Baltimore’s busy, urban Mondawmin Mall opened in 1956 as Mondawmin Center, an open-air mall located just three miles from downtown, at the intersection of Gwynns Falls Parkway and Liberty Heights Avenue.  The name Mondawmin was chosen because it was the name of a Native American corn spirit from a 19th century Longfellow poem, and the mall was built on a former corn field.  Mondawmin Center was the very first development by Maryland mall magnate James Rouse, who would later build an empire of shopping centers, planned suburbs and festival marketplaces around the country - before his company was ultimately sold to General Growth in 2004.

Anchored by Sears and a supermarket, it took a few years for Mondawmin Center’s 58 store spaces to be filled to capacity; however, once they were, the mall became very popular.  Meanwhile, competition came calling from nearby Westview Center in 1958, which opened a few miles away in the suburb of Catonsville on US 40, and from Reisterstown Road Plaza, which opened in far northwest Baltimore City in 1962. 

In 1963, Rouse enclosed Mondawmin Center, renaming it Mondawmin Mall.  It was supposedly one of the first shopping centers to coin the term ‘mall’ as such, and with the enclosure came a new owner.  Rouse sold the mall during the mid-1960s to a Baltimore real estate developer, which ultimately proved to be a mistake.

In 1973, Sears departed Mondawmin Mall, leaving it without a real anchor.  In 1972, a brand new, larger Sears had opened at the west-suburban Security Square, a regional mall which was much larger and better located along both I-70 and I-695.  At the same time, the demographics in the area immediately surrounding Mondawmin began to change for the worse, as middle class families left in droves following race riots and general social unrest in the late 1960s.  Those who chose to stay in the area were mostly lower income and African-American, which continues to be the dominant demographic today. 

The balance of the 1970s and early 1980s were a period of decline at Mondawmin Mall, as the owner of the mall did little to rejuvenate it.  However, previous owner Rouse realized possibilities here, as Mondawmin is one of Baltimore City’s two enclosed malls, and bought the mall back in 1982.  Immediately, Rouse reinvested in it and finally replaced the vacant Sears with in-line space, added a parking deck to the west end of the mall, and renovated the entire structure.  The result was a hodgepodge, confusing floorplan with shopping areas on four distinct levels, though most of the mall is on two levels. 

Then, in 1983, the Baltimore subway debuted, and a station next to Mondawmin Mall opened, connecting the mall to downtown and points beyond.  This reinvigoration helped the mall’s success through the rest of the 1980s, though into the 1990s the mall fell into decline once again, mostly due to a perception of crime.

In 1999, Rouse had plans to renovate and expand Mondawmin Mall once again, but they were scrapped, even despite the city’s plans to change the Mondawmin subway station into a regional transit hub. 

In 2004, Rouse’s company was sold to General Growth, who embarked upon a 68 million dollar renovation and expansion of the mall, beginning in 2007.  The expansion included adding a Target, AJ Wright, and Shoppers Food Mart grocery store to the mall, and the renovation involved gutting the 1982-era interior.  This project gave Mondawmin Mall anchor stores for the first time since Sears departed in 1973, and gave Baltimore City its first Target store as well.  The reinvigorated interior also included new glass entrances, landscaping, restrooms, lighting, flooring, and other modern design accoutrements.  In addition, the spiral staircase and fountain at center court - the centerpiece of the mall – were also reimagined.  The natural greenery at center court was removed too, so that more kiosks could be installed.  Think you can get away from the dead sea people here?  Think again.

Regarding the renovation, take a look at two sets of photos I took from similar vantage points:

March 2004, before renovation:

August 2008, during renovation:

March 2004, before renovation:

August 2008, during renovation:

Today, Mondawmin is a reinvigorated center positioned for success.  While the perception of crime will keep some away, the mall itself is safer than many realize.  Despite the fact that many murders have occurred in the neighborhoods surrounding Mondawmin, the number of murders that have actually occurred on the property are rare.  And, the number of random crimes that take place at Mondawmin is rarer yet.  Still, many people use the crime statistics for the area in dictating their shopping habits, and choose to avoid Mondawmin completely.  Possibly one of the greatest hindrances for success here has been the perception of crime, and word of mouth marketing as well as the center’s repositioning - away from the dark 1980s look and into modernity - will help Mondawmin in the long run.

I visited Mondawmin Mall twice, in 2004 and 2008.  The differences before and during/after renovation are stark, so be sure to check out the pictures and leave your comments.

March 2004:

August 2008:

Finally, contributor Michael Lisicky sent us these two vintage shots of Sears at Mondawmin Mall:

San Jose is the third largest city in California, and the largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, trumping even the region’s more famous namesake city in population. San Jose, however, is a much different kind of city than San Francisco: sprawling and modern, built mostly in the automobile age, this formerly agricultural metropolis with around 1,000,000 residents is the hub of the world’s high tech industries, with many computer manufacturers and internet companies (Apple, Google, HP, etc.) all calling the region home. The San Jose MSA–even viewed separately from San Francisco–is one of the highest-income metropolitan areas in the United States and also amongst the most expensive places to live.

Because San Jose is mostly suburban in character–with much of it built in the post-war era and cris-crossed with massive boulevards and defined by tract housing–it’s surrounded by a bigger crop of malls than much of the rest of the Bay Area. We’ve already discussed the most prominent dead one–Cupertino Square/Vallco Fashion Park–but here are some tidbits about the most significant one serving the city’s mostly middle-class southern flank.

Westfield Oakridge (formerly known as “Westfield Shoppingtown Oakridge” or, originally, just “Oakridge Mall) is a large shopping mall located on the south side of San Jose, in the Almaden/Blossom Hill area. One of three malls along the Blossom Hill Road corridor and the largest by far, the mall is one of the largest and most dominant malls serving Silicon Valley and one of the largest overall in Northern California. Westfield Oakridge was originally built in 1971 by The Hahn Company, with anchors Montgomery Ward and Macy’s. A Bullock’s store was added somewhat later. Bullock’s closed in 1983 and was replaced by Nordstrom in 1985, when Nordies acquired all of Bullocks stores in the region. Unfortunately, the store underperformed and was sold to Sears in 1994, and they continue to occupy the space today.

Westfield bought the mall in 1998 and did their standard rebranding deal wherein they make the logo look like every other Westfield mall on the planet. Bigger changes came the following year when Target replaced bankrupt Montgomery Ward to anchor the mall’s eastern end in 1999. As you can see from the photos, the exterior of this Target store is *really* cool and modern but with quite a bit of the hip old verve of the department stores of the old days. I have to give Target credit; their mall anchor stores (and even their standalone multi-level stores) have some of the best new department store architecture today.

In 2003, Westfield decided to significantly upgrade and expand Oakridge with a $150,000,000+ renovation that added a new multiplex Century Theatres and tacked an entire new parallel wing in front of the old mall. This is a fairly standard tack for Westfield (they’ve done similar at other malls in Northern California, including Westfield Valley Fair and Westfield Roseville Galleria) and it created a distinctive “racetrack” design and significantly expanded the size and dominance of the one-level mall. Borders, Old Navy, and Nordstrom Rack (originally Linens N Things) also complete the roster as junior anchors, and there’s a restaurant row outside of the mall along the side facing Blossom Hill Road.

• More on Westfield Oakridge from BigMallRat.
• Aerial shot of the mall area.

What’s a consumer mall without consumers?

Indiana’s first major shopping center debuted with a bang and died so slowly and painfully that its end was little more than a whimper.  Opened in 1958, Eastgate Center was the first large-scale shopping center in Indiana.  It located on the growing east side of Indianapolis, in what was then unincorporated Marion County, at the corner of Shadeland Avenue and Washington Street, which was then the heavily traveled cross-country National Road, US 40.  After many years, and many changes, Eastgate finally bit the dust in 2004 and closed the doors, leaving its husk ripe for redevelopment.

When Eastgate originally opened, the mall was situated very similarly to how it was in later years, on a north-south axis, with an anchor at each end.  A two-level Indy-based H.P. Wasson’s was the north anchor, and a smaller JCPenney dry goods-only store as well as a Standard supermarket anchored the south end.  Eastgate had a weird tilt to it, too – the south end of the mall was flush with the parking lot, but at the north end the mall was significantly higher than the parking lot grade, and many people accessed it there by either ascending a long stairway or going through Wasson’s and using the escalator.  Inside the mall were G.C. Murphy and Woolworth five-and-dime stores, as well as venerable 1950s mall stalwarts Thom McAn, Kinney Shoes, Lerner Shop, a National Shirt Shop, Harry Levinson’s, and Dr. Tavel Optical – who would become the last original tenant at the mall, closing in 2006.

In 1958, another open air mall arrived in Indianapolis when Glendale Center was built on the north side.  However, Glendale provided little competition to Eastgate, as Indianapolis was large enough to support two (or more) centers and Glendale was a good distance away.  Both centers thrived for the good part of two decades, in spite of forcing kids to wait in line for Santa Claus out in the cold.  Brrr! 

Competition did come a-knockin’ in 1974 with the opening of an enclosed, super-regional center just a few minutes away from the small Eastgate Center.  DeBartolo, an Ohio-based mall developer, opened Washington Square Mall just two miles east on US 40.  Sensing a trend, and not wanting to be left out in the cold (rather literally…), Eastgate’s owner quickly enclosed the 370,000 square-foot mall - but it was too little too late.  Penneys moved out, and when the struggling Wasson’s closed in 1980 it became clear that Eastgate was in rapid decline. 

In 1981, Eastgate was sold to Melvin Simon, an Indianapolis-based retail/real estate magnate, who promised to ease the mall’s woes and put it back on the path to success.  And it did just that, for a while anyway.  Burlington Coat Factory was brought in to replace the Wasson’s, and a mix of local and outlet stores were brought in to replace tenants who fled to Washington Square a few years earlier.  Eastgate Center was renamed Eastgate Consumer Mall, and continued on through the 1980s and into the 1990s as a discount-themed mall, which was also appropriate for the changed demographics of its immediate area.  This part of Indianapolis was in decline, as more people moved out to greener pastures in the suburbs, which only further benefited centers like Washington Square and decimated places like Eastgate. 

As Eastgate Consumer Mall soldiered on, even the outlet mall concept became a flop.  By the early 2000s, the mall was in decline again, as the caliber of stores went from okay to laughably nasty.  In April 2001, when I visited, there was a store actually called What Would D$llar Do?  I wanted to answer, “Not shop in this mall?” but it seemed to be a rather moot point since no one was there anyway.  However, I did get yelled at for taking pictures by a rather fiery security guard lady, who seemed to be chatting with her friends in the nearly empty food court at the time of my egregious photo-snapping crime and felt it necessary to shout at me from across the cavernous emptiness and waddle over to give me hell.  Par for the course at this mall, I guess.

Simon finally gave up the ghost and unloaded the mall in 2002 to a series of commercial slumlords, one of whom was Heywood Whichard, a slimy North Carolina ‘businessman’ who is infamous for craftily buying dead or dying retail properties and sitting on them, collecting rent with no reinvestment strategy whatsoever, until the properties are in such disrepair that almost nobody wants them.  At this point the local government usually has to step in and spend taxpayer money to redevelop these blighted eyesores and Whichard runs away laughing, having made a tidy profit.  This strategy has made Whichard the enemy of several cities around the country, including Akron, St. Louis, Niagara Falls, and Ft. Wayne. 

Whichard certainly made the death spiral worse at Eastgate, and the mall began to shake off tenants faster than ever before.  Mini anchor Dunham’s Sports and The Finish Line left first.  Then, Burlington Coat Factory, who had been at Eastgate since 1981, decided to call it quits in March 2004 by moving to Washington Square, seizing the opportunity of a recently-closed JCPenney there.  Burlington’s departure was the death knell for Eastgate, because in early 2004, Whichard gave a harsh and sudden notice, via a letter served by his attorneys, telling the 15 or so tenants operating there that they would need to skedaddle before the end of June or he would lock them out and take their stuff. 

The interior of the mall closed in June 2004, and later that year Whichard did what he does best and sold the mall at a tax sale.  The empty dead mall went through several other owners, including a woman from Michigan City who wanted to turn the mall into a senior-based shopping and entertainment center, and a Texas firm who did nothing.  Not surprisingly, she abandoned her plans too, and the mall sat and sat.  And sat.  Meanwhile, Dr. Tavel, the mall’s lone remaining tenant, who was one of the mall’s original tenants and had an exterior entrance, continued to operate until his lease expired in 2006.  Said Tavel in a 2003 interview in the Indianapolis Star, “One of the keys to our constant viability in that center is the fact that we always maintained an outdoor entrance,” he said. “That back door became our front door when the mall went to hell.”  Well put.

In recent years, ruminations of redevelopment have finally reared their heads, which will give Eastgate new life.  In July 2008, Lifeline Data Centers, an Indianapolis-based data storage outsourcing compan, decided to put a $50 million data center in the former mall.  That same year, a group of U.S. Marines also used the mall to play war games, simulating urban combat for soldier training.  In addition to the Lifeline project redevelopment, portions of the now-excessively-large parking lot will be removed and turned back to nature, with a landscaped park featuring walking trails and ponds.  Although Eastgate Consumer Mall failed as a retail mall, it’s interesting that in the end it won’t be totally demolished and will have a use – as office space.     

I visited Eastgate Consumer Mall in April 2001, just before Haywood Whichard got a hold of it and totally ran it into the ground, and took the pictures featured here.  There was even a bright yellow mustang parked inside to offset any problems the mall might’ve had.  For a more complete set of pictures, be sure to check out this Flickr page of photos of the mall from user penske14 .  Taken in 2006, you can see that the mall quickly and alarmingly fell into disrepair, as evidenced by its condition less than two years after closure.   Also, you can check out a Facebook discussion relating to the mall, or better yet, leave some of your experiences and thoughts on or own comments page here.

Illinois’ twin cities of Bloomington and Normal (which is technically not a city, but a town.  Discuss…) comprise a relatively small metropolitan area in Central Illinois, about 2 hours south of Chicago and 2.5 hours north of St. Louis, Missouri.  Together, the cities have around 125,000 residents, with 50,000 in Normal and 75,000 in Bloomington.    Bloomington and Normal are also immediately adjacent to one another, with no gap in between them, and thus effectively function as one city.  In fact, they are almost always referred to together, as Bloomington-Normal, B-N, or even the Twin Cities.  Home to State Farm Insurance and two educational institutions, Illinois State University and Illinois Wesleyan University, which together have over 22,000 students, Bloomington-Normal has a more white collar, professional persona than many other Central Illinois cities. 

Bloomington-Normal was an important stop along Route 66 during its heyday, and as the famous highway grew in popularity it became congested – especially through cities and towns where local and cross-country traffic mixed.  Even before the interstate system debuted, which would largely supplant Route 66, many bypasses were constructed around the cities and towns Route 66 passed.  One such bypass, known as Beltline Road (later renamed Veterans Parkway), circumnavigated around Bloomington-Normal to the east, and opened in the 1950s, a full decade before Interstates 55 and 74 were built around the cities to the west. 

As Route 66 became obsolete for cross-country trips, supplanted by Interstate 55 and subsequently removed in this area by the late 1970s, it became a mostly local thoroughfare and Bloomington-Normal’s dominant retail strip.  In 1967, the Eastland Mall opened along this strip at the corner of Route 66 and IL 9.  Expanded through the years, Eastland Mall is the biggest and only enclosed mall in Bloomington-Normal, but this wasn’t always the case.   

In the mall-crazy late 1970s, a developer decided that one mall wasn’t enough for little Bloomington-Normal, and made plans to build a second enclosed mall on the same strip.  Located just a mile north of Eastland Mall along Veterans Parkway/Old Route 66, the College Hills Mall opened in August 1980 with anchor Carson Pirie Scott and a single-level T-shaped corridor of stores. The second anchor, Montgomery Ward, opened about a month later, also in 1980, and a third anchor, Target, opened in 1982. 

Only about 60 percent the size of Eastland Mall, College Hills Mall never had the same cachet of stores, but it served as a successful ancillary to it for a number of years.  An anchor change occurred at College Hills Mall in 1989 when Peoria-based Bergner’s purchased Chicago-based Carson Pirie Scott.  Because Bergner’s did not want to operate two adjacent stores in such a small market, the Carson’s at College Hills was closed in favor of the extant, larger Bergner’s at Eastland.

Following the departure of Carson’s at College Hills Mall, management quickly found a replacement for the space – Davenport, Iowa-based upscale department store Von Maur.  For those unfamiliar with Von Maur, it is considered in the same class and quality as Nordstrom and Lord and Taylor, a step up from Carson’s/Bergner’s.  A weird fit for an ancillary mall, it gave College Hills an upscale cachet that management thought might translate into greater success. 

Unfortunately, though, the location of Von Maur at College Hills Mall did very little to upscale the mix of stores there.  In fact, during the 1990s, the mall began a slow period of decline, and finished the decade in extremely poor shape.  In the early 90s, College Hills Mall had a decent mix of stores, including MC Sports, Kay-Bee Toys, Waldenbooks, Spencers, The Buckle, Foot Locker, and Champs Sports.  But the loss of a department store anchor and a change of ownership in 1997 brought an irreversible decline from which College Hills would not recover.   

In 1997, Montgomery Ward exited the mall amid a round of closures and in 1999, a Hobby Lobby crafts store was brought in to replace it.  Discounter Stein Mart moved into the middle of the mall, taking a few dead store spaces in 1997, but this move turned out to be an unprofitable mistake for the chain and it closed in 2000.  Meanwhile, many of the aforementioned national chains closed and were not replaced due to lacadaisical remote management by the Chicago-based owner of the mall.

By the 2000s, College Hills Mall was in serious decline with many vacancies as in-line stores closed and weren’t replaced.  Many of the stores relocated down the street to the larger, more successful Eastland Mall, which completed an expansion in 1999, adding a Famous-Barr anchor.   By mid-2004, only 11 tenants remained at College Hills Mall, including the three anchors, Target, Von Maur, and Hobby Lobby, with Radio Shack, Payless Shoes, Bath & Body Works, GNC, Christopher & Banks, Diamond Dave’s Mexican Restaurant, and some local stores among the remaining that were left. 

In 2004, ownership changed again and the College Hills Mall was purchased by Peoria-based Cullinan Properties, who had recently developed the successful Shoppes at Grand Prairie outdoor mall in Peoria in 2003.  Given the sad state of College Hills, Cullinan decided to demolish the existing mall and develop another lifestyle center.  The enclosed mall’s last day was June 30, 2004, when the interior corridors were sealed until demolition began a short time later.  The anchors – Target, Hobby Lobby, and Von Maur – remained open and continue to operate today in their original buildings. 

Almost immediately, demolition work began on College Hills Mall, in order to transform it into The Shoppes at College Hills.  The extra ‘e’ in Shoppes apparently confers an ‘upscale for ladies’ vibe – there’s no doubt that your mom or girlfriend would enjoy shopping here.  All of her favorite stores are present - J Jill, Chico’s, Ann Taylor Loft, Coldwater Creek, Lane Bryant, Yankee Candle, and Bath and Body Works.  These, combined with Von Maur, Target, Gordman’s, Starbucks, The Childrens Place, Hobby Lobby, and a make-your-own-stir-fry chain restaurant, will keep mom and all her girlfriends busy all day.  In fact, there’s even a Hampton Inn in case they get too tired after all that shopping.

I don’t mean to hate on The Shoppes at College Hills – it’s not terrible or anything, just kind of poorly executed in light of the image and vibe they are trying to sell.  I mean, it’s definitely not for me, and I’ll certainly concede that it’s better than the hulking dead mall that was there before.  I can’t help but wonder, though, did the enclosed mall fail due to mismanagement?  It was pretty dark and dated inside, so couldn’t they have just renovated it and put all these stores in there?  Clearly there was a market for a retail center here, and I wonder how many people really want to walk around in the cold, rain, snow, and excessive heat - Central Illinois is a land of extremes, after all.  This isn’t the Sun Belt, and ‘perfect’ days are rare.  It’s kind of a moot point, anyway, because no one is realistically going to walk around here all day either - it’s not that pedestrian friendly and really set up more like a strip mall than anything else, where you can park near the door of your favorite stores.  Want to visit another store?  Get in your car, drive over there, and park there, too.   

My biggest problem with this place is that the type of branding they’re selling is really a bunch of smoke and mirrors.  All they really did was demolish the interior of a dead mall and replace it with a few, much smaller buildings, and a sea of parking lots.  There are no definitive pedestrian corridors that encourage people to use them, except the sidewalk in front of some of the stores – which is how any strip mall is set up – and there’s no cohesion bringing the center together.  Target and Hobby Lobby don’t even have entrances facing the rest of the development. 

And yet they are selling a brand, a lifestyle even.  Whatever that means.  Whose lifestyle?  Doesn’t a lifestyle center really need to have some non-retail components such as entertainment options, or more than one restaurant?  Some even argue that a true lifestyle concept needs housing as well. 

According to the mall’s website, which also states that the Shoppes are “where outside is in style”,  ”The Shoppes at College Hills has a stylish fountain in the midst of our outdoor lifestyle center in a beautiful, relaxing setting.  The fountain is the base for a sculpture entitled “Adventure” by Jim Davidson.  The fountain and sculpture pair encourages the shopper to rest or meet friends near the soothing sound of its waterfall.”  This is nice, don’t get me wrong.  But they fail to note that the fountain is really located in the corner of one of the parking lot seas, and that the whole setup of this place really lacks cohesion and encourages driving between the stores, not meeting at a fountain in a far corner of the parking lot.  When you go to a strip mall or big box center, do you often walk to the far edge of the parking lot to meet?  I don’t.  There’s absolutely no reason to.

There are definitely good ‘lifestyle’ centers that pass muster, with legitimately cohesive plans and a density that allows for well-placed pedestrian concourses that will actually be used.  This just isn’t one of them.  Many of them have pedestrian-only corridors, like Easton Town Center in Columbus, or if the corridors allow cars the focal point is not hindered by automobile traffic but rather a dense, urban-like streetscape, like Victoria Gardens in southern California.  Lacking encouragement for people to walk around and linger, a lot of the stores miss out from foot traffic walk-by sales.  On a different level, without people walking around and staying a while there is less of a community feel.  Plus, it doesn’t look as nice aesthetically, either.  By the way, Cullinan’s outdoor mall in Peoria is a pretty good example of what a lifestyle center should be, so that makes this even more perplexing. 

I visited College Hills Mall in May 2001 and June 2004, just a couple days before the mall closed forever.  Feel free to leave your own experiences on the comments page.

Photos from May 2001:

Photos from June 2004, days before the mall closed forever:

With the probable distinction of being the only mall in the world named after underwear, Hanes Mall is the largest mall in the Piedmont Triad and one of the largest in the state of North Carolina.  Hanes Mall has five anchor stores and nearly 1.5 million square feet of retail space on two levels, and is itself the anchor to a large retail district on Winston-Salem’s west side. 

Hanes Mall opened in 1975 with three anchor stores (Belk, Sears, JCPenney) on two levels, and was about half the size it is today.  The mall expanded to nearly double its size in 1990 with the addition of two more anchors and a food court.  This expansion was partially a response to nearby Greensboro’s Four Seasons Town Center adding a third level and its own food court in 1987, and also to the announced development of the brand new Oak Hollow Mall, which eventually opened in High Point in 1995. 

The 1990 expansion at Hanes Mall was unique due to spatial constraints affecting its placement.  It had to be built on the other side of JCPenney, and the end result for shoppers is that the mall goes “through” the middle of JCPenney.  This curious setup exists at several other malls, such as Golf Mill Mall in suburban Chicago and Northridge Mall in Salinas, California.  I can never tell if the arrangement is advantageous or unwelcome by the anchors themselves.  On one hand, the increased volume of foot traffic allows them to market to a captive audience, but on the other hand there are a significant number of people coming through the store who have absolutely no intention of shopping there.  The loss figures are probably a bit higher, too.

The expansion also added a brand new food court, as well as anchor stores Dillard’s and Richmond-based Thalheimers.  Dillard’s was actually signed as Charlotte-based Ivey’s until just prior to the store’s opening, but opened as Dillard’s due to the latter acquiring the former that year.  The Thalhimers anchor became Hecht’s in 1992 when Thalheimers was purchased by the May Company, who owned Hecht’s and merged Thalhimers into Hecht’s.  The Hecht’s then became Macy’s in 2006 when Macy’s acquired May Company and merged all of the May plates into Macy’s.  The original three anchors have remained the same since the mall opened in 1975. 

After the Hanes Mall expansion, the original mall received the designation ”north mall” and the 1990 expansion became known as “south mall” – both in marketing literature and on signage.  Today, Hanes Mall is a dominant fixture in the Piedmont Triad, and has held its own against competition from the nearby malls in Greensboro and High Point.  In fact, its greatest competition is probably SouthPark Mall in Charlotte, 80 miles away, due to its upscale mix of stores not found in the Piedmont.  SouthPark actually overtook Hanes Mall for the designation of largest mall in North Carolina when it completed its most recent expansion, adding Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus, in 2006. 

We visited Hanes Mall in September 2005 and took the following pictures – including a “vintage” Hecht’s still in operation.  Feel free to add your own thoughts and experiences to the comments page.

If you’ve ever visited the Orlando area as a tourist, odds are you’ve been very close to Florida Mall.  Located just minutes from Sea World, Disney, and Universal, Florida Mall is the largest mall in the Orlando area and one of the closest malls to all these attractions.  In fact, from 1986-2002, it was the only major mall in south Orlando.  Since its grand opening, the massive Florida Mall has enjoyed immense success serving not only locals, but tourists from around the country and across the globe.

Let’s step back in time a bit.  Before Disney World opened, ushering in millions of tourists annually and spawning other theme parks to create the largest tourist-centric area in the entire world, Orlando was little more than a sleepy burg surrounded by acres of orange groves.  Orlando began to grow rapidly as a retirement destination during the latter half of the 20th century, but it wasn’t until after Disney World debuted in 1971 that Orlando began to really blossom, growing exponentially in the decades following. 

However, before Orlando became known as the tourist capital of the world, two enclosed malls debuted in the 1960s to an already-growing population of people beating those cold northern winters: Colonial Plaza, which was enclosed from a strip mall in 1962, and Winter Park Mall, which opened in1964.  These malls, while significant at the time, would be classified as neighborhood or possibly regional, but not super-regional centers by using today’s schematic.  This would all change in the 1970s though as true behemoth super-regional centers came to fruition. 

Throughout the 1970s, as the population swelled from 450,000 in 1970 to 700,000 by 1980, Central Florida built two truly super-regional malls: Orlando Fashion Square, built two blocks away from Colonial Plaza in 1973 – and Altamonte Mall, built north of Orlando in 1974.  As a response, Colonial Plaza was downgraded in importance almost immediately; and though Winter Park Mall soldiered on into the 80s, both malls withered in the 90s and were eventually torn down and redeveloped as outdoor centers.

By the mid-1980s, the population of Central Florida had shot up to almost one million residents, and developers were eager to capitalize on the lack of a dominant retail presence in south Orlando.  They realized a mall in south Orlando was a long time coming, and various proposals for a mall there began as early as the late 1960s; though, little success was made until the 1980s when plans were finalized. 

Finally, in 1986, Ohio-based DeBartolo Group (later merged with Simon) opened the first super-regional mall, Florida Mall, in south Orlando at the intersection of Sand Lake Road and South Orange Blossom Trail, the main surface route leading south from central Orlando.  Florida Mall opened as a single level mall with retail anchors JCPenney, Sears, Robinson’s, and Belk-Lindsay.  A fifth anchor, a 12-story Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza, also opened with the mall and opens into it just as a retail anchor would. 

Florida Mall’s original layout was also much smaller and less interesting than it is today.  Sears, JCPenney, and Robinson’s flanked the western end of the mall, toward Orange Blossom Trail, the hotel anchored the south side, and Belk-Lindsay was the eastern anchor.

Throughout the years, there have been many anchor changes, renovations, and expansions at Florida Mall.  Of the mall’s original anchors, only Sears and JCPenney have stayed put.  The first change took place when Robinson’s closed in 1988 and was replaced by New Orleans-based Maison Blanche that same year.  Then, in 1993, the first major expansion took place as a Dillard’s was added to the eastern end of the mall.  In 1994, Maison Blanche closed and became Mobile-based Gayfers.  In 1996, Belk-Lindsay closed and was replaced by Saks Fifth Avenue.  In 1998, Gayfers – only open for four years – became Birmingham-based Parisian, and JCPenney renovated and expanded its store.

In 2000, Florida Mall embarked on a massive expansion and renovation project, transforming the mall into the behemoth it is today.  A Burdines store was added that year, as well as a V-shaped loop of dual mallways connecting Burdines to the existing mall.  Then, in 2002, a Nordstrom was added as the icing on the cake to the expansion, adding a shorter stub wing off the Burdines wing that was just built, with 8 more store spaces.  The end result is an amazingly huge floorplan for a single mall – it’s not possible to walk the entire mall quickly, and it’s fairly easy to even get lost.

At the same time the renovation took place, Parisian – which had only been open 3 years – became a Lord and Taylor in 2001.  The next change took place in 2005, when Macy’s acquired Burdines and retired that nameplate, converting all of the venerable Florida Burdines into Macy’s.  The next year, in 2006, Lord and Taylor – the last remaining store in Florida – closed, and remained shuttered until it was demolished in 2007 to make way for the ever-popular outdoor/’lifestyle’ addition.  As of early 2010, the outdoor expansion had only partially come to fruition, and features a large Zara store, H&M, as well as an XXI Forever.  And that’s it.  Some reason to make people go outside.  The hotel has also changed names a few times too, going from Holiday Inn to Sheraton to Adam’s Mark to an independent hotel called the Florida Hotel, which it remains today.

Florida Mall also has other interesting accoutrements, including a two-level Starbucks in the middle of the mall, a massive food court, and a huge M&M’s store.  There is also an operating CVS inside the mall, despite CVS closing most of their mall stores in the last decade.  In addition, the mall technically operates a strip plaza across the parking lot, currently featuring a Target and a Marshalls, which is probably included in the mall’s 1.8 million total square feet.  According to many sites, Florida Mall is one of the largest single-story malls in the country, and I believe it.

Florida Mall remains on top of its game due to its location – 2 miles from the International Drive tourist strip and 3 miles from Orlando International Airport, its selection of stores, sheer size, and its massive expansion from 2000-2002 - which proved to be an effective defensive tactic.  While immune to the myriad of super-regional malls that plopped down in other parts of Orlando in the 1990s, such as in Sanford, Oveido, Ocoee, and Waterford Lakes, Florida Mall had an immediate threat coming in 2002 with the opening of The Mall at Millenia, a very large, upscale center which opened just three miles away along the busy I-4.  Millennia, with its shiny nuances and upscale swing, would have almost certainly decimated Florida Mall if it weren’t for the carefully planned anchor upgrades and the massive expansion that Florida Mall completed the same year Millenia opened.  Coincidence?  Definitely not.

In addition to Millenia, a large enclosed center called Festival Bay Mall also opened nearby in 2002, anchoring the north end of the International Drive tourist strip at the intersection of I-4 and Florida’s Turnpike.  Unfortunately, even with a great location Festival Bay never took off and is a massive failure, providing neither competition to Florida Mall nor Mall at Millenia – it appears developers oversaturated the market that year. 

We visited Florida Mall in February 2010 and took the pictures featured here.  As usual, leave your own thoughts and experiences with the mall on the comments page – we really appreciate it.

Provo, Utah is a city of almost 120,000 people located 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, Utah’s largest city and the state capital.  Provo is also located near the southern end of an urban corridor known as the Wasatch Front, a heavily populated valley which, due to geography, stretches nearly 120 miles from north to south and only 20 miles east to west.  With over 2 million residents, the Wasatch Front contains over 80 percent of Utah’s entire population.  Provo is also known for being the home of Brigham Young University, one of the nation’s largest private colleges, and for technology.  And, due to the proximity to nearby mountains, amazing views can be had from nearly everywhere in the valley. 

Provo, along with the entire Wasatch Front, has been growing in recent decades, tripling in population since 1950 and filling in the entire narrow valley with suburban growth.  The southern Wasatch corridor, consisting of Provo and its Utah Valley environs, is currently home to two malls, which opened in 1973 and 1998, respectively. 

The single level University Mall, which opened 1973, was the first mall in the Provo area.  The mall is actually located in Orem, a planned suburban city immediately north of Provo.  Orem, much like Provo and the rest of the Wasatch Front, has grown from a population of 18,000 in 1960 to a population of nearly 100,000 today.   

When University Mall opened, it was anchored by Utah-based ZCMI – one of the only major retailers owned by a religious organization, the Mormon Church - and JCPenney.  The mall’s opening was a sore point for officials in Provo, who wanted the mall to be located there – in the middle of downtown, but ultimately the developer was won over by the sprawling space offered up by Orem and the proximity to all the college students at BYU, the mall’s namesake. 

One of the first major changes at University Mall was the addition of north anchor Mervyn’s, a California-originated department store operated by Dayton-Hudson of Minneapolis, in July 1981. 

In the late 1990s, a war erupted between the University Mall and a developer wanting to build a new mall in south Provo.  The new mall’s developer convinced JCPenney to abandon its post at University Mall with a promise of part ownership in the new mall.  JCPenney took the deal and ran, closing their University Mall store in late 1997.   A lawsuit and local war ensued, even as the new two level mall – Provo Towne Center – opened in 1998, with its sparkling new JCPenney. 

Following JCPenney’s departure, Local officials and the media were concerned that University Mall would become a dead mall; however, University Mall saved face when Nordstrom stepped in and offered to replace the shuttered JCPenney.  The new Nordstrom store opened in 2002, and helped save University Mall from being lower-tier.  In addition, University Mall embarked on a multi-million dollar renovation and expansion, which debuted in 1998.  The expansion gave University Mall a new junior anchor, Sports Authority, and a new food court. 

In other anchor changes, the ZCMI store changed to Portland-based Meier and Frank in 2001, after the Mormons sold ZCMI to May Company in 1999 following a period of unprofitability.  May retained the ZCMI name until 2001, when all of the ZCMI stores were either converted to May’s Portland-based Meier and Frank nameplate or sold.  The store at University Mall operated as Meier and Frank until shortly after parent company May was sold to Macy’s in Febrary 2005.  Macy’s converted all of the May nameplates, including this store, to their Macy’s brand in Fall 2006.

Most recently, Mervyn’s closed at the end of 2008 when that chain went under, and an outdoor ‘lifestyle’ expansion recently debuted.  The Village at University Mall opened outside the mall, east of Sports Authority, in 2008.  Consisting of over 100,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space for 25 stores, the Village is anchored by a Cinemark theatre and allows patrons to shop outside and enjoy the beautiful mountain views and fresh air.  I have to wonder, though, how well the expansion was planned, because it doesn’t seem to really fit or flow cohesively with the extant enclosed mall.  I really think that if you’re going to play with fads like outdoor ‘lifestyle’ add-ons, develop a design to funnel foot traffic between the indoor and outdoor portions of the mall and form a spatial business model to support and emphasize its use.  This specific development encourages driving between the mall and its own lifestyle addition, and that’s kind of silly.  End rant.   

Today, University Mall competes head to head with Provo Towne Center, and even leans a bit more trendy and upscale than the latter with the presence of Nordstrom and other popular retailers.  Also, University Mall is slightly larger than Provo Towne Center, and slightly better positioned in the center of the Utah Valley adjacent to BYU and its thousands of consumer-students.  In contrast, Provo Towne Center’s major advantage is its direct access to Interstate 15, the major north-south corridor of the Wasatch Front.

The T-shaped University Mall is designed with what I’d call a ‘modern national park lodge flair’, similar to that of Park Meadows Mall in Denver (only much less dramatic), with exposed fieldstone, woodsy colors and dark brass fixtures.  I’m not sure if this happened in the 1998 remodel or a more recent one.  I visited the mall in July 2009 and took the pictures featured here.  The impressive mountains looming overhead and crisp blue skies that day almost made me wish the mall was an outdoor center – almost.  Feel free to leave your own comments and stories about University Mall.

Located in Brooklyn Center, an inner-ring suburb 10 miles northwest of Minneapolis, Brookdale Center is a behemoth of a mall living on borrowed time.  Opened in 1962, Brookdale debuted to a new, sprawling post-war building boom which eventually levelled off as the area became built out.  Over time, many original residents serving the mall’s purpose moved up and out to newer and better suburbs, and were slowly replaced by those with a different socioeconomic status.  Today, Brookdale is in serious decline, existing as as an ever-dwindling collection of stores inside the husk of a super-regional mall on the precipice of closure. 

In the early part of the 20th century, Brooklyn Center was a far different place.  It incorporated in 1911 to stave off annexation from neighboring Minneapolis, in order to remain remain the rural, farming community it had been since pioneer days.

Fast forward a few decades.  After World War Two, masses of returning GIs and their growing families needed housing, so large neighborhoods of single-family housing were built quickly and cheaply.  Brooklyn Center and other formerly rural communities close to Minneapolis were no longer able to resist development, and became built out over a relatively short span.   

With the suburban housing boom and post-war automobile culture came shopping centers.  Long before the Twin Cities had the Mall of America, which opened in 1992, they had the ‘Dales’ - a foursome of enclosed, super-regional malls that were developed by Minneapolis-based Dayton’s department store and built between 1956 and 1974.  First came Southdale in 1956, which debuted as one of the first regional malls in the country, and was located in well-to-do southwest suburban Edina.  Next came Brookdale, in northwest suburban Brooklyn Center, which opened in 1962; later came Rosedale in Roseville, between Minneapolis and St. Paul, in 1969; and finally, Ridgedale opened in west-suburban Minnetonka in 1974. 

In addition to the ‘Dales’, the Twin Cities also had other regional shopping centers like Apache Plaza, which opened in 1961 in the northeast suburbs of Minneapolis, and Knollwood Mall, which opened in 1955 in west-suburban St. Louis Park.  All of these malls were moderately to extremely successful throughout the years, and all of them exist today in some form or another – redevelopment or otherwise.  Only one – Brookdale – is in dire straits today, following an extended period of decline which began slowly during the 1990s.  Ridgedale and Rosedale are still immensely popular, and despite some recent trouble still remains viable. 

Brookdale Center was originally conceived by Dayton’s department store to provide a northern complement to its successful Southdale Center.  Famous mall visionary Victor Gruen, who also created Southdale, was hired to design the mall.  Elements of his influence are still present today in the wide spaces and tall ceilings in the main corridor.  Also, unlike the other ‘dales’, which are all two levels, Brookdale was designed to be one level because it is situated on a former swamp; as such, it has always been the smallest of the four malls.  

When Brookdale opened in 1962, it was anchored by a two level, 180,000 square foot Sears and a tw0 level, 50,000 square foot JCPenney (dry goods only at first).  The mall was expanded in 1966-1967 to include Dayton’s and Donaldson’s stores, and JCPenney expanded to a full-service format.  The mall was extremely successful and drew patrons from the entire northern half of the Twin Cities metro, until competition and demographics began to change the game.

In 1972, some competition arrived for Brookdale Center in its north metro trade area.  Northtown Mall opened in Blaine, approximately 10 minutes north of Brookdale.  However, this wasn’t a huge blow for Brookdale, as Northtown is across the river and serves a mostly different set of suburbs (Coon Rapids, Blaine, Anoka, Fridley).  In fact, Brookdale even remained viable into the 1990s, as numerous other malls and even the humungous Mall of America opened across town in 1992.  The late 90s weren’t as kind to Brookdale, though, as it battled a 30 percent vacancy rate and a foreclosure in 1996. 

Not long after Brookdale began its first spiral of decline, the mall was renovated, expanded, and temporarily saved, beginning in 2001 with a driven commitment by Talisman Corporation, its new owner.  The 2001-2002 renovation replaced and modernized the flooring and general decor of the indoor corridors, which had not seen a significant  renovation in decades.  In addition, several popular national brands were wooed to the mall, including Old Navy, Gap, American Eagle, and Hot Topic, and the mall was given a weird new logo.  At one point in late 2003, Brookdale rebounded to a 95 percent occupancy rate and had all four anchor stores filled.  At the same time, Brookdale expanded, tearing down the northwest wing of the mall and replacing it with a new, slighty larger wing containing a new food court and a Barnes and Noble store.

Several anchor changes have taken place at Brookdale through the decades.  There were barely any major changes from the 1960s until 1987, when north anchor Donaldson’s was sold to Carson Pirie Scott of Chicago and operated as a Carson’s until 1995.  The Carson’s purchase in Minnesota ultimately turned out to be an unprofitable mistake, so all Carson’s stores except Rochester were sold to the parent of Dayton’s, Dayton-Hudson, who then converted all the stores to its Mervyns division that same year.  Mervyns was a better fit for the space, and lasted until Dayton-Hudson -who in 2000 renamed themselves Target Corporation - sold all of its non-Target stores in 2004.  A group of investors bought Mervyns from Target and immediately began closing all of the Minnesota stores, including the one at Brookdale.  It has been vacant ever since, despite an attempt, in 2007, by Wal-Mart to secure a store there, which was blocked by Sears in a lawsuit.  Sears said they believe their tenant agreement gives them the right to approve the stores there.  The lawsuit soured Wal-Mart, who later said they are no longer interested in pursuing the location. 

The east anchor, which opened as Dayton’s in the 1960s, became Marshall Field’s in 2001 when Dayton-Hudson decided to consolidate its brands in Minneapolis (Dayton’s), Chicago (Marshall Field’s), and Detroit (Hudson’s) under one nameplate.  They chose Marshall Field’s because the venerable Chicago store was not only representative of the largest city and number of extant stores among the three brands, but also because of the venerability of the brand.  It all ended up being sort of a moot point a few years later, when Marshall Field’s parent Target Corporation decided to focus on the Target stores and get rid of everything else, selling Marshall Field’s to May Company.  Then, after owning Marshall Field’s less than a year, May became acquired by Federated Department Stores (Macy’s), who rather quickly decided to consolidate all of the May nameplates, including Marshall Field’s, into one unified Macy’s banner in 2006. 

After the May acquisition, Macy’s suddenly had hundreds more stores covering 90 percent of the country, and they also inherited some unprofitable stores as well.  Macy’s has gone through several rounds of closures to help eliminate these, and in 2008 they decided to eliminate the store at Brookdale.  It closed in March 2009  and remains empty as of early 2010.

Brookdale’s south anchor, which had been JCPenney since the mall opened, operated for over four decades before closing in February 2004 and relocating to a brand new standalone store in Coon Rapids.  However, the anchor wasn’t dead long, replaced in September 2005 by Steve and Barrys, a flash-in-the-pan cheapo clothing anchor that expanded quickly nationwide in the mid- to late- 2000s, often taking dead mall anchors and having no qualms operating in dead or dying malls.  Not surprisingly, Steve and Barrys quickly became insolvent, and closed for good at the end of 2008.  The Brookdale store was shed a few months before the entire chain closed, though, as they attempted to focus on their more profitable stores.  The anchor remains empty as of early 2010.

The western anchor, Sears, has remained the entire time since the mall opened, and currently has no plans to close.  A Kohls Department Store also still operates on the mall’s periphery and is included in the Brookdale complex, but is not part of the mall structure. 

In addition to losing three of its four anchor stores over a span of five years, Brookdale has also had to deal with increasing competition in what was left of its trade area – the northwest Twin Cities suburbs – when a large retail district and lifestyle center opened in nearby Maple Grove in 2003.  Lacking a downtown of its own, northwest suburban Maple Grove began growing at a breakneck pace in recent decades, attracting a more affluent base than inner-ring suburbs such as Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park.  In order to take advantage of this affluent suburban growth, Maple Grove constructed a new downtown in phases, and the entire development is referred to as Arbor Lakes.  Included in the development is over 6 million square feet of retail space, clustered around a large lifestyle center and a neotraditional Main Street.  Nearly every retail chain and box store in the country is represented in Maple Grove, including those traditionally located in enclosed regional malls.  Located just ten miles from Brookdale, this development more than any other has dwindled Brookdale’s waning viability, essentially nudging it out of having any trade area at all. 

Faced with increasing competition, many of the updates Talisman materialized in the early part of the 2000s disintegrated by 2005.  After losing two anchors in – JCPenney and Mervyns – in 2004, Old Navy, American Eagle, Gap, Pac Sun, and many of the other stores brought in by the renovation closed in short order.  Most of the other stores operating at Brookdale are local stores, and the number of national, popular chains has dwindled.  In 2009, shortly after Macy’s jumped ship, Barnes and Noble left as well, creating even more empty space. 

In late 2009 and early 2010, the owners of Brookdale Center, Florida-based Brooks Mall Properties, defaulted on their mortgage.  Then, in February 2010, Brookdale was purchased by its mortgage lender in a voluntary foreclosure sale, for $12.5 million.  It’s currently anyone’s guess as to what the new owner plans to do with the site, although rumors from office to residential to a new Vikings stadium have emerged.  I say make the whole thing one huge kitty condo.  One thing is for certain – the mall has almost no viability in its current state, especially at its current size.  So to all you dead mall or Victor Gruen fans – you better get to this one soon before it’s too late and the doors are closed for good.

Brookdale’s website still exists, but is over a year out of date – indicating both Steve and Barrys and Macy’s as being open, as well as numerous in-line stores which have also closed.  The mall advertises having 70 retailers, but only about 30 remain open as of early 2010.  Brookdale also put up a new pylon a couple years ago along Highway 100, featuring the dumb logo which is moderately illegible against the big bird-yellow background, and features a smattering of stores that have since departed.  You know your mall is in trouble when a local cell phone store shows up on the pylon.  Just sayin’. 

I’ve visted Brookdale many times, beginning as a little kid in the 90s, and have witnessed the roller coaster death spiral first hand.  Even then, I remember Brookdale being a ’lesser’ alternative to the malls in the southern and western suburbs.  But I also thought that it was so incredibly cool how dated and cavernous the mall was, with amazingly wide and tall corridors.  And who could forget the parking lot locator animals?  I know I parked in the elephant lot at least a couple times.

Also, don’t forget to check out this more in-depth (and hilarious) commentary from dumpystripmalls.com, a blog that highlights - and lampoons – Minnesota retail.  There are also a few vintage shots from Brookdale here – believe it or not, the interior looked essentially the same until the early 2000s.  As an aside, I hope she updates her blog soon!

Feel free to leave your own comments/experiences with Brookdale.  And, if anyone happens to have any pre-renovation pictures I’d love to see them.  I have a lot more pictures than I initially posted here (these are from April 2009), and I’ll get them up eventually, but they’re all post-2001.

Indianapolis-based mall giant Simon Properties Group Inc. lobbed a $10 billion hostile takeover bid today against bankrupt rival Chicago-based General Growth Properties, according to the Wall Street Journal and others. 

Some highlights of the bid and overall situation:

• GGP is currently in bankruptcy, buried under $7 billion in debt after years of easy credit fueled its massive expansion efforts during the last decade. 
• Simon’s first takeover bid of GGP was more friendly and kept quiet.  Simon chose to make the bid hostile and public after GGP reportedly ignored the bid.
• Simon isn’t the only one vying for GGP.  Canadian-based Brookfield Asset Management has also been negotiating with GGP; however, with Brookfield’s infusion of capital GGP would still remain a separate company.
• Brookfield has already given $1 billion to GGP in order to alleviate debt, so it already has an internal voice in GGP’s decision making.  If GGP chooses to accept Brookfield’s capital to settle the rest of its debt, it could emerge from bankruptcy as soon as next year. 
• GGP could also quickly emerge from bankruptcy on its own, as they’ve already made agreements with their creditors to restructure loans and pledge their malls as collateral.
• The ultimate decision will not only be up to GGP’s board, but also GGP’s debtors and the bankruptcy judge.
• After all this news, GGP stock soared, and thus analysts expect a slightly sweetened bid by Simon.  However, part of the stock inflation is due to the volatility of GGP on the pink sheets, where stocks are listed during bankruptcy. 
• If the takeover occurs, the new Simon would own 560 malls, a third of the U.S. market. 
• Even though they would own a third of the country’s malls,  half of the top-ranking malls would be held by the new Simon after takeover.   These malls are defined with sales of more than $400 per square-foot. 
• Simon and GGP are currently the two largest and oldest mall owners in the country.
• Large-scale chain retailers like Gap and Limited Brands would be negatively impacted by a strengthened Simon, who would hold twice as much leverage over them as they negotiate locations while Simon tries to fill their malls.  
• Wow?

For reference purposes, a list of all of Simon’s malls can be found here, and a list of GGP centers is here. 

What do we think about this?  Yea/Nay?  Leave some comments and let’s get a discussion started.

Farther west than Denver, Colorado, and closer to San Diego than Houston, El Paso is an attractive sun belt city and international gateway with a growing population.  The city itself has about 600,000 residents; however, El Paso is only part of a larger bi-national metropolitan area with a population of 3 million, when you add in nearby Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Currently, El Paso is the 68th largest metropolitan area in the United States; however, if Juarez were included, it would leap up to 18th, between San Diego and St. Louis. 

El Paso is also a destinational retail city, with a far-reaching pull from southern New Mexico, much of north-central Mexico, and all of west Texas.  However, according to ICSC, El Paso’s retail-per-capita is low for a metropolitan area of its size.  This may be, in part, due to the relatively low purchasing power of the region.  The average median household income in El Paso is $10,000 below the national average, and the incomes in Juarez are most likely significantly lower than that. 

There are other reasons, too, for a lack of a retail development boom in El Paso.  Because well over half of the residents of the bi-national metropolitan area live in Juarez, simply crossing the border is an issue.  Often, wait times at the border crossings are over an hour; and, due to hot issues like illegal immigration, terrorism and drug transport, everyone crossing into the United States is subject to intense scrutiny.  As a result, what could be a 10 minute trip to one of El Paso’s malls becomes far less convenient.  In addition, although the retail offerings in El Paso offer Mexican shoppers items and brands they can’t get at home, Juarez has similar chains and modern, spacious malls of similar size.  Also, Las Cruces, New Mexico has its own mall too, which probably prevents shoppers there from making the 50-mile trek into El Paso often.  Nonetheless, judging by the license plates on the cars at El Paso’s retail establishments, many do make the trek from Mexico and New Mexico. 

El Paso currently has 3 major malls, with a fourth – a lifestyle center – possibly on the way.  The two major super-regional malls are Cielo Vista Mall, on the east side, and Sunland Park Mall, on the west side.  The third mall in town is the much smaller Bassett Place, which is very close to Cielo Vista and essentially serves as its ancillary.

Between the two major players in town, Sunland Park Mall is both newer and slightly smaller than Cielo Vista.  Built in 1988, Sunland Park Mall was named after the nearby Sunland Park Racetrack in nearby Sunland Park, New Mexico, a couple miles away.

Sunland Park Mall is a large, two-level, ‘L’-shaped mall, with five anchors and almost 1 million square feet of retail space.  The mall itself is anchor to a larger retail district serving El Paso’s west side, located mostly along TX 20 stretching from downtown to the northwest.  Sunland Park is fairly well-tenanted with popular national chains, despite its lone, inaccurate Yelp review indicating otherwise.  However, Cielo Vista across town probably has a slightly better mix of stores. 

I’m going to need a little help filling in some of the holes in the history of the anchor stores here.  I know that one of the anchors was El Paso-based The Popular (Dry Goods Company).  It closed in November 1995 and was immediately replaced by Sears.  I also know that Macy’s was Foley’s from 2004-2006, but what was it before that?  And Mervyn’s, which closed in 2008, was replaced by a full-size Forever 21 in 2009.  Also, Dillard’s has two full-size locations here, so one of those was probably something else at some point too.  Let us know!

I visited Sunland Park Mall in November 2009 and took the pictures featured here.  Leave us a message or two and tell us about your own experiences with – or impressions of – the mall.