Stick a fork in Mervyn’s. They’re done.

In addition to Mervyn’s, Linens N Things is also going out of business. Who else do you think we’ll see in the next few months? My money is on Circuit City…
Via Retail Traffic

File under: Obvious Things We Should’ve Done Awhile Ago

Just today I started an official Flickr group for Labelscar members. Tons of you have photos sitting around that you want to upload somewhere. At the same time, I’m always finding tons of great stuff on Flickr. It (finally!) occurred to me that it would be really nifty to give you guys an official place to get together and share what you have without having to go directly through us. Similarly, we may occasionally dig through this group to look for content to actually feature on the blog (but don’t worry, we’ll always ask first). We won’t be using Flickr to replace any functions on Labelscar; this is really meant as a playground for all of you!

Currently, there are no photos in our Labelscar pool You can add some pretty easily; just:

• Upload photos with your own Flickr Account
• Join the Labelscar group on Flickr
• Go to the “group pool” on the Labelscar group and click “add to pool” and choose the photos that you think are relevant

Similarly, I’ll try and make a point of asking non-readers to add some photos to the pool, just to keep things interesting.

So here we have possibly one of the smallest, worse-for-wear malls this side of the mighty Mississippi.  We’re actually surprised it’s still open for business at all; in fact, a website trying to sell Lincoln Mall indicates it has been “recently de-malled” and “recently rehabbed”.  In fact, the whole thing can be yours for the low, low price of $3.5 million.  More on this in a bit…

Freeport, Illinois is a small city of just over 26,000 in northwestern Illinois.  Because Freeport is only 30 minutes from Rockford, its retail offerings are eclipsed by the better variety and volume found in Rockford.  The retail strip which does exist is mostly on IL 26 (West Ave) on the southwest side of town.  Here a shopper will find strip malls and chain restaurants galore, including a JCPenney and a Sears.  This area would have been a great site for an enclosed mall at some point, especially considering Freeport’s population has been steady at 25,000 since 1930. 

But that never happened.

Instead, developers did build Freeport a small, enclosed mall of 186,000 square feet along West Galena Ave (US 20 Business), in 1965 and named it Lincoln Mall, which is appropriate enough as the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates took place downtown.  And it has not changed since…well, the structure anyway.  Certainly, the anchors and in-line stores have come and gone.  Unfortunately, though, they’ve mostly ‘gone’ - away, that is; the last store open inside the mall is locally-owned Degrote TV and it’s right by the main entrance.  Earlier in 2008, the mall’s east anchor Menard’s moved to bigger, brand new digs with all the rest of the strip fodder down on S. West Ave.   The very large west anchor is currently vacant.  It was most recently a Big Lots, but what was it before?  Also, a small Dollar General is appended onto the mall structure on the west end, past the former west anchor.

The indoor portion of the mall is bleak at best, and the smell can only be described as a wet, musty basement.  The small corridor featured a fair amount of store spaces, 18 to be exact, between Menards and Big Lots, all of which are dark.  From labelscars and stickers I could tell that one of the largest spaces back here was Ben Franklin, and another store had cedar shingles.  This place has clearly not been touched since 1965, and that’s amazing.  I think Mr. Lincoln might be a little upset, though.     

So, back to where we started.  This website, which indicated the mall has been de-malled and recently rehabbed is apparently ill-informed.  I certainly hope they’re not marketing the mall under false pretenses, and that there really is a TIF district established to “help this center grow”.  I hate to be skeptical, but there are some really blatant lies there.  Anyway, let us know more about this mall.  What were the original anchors?  What were some of the stores over the years?  We visited Freeport’s Lincoln Mall in Summer 2008 and took the pictures featured here.  We thought we’d immortalize it before it disappeared without a trace after 40 years.     

Here’s an interesting one for you. Although it’s pretty rare, we occasionally have a complete set of photos from before AND after the renovation of a shopping mall, and the Woburn Mall in Woburn, Massachusetts is one of these lucky centers.

This small (237,000 square foot) neighborhood mall is one of a group of very similar malls developed around the Boston area in the late 70s and early 80s. (Others include the Billerica Mall and Mystic Mall, both already featured here, as well as Hingham’s Harbourlight Mall). Each of these malls shared some common stats: they all were in the 200,000-300,000 square foot range, all originally featured a Market Basket with an outdoor entrance as one of their original anchors, and all sported the same odd cloverleaf logo and exterior corduroy concrete design (super ’70s! It’s amazing anyone ever thought this was attractive).

Of these malls, the Woburn Mall is the only one to have survived to this day, largely due to its fantastic location just off MA-128/I-95, near the cloverleaf junction with I-93, one of the highest-traffic junctions in New England. Despite being surrounded by larger and more successful malls, the Woburn Mall has over the years tried to field alternative tenants and has been mostly successful at it. The traffic generated by lynchpins like the supermarket and a CVS Pharmacy has always kept the mall fairly busy. For many years, the Woburn Mall’s primary anchor tenant was a Lechmere store that served as one of the chain’s home locations (the Lechmere headquarters was located in the office park behind the mall). After Lechmere shut in 1997, the space was carved up for a TJMaxx N More and an AJ Wright. The Woburn Mall is also located at the foot of a large office/industrial park, and historically has had an abnormally large number of eateries (Pizzeria Uno, Papa Gino’s, Panera Bread, a sushi place, and McDonalds all call it home more, but there used to be a few additional indies).

In 2004, however, the mall’s current owner, KGI Properties, began a major renovation and repositioning that wiped out most of the interior stores, realigned the mall corridor significantly, and added a rear entrance. Unlike most renovations of malls this size–which flip them inside out entirely–the Woburn Mall miraculously kept its interior. Sadly, it also lost the old brick planters, conversation areas, and modernist angularity in favor of a distinctly more whitewashed, modern finish… but I guess this is the price of progress. AJ Wright was booted in favor of Sports Authority (who occupy an expanded space), and DSW Shoe Warehouse ultimately took some of the in-line space for themselves. Unfortunately, many of the stores that were forced out of the mall (including FYE, a Hallmark Store, DEB, and many others) have yet to be replaced with newer tenants, although some better tenants (including Talbots) have recently set up shop inside of the mall.

Take a look at the 2001 set of photos and the newer 2008 set and let us know what you think–should this tiny little mall have been saved? Is it a model of how to turn a small suburban enclosed mall into a success or just an oddity?
2001:

2008: