set up, with hallways zig-zagging off a main corridor connecting Zellers to the food court area.

So what’s next for the future of Square One? Today, Mississauga has over 700,000 residents and is Canada’s sixth largest city. Yet Toronto, the country’s largest city, is only 20 minutes away. So albeit a giant, Mississauga lives in the shadows of its older big brother next door. However, Mississauga is currently in the process of repositioning its image from suburban bedroom community to a city with its own legs, and its own real urban downtown. As such, the city has forged a relatively new downtown skyline centered near the mall featuring skyscrapers of 30 to 50 stories. In 2006, a design competition was held to build another 50-story condominum tower, which will be visually shocking and called Absolute World. In addition, numerous community festivals are centered around this new urban core of Mississauga, which once again was originally predicated on a mall which still thrives.

There are other large malls in the GTA, but only Square One has become the realized centerpiece for an entire community. With a great central location between the City of Toronto and the rest of the Golden Horseshoe, Square One will continue to dominate well into the future. I took the pictures featured with this post in January 2006. As always, comments and more information is always appreciated.

Vancouver Mall; Vancouver, Washington

Vancouver, Washington is a city with about 150,000 people located immediately north of Portland, Oregon and directly across the Columbia River from it. Vancouver and Portland share a census-defined metro area, which contains over 2 million residents. They also share shopping areas and a generally unified economy. Most notably, over 70 percent of Vancouver residents travel into Portland for work each and every day.

Interestingly, because Oregon does not have a sales tax and Washington does, many Vancouver residents choose to cross the bridges and shop in the many malls on the Oregon side. However, in doing so many Washington residents are breaking the law by not paying Washington’s use tax on goods purchased in Oregon. Thus, the retail offerings on the Washington side are relatively meager in comparison to those on the Oregon side. As such, Vancouver only has one mall, the Vancouver Mall or Westfield Vancouver as it is technically known today.

Opened in 1977, Vancouver Mall was originally by May Centers, Inc. and debuted with Meier & Frank, Nordstrom, and Sears east of downtown Vancouver along I-205. JCPenney and Mervyn’s were added later, and in 1994 the mall was purchased by Westfield America and renamed Westfield Vancouver because the Westfield company likes to totally rebrand their malls under a unified theme. In 2006, Meier & Frank, which was a May company store, became Macys with the rest of the May stores. In January 2007, the Mervyn’s store closed and also in 2007 Westfield announced plans to renovate the aging center.

Now that Westfield has finally put graphic mall directories on their website, I can remember that Vancouver Mall was a straight shot between Meier & Frank and JCPenney, and Mervyn’s, Nordstrom and Sears were located along the corridor which connected them. Old Navy also serves as a junior anchor on the lower level near JCPenney, and there’s pretty neat food court and carousel too.

I visited Vancouver Mall once in November 2005. It rained. And rained. And rained. Then, when it was done raining, it rained some more. So, forgive the rather lacking outdoor photos here. And, as always, feel free to leave your own comments and anecdotal stories about this mall.

University Mall; Little Rock, Arkansas

While we may not be able to represent all 50 states in 2007, contributor Michael Lisicky is helping inch us along with this dead mall, the University Mall in Little Rock, Arkansas:

I am not from Little Rock. I have never been to Little Rock. But recently I flew to Little Rock, just for the day, to check out the retail scene. It’s one of the few places in the country that has escaped the homogenization of Macy’s but is also home to one of the country’s few locally-named stores left, MM Cohn. My first stop, and my main stop, was the University Mall on the west side of Little Rock. I am not a historian of the mall. I do know that it was built in 1967 as a predominantly one story mall. The mall was home to a large Penney’s, a Montgomery Ward and a 40,000 square foot MM Cohn. MM Cohn is over 121 years old and, of course, no longer run by the founder’s family. (More on that later.) In 1972, Cohn’s added a second level bringing it to 86,000 square feet. The mall was constantly in battle with its neighbor the Park Plaza Mall. That mall was built in 1965 was anchored by Blass, which along with Pfeifer’s, was taken over by Mr. Dillard. (Blass became Pfeifer-Blass in 1968 and then all stores just became Dillard’s. Its downtown store lasted
until 1990, quite a feat for a chain that has hated downtown locations. Oops I’m off on a tangent again.)

Back to University Mall. Over the years the two malls were built and rebuilt over and over again, each fighting for dominance. University added a second story and parking garage, Park Plaza basically just started all over again and then added a roof. By the late 90s it became clear who won the battle, Park Plaza. Stores began to leave, crime rose. In 2001 Montgomery Ward shut its stores, along with their stores everywhere else, and the mall became emptier, MM Cohn closed its second level. The decay continued. Stories about a new mall to open in Little Rock’s western side began to emerge and that fueled the debate of what to do with University Mall.

University Mall is run by the major mall developer, Simon. What is left of the mall? Well not much. According to a Penney’s worker the mall is just waiting for its stores’ leases to end. Penney’s is leaving but probably not until November. The worker said the mall is to be “condemned and razed”. There is no other answer. What is left, besides Franke’s Cafeteria, and the signature tent roof, is MM Cohn.

What is left of MM Cohn? What is left of the store that was once compared to Neiman-Marcus and Nordstrom? What is left of the store that was the premiere store of not only Little Rock but Memphis and Oklahoma City? Very little. The store is, as others have mentioned, like an indoor yard sale. It’s a mess. The merchandise is low end and uneven. The store has a strong odor. It’s the type of place that your grandmother would shop in. But at the same time I love MM Cohn! I love its logo and its heritage and history. Unfortunately the store is as dead as the mall. Its parent company, Dunlaps, is rumored to be in trouble. Dunlaps has been the kiss of death for many of its
acquisitions and though it has kept some of its local names it also killed names like Porteous and Heironimus. They both died a painful death and so is MM Cohn. The mall hasn’t helped.

Cohn’s abandoned downtown store, closed in 1989 after Dunlaps took it over, sits there waiting to reopen. The McCain Mall store in North Little Rock is small and yes, smells. Its Searcy, AR store 45 minutes from the city is no bigger than a Big Lots. But I have comfort that it is still there and that its logo and name still exist. It’s why I fell in love with department stores. But soon Cohn’s will be just a distant memory. A memory with a rich proud history.

So here’s to University Mall. The end is near. The end is near for many malls but at least with just 20 stores under its belt University Mall let me see a Little Rock legend, even as it prepares to go to sleep.

UPDATE July 2007: Sadly, MM Cohn is currently liquidating all merchandise and going out of business at all locations, including at University Mall. Also, we’ve attached a photo of downtown Little Rock featuring the retail scene there circa 1958 courtesy David Aldrich and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Enjoy!

Southgate Mall; Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Southgate Shopping Center, later Southgate Mall, was the first significant post-World War II suburban-style shopping center in the Milwaukee area. In 1949, local brewery supplier (how very Milwaukee) Kurtis Froedtert laid the framework for Southgate and three other major suburban-style shopping centers in the area, during a period of this kind of retail development nationwide. Southgate Shopping Center was the first of these planned centers which would rim the city; the others were Westgate (later Mayfair) and Northgate (Bayshore?).

Located on what was then the far south fringe of the city of Milwaukee, Southgate was not randomly placed but rather strategically situated. On one side of Southgate were the older, ethnic neighborhoods which created Milwaukee to the north and east, and on the other were vast expanses of immense suburban growth to the south and west. Also, Southgate was placed directly on Highway 41 (27th Street), which was then the major thoroughfare from Chicago on up to Green Bay and all points in between before freeways took over.

When Southgate opened in 1951, it was essentially an anchorless strip mall, with 20 stores under the same canopied roof. Yet, because this type of development was so innovative, people flocked from all over southeastern Wisconsin to Southgate. In 1954, Southgate finally got an anchor in Milwaukee-based Gimbel’s department store. Krambo’s grocery store opened on the opposite end of the center a year later in 1955, and the center retained its immense popularity. But of course this probably comes as no shock, considering there was no other competition like it anywhere in the area. Very soon, though, this would change as other similar shopping centers opened around the city during the 1950s – Bayshore in 1954, Capitol Court in 1956, and Mayfair in 1958. These centers didn’t quite steal Southgate’s thunder, but rather were peers who held their own in the respective regions of the city they covered. Southgate reigned as the dominant south side shopping center until 1970, when a monster appeared to change Southgate’s fortune forever.

Southgate Mall Pill & Puff in Milwaukee, WI Southridge Mall opened a few miles to the south and west of Southgate in suburban Greendale in 1970. A self-contained shopping environment, Southridge outclassed Southgate in nearly every way. For one, it was gigantic in comparison. Almost ten times larger than Southgate at that point, Southridge featured 5 anchors on two enclosed levels, and to this day is one of the largest malls in the state. Also, Southridge was closer to the growing, suburban-middle class population in the suburbs.

As shoppers flocked to Southridge, Southgate decided it had no other choice but to renovate (Yes, I just personified a mall here). In 1971, Southgate aggressively repositioned itself through an expansion which doubled the size of the mall and enclosed it, giving it some leverage on Southridge’s success. Southgate soldiered on through the 70s and 80s as an ancillary enclosed mall of about 500,000 feet, including anchor stores. In 1986 the main anchor was swapped as one heritage Milwaukee store replaced another, when Gimbels closed and its space was immediately taken by Boston Store.

However, any measure of success ended in 1994 when two of the largest stores occupying 40 percent of the mall closed, Boston Store and Woolworths. From then on the mall slowly deteriorated into a shell of its former self, with more and more vacancies as time went on. In 1995, Media Play and Trak Auto were to split the anchor space and help revive the mall but it never came to fruition. Then, in 1998, Southgate Mall’s ownership changed hands and the new owners announced that most of the mall would be demolished for a Wal-Mart store.

And so it was. During the Summer of 1999, most of the structure was demolished and a huge standalone Wal-Mart was put in its place in 2000. Walgreens relocated to a different side of the property and the Marcus Cinemas remained, as well as a small outdoor portion of the old mall which ironically was part of the original 1950s Southgate. This is pretty much how it is today.

As I never got to see Southgate apart from driving by, all our photos came from contributor John Gallo. The Gimbels and interior shots were taken in 1986 or prior, the Boston Store shot was taken sometime between 1986 and 1993, and the others are a more recent depiction of how the site looks today (post-1999). If you have any more pictures of the “old” Southgate, in any of its incarnations, feel free to send them in and we’ll post them.