Located on the east side of Charlotte, Eastland Mall seems to be going the way of the dodo, at least in its current state.  Opened in 1975, Eastland was, for a time, the biggest and best mall in all of North Carolina, before Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem unseated it in size a short time later.  However, demographic changes, urban sprawl, and the perception of crime have all but sealed Eastland’s fate as a dead mall with an uncertain future. 

As time progressed through the 1970s and 1980s, Eastland Mall reigned with anchor stores Belk, JCPenney, and Ivey’s, and trumped even SouthPark by having an ice skating rink.  In the late 1970s, Richmond-based Miller & Rhoads joined as junior anchor and Sears got on board in 1979.  Through the 1980s Eastland was considered to be on-par or even superceding SouthPark in terms of size and store selection. 

In 1991, the winds of change brought Carolina Place Mall to south-suburban Pineville, indicative of a retail shift from the core of Charlotte to the periphery.  Around the same time, SouthPark management began to upscale the mall’s offerings, adding Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom in the process.  The addition of Carolina Place meant that the competition for ‘top dog’ in the market would be fought between it and SouthPark, with Eastland left a distant third.

Eastland didn’t go down without a fight though.  Around the same time Carolina Place opened and SouthPark upscaled, Eastland went through a massive makeover, updating its 1970s look to a more “modern” early-90s feel with muted, cerulean pastel tones, which actually look somewhat dated by the standards of 2008. 

Even with the upgrades, the inevitable outcome of being a distant third place didn’t bode well for Eastland.  Built with the intention and veracity of being number one in 1975, being third by the late 1990s created an odd juxtaposition between the large, super-regional mall and the notable vacancies within it.  The retail outcome of this decline included the loss of anchors, beginning with JCPenney in 2002.  After a few years of being an ominous (read: Closing Soon) JCPenney Outlet Store, the space was broken up into Burlington Coat Factory and Fred’s Discount Store.  Next came Dillard’s, who packed up the normal wares and converted to an outlet location in 2005, sealing off their lower level.  Then, in February 2007 came the worst blow to the mall as Belk departed, leaving only Sears as the last traditional anchor to the mall.  In addition to the anchor woes, the retail spectrum in the mall’s corridors has fared no better, as Limited Brands closed all five of their Eastland stores.  Other recent departures included Harris Teeter, Chik-fil-A, Things Remembered, American Eagle, and Spencer’s.

Another important factor in the decline of Eastland is the perception of crime.  However, unlike some situations when a mall merely changes demographics, (from mostly white shoppers to a mixed or predominantly black shopper base) the perception of crime is not without basis in fact here.  Several shootings, none of them fatal, have occurred in or around the mall in recent years.  This has certainly kept even loyal and neighborhood customers at bay, causing them to drive across town to other malls.

In addition to all of this, the physical condition of Eastland is deteriorating rapidly, so much so that Glimcher, the mall’s current owner, has deemed the mall a “fixer-upper” and Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory was quoted in 2007 as saying “We built crap. We built pure crap. I call it corridors of crap…and we’re paying for it now” referring to Eastland and the struggling, semi-abandoned strip malls near it.

Despite the downward spiral into oblivion, it seems some astute community leaders and business owners are committed to redeveloping the site for a sustainable future.  The movie theatre, which closed in 1996, was reopened in 2007.  Also, In March 2007, the Urban Land Institute Advisory Council of Washington shared its findings in a comprehensive report about Eastland, ultimately suggesting the mall be torn down and a mixed-use center be put in its place.  Their full report, which is an interesting read for those of us interested in how outdated retail architecture can be successfully repurposed, outlines a number of solutions and explains why a retail-only site would not work for the future.

But why did this all happen?  In order to put together an accurate picture of Charlotte’s retail history, one has to analyze how growth materialized over the past several decades in the area.  When Eastland Mall opened in 1975, a few miles east of downtown, it was extremely well-positioned on the frontier of what would become Charlotte’s largest expanse of sprawl, mostly to the east and southeast of downtown.  However, as the built environment sprawled farther out, so too did the demographic base, including upper-middle class and upper class families who drive the machine of retail location.  As such, new convenience strips of big box and even newer malls, such as Carolina Place, Northlake Mall, (which opened in 2005) and the expansion and upscale positioning of off-freeway center SouthPark Mall took over the limelight from aging regional centers such as Freedom Mall and Eastland Mall.  This, combined with the perception of crime at the center, has even kept those who live nearby away, and the mall has become an open wound, bleeding anchors and in-line retailers alike.

We visited Eastland Mall in September 2005 and took the pictures featured here.  We can’t help but wonder what winds of change the blowing sun, Eastland Mall’s logo, will usher in for the future.

In honor of my recent cross-country move, I figured we should offer up a slice of Americana with a lesser-known Route 66 landmark: the Barstow Mall.

Barstow is a notoriously isolated city located in the Mojave Desert, near where I-15, I-40, and CA-58 all converge. It’s also a spot along historic route 66, and as a result the main drag through town is packed with vintage neon hotels, many of which long ago ceased operations.

Like many spots along Route 66, Barstow’s looking a little rough around the edges today. Historically a major transportation hub, Barstow is the home of a large rail classification yard and is known as a freeway crossroads where many trucks pass through, bringing goods to Los Angeles. Its desert climate is somewhat merciless with days in the summer regularly pushing the mercury above 100°F. Barstow’s geographic isolation and unfavorable climate are probably two reasons why it is today one of the ten poorest cities in California.

Barstow may be the home to many notable Route 66 landmarks, but the Barstow Mall is one you won’t normally hear about. A joyless concrete behemoth left over from the 1970s, this unloveable structure has been almost compeltely forgotten, with practically no stores or businesses left operating inside. Fairly typical of “dumbell-style” two-anchor 1970s malls, Barstow Mall is notable because it has retained many of its original details in the form of planters, odd light fixtures, and a whooole lot of concrete. The mall’s two anchors, Sears and Kmart, left long ago.
It’s a frankly spooky place. When I was there it was almost completely empty except for a bunch of teenaged girls with tiaras taking a group photo (?). Barstow in general was kind of a dramatically creepy place, with so many sad vestiges of the glory days of Route 66 and the area’s general lack of vegetation. Given the Barstow Mall’s proximity to major transportation corridors, however, and the fact that it’s such a ghost town, it’s well worth seeing on a swing through town.

Laurel, Mississippi is a small city of about 20,000 residents located in the southeastern part of the state, with about 80,000 in the immediate micropolitan area.  A considerable distance from other large cities in the south, Laurel is located along the I-59 corridor about 140 miles north of New Orleans and 200 miles southwest of Birmingham.  The city is known for oil, manufacturing and agricultural-related endeavors, and is a quintessential example of the old-fashioned deep south.   

Laurel’s relative distance from other cities requires a substantial retail presence in town.  The nearest larger city is Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with a population of about 40,000.  Hattiesburg is about thirty miles south of Laurel on I-59 and is home to a large regional mall called The Mall at Turtle Creek, and a huge retail strip.  Built in 1995, The Mall at Turtle Creek draws shoppers from all over southeast Mississippi and is the most substantial mall in the entire region.  It even replaced an older enclosed mall, the Cloverleaf Mall, on the other side of Hattiesburg which has recently repurposed itself into a mixed-use office/retail complex.   

But Laurel does indeed have a mall.  Sawmill Square Mall opened on the site of a former sawmill (who’d have guessed?) sometime in the 1970s.  The mall is anchored by Belk, JCPenney, and a huge pile of logs.  Just kidding about that last one. The Belk was recently a mid-range department store from Jackson, Miss. called McRae’s, and got eaten up by Belk in March 2006.  You can sort of see some of the McRae’ labelscar on the Belk photo above. 

The decor of Sawmill Square is sort of modeled after a sawmill, or at least what people in the 1970s thought a sawmill would look like if it was turned into a mall.  And this was apparently the case, as one of Laurel’s largest sawmills once stood on the site.  We’re not sure what, if any, of the original mill still stands in the current mall structure though.  There are lots of exposed beams and latticework, with dark tiling and wooden facades everywhere.  The mall obviously hasn’t received a major update in its lifespan, a rare find these days. 

The selection of stores at Sawmill Square seems adequate enough for a city its size, but locals apparently disagree.  I wouldn’t exactly call this a dead mall per se, as it seemed mostly leased with at least a decent amount of national retailers.  It was also packed on the Saturday evening I visited.  But on the other hand, I kind of see their point; many local stores inhabit the mall, (some of my favorites are in the photos) and several national retailers have relocated to a “newer” strip near a Wal-Mart Supercenter and Lowes and just ignore the mall completely.  Even so, the mall’s pretty substantial, and although a renovation of the mall would kill its awesome 1970s decor and vintage character, it would probably lure even more shoppers and retailers alike. 

Take a look at these pictures from March 2008 and let us know what you think.  If you can provide more information about the mall, that would be great too.  When exactly did it open?  Also, if you’re familiar with the mall be sure to leave some of your own personal stories and anecdotes.   

The largest city in the state of Iowa, Des Moines is a growing metropolitan area of over 500,000 residents and a glowing example of midwestern urbanity.  Historically, its even keel and middle-American value have been an overall attractive package for developers. It is for this reason that Chicago retail magnates Joseph Abbell and Bernard Greenbaum chose the city to develop an early prototype of a shopping center which would become far more successful than they had ever imagined.

Originally the site of a Passionist Monastery from the 1920s through the 1950s, Abbell and Greenbaum worked with Younkers, a Des Moines-based department store chain still in business today, to develop what was initially called Northland Shopping Center.  A strip mall in its early design stages, developers quickly realized the potential of the site and revamped plans to include two large department stores and four buildings around a commons area.  Not only this, they changed the name to Merle Hay Plaza, named after the road the Plaza is on but also after the first Iowan killed in World War I.  Construction on the Plaza was complete in 1959, with 31 stores including Younkers and a bowling alley which is still in operation on the site today.  Later that same year, Sears opened, and other early tenants included Kresge’s, Bishop’s Buffet, and Walgreens.  In 1965, a movie theatre and office tower were also added to the complex, making it one of the largest mixed-use facilities in the country at the time.

In 1972, as part of a nationwide trend, Merle Hay Plaza was enclosed, becoming Merle Hay Mall.  The climate controlled, indoor environment allowed shoppers respite from the harsh, midwestern winters and also from rain and heat in summer.  Then, in 1974, the mall doubled in size with a two-level western addition, adding anchor stores Montgomery Ward and a Younkers home store.  This expansion was mainly a response to two other regional enclosed centers being built in the market, Southridge Mall and Valley West Mall, both of which still exist today. 

Despite the mall’s enormous success at the time, tragedy struck Merle Hay Mall in November 1978 when a fire broke out in the Younkers store, killing 10 of the store’s 25 employees.  To date, it is the most devastating fire in Des Moines’ history, and destroyed the original Younkers at the mall.  The fire was caused by faulty wiring.

A new Younkers opened to replace the destroyed one within a year, and it was the only anchor change at the mall until 1991 when Younkers home store closed as Younkers exited the furniture and appliances market to focus on their fashion-oriented department stores which still exist today.  That store was replaced by Kohls in 1993; then, in 1998, a controversy which eventually led to the closure of the Wards store ensued.  It was deemed that Wards was operating a “discount store” instead of the “first class, full line department store” their lease required.  So as a response, Wards just took off, leading to St. Louis (May Company) based Famous-Barr to fill the space in 2000.  Also that year, the entire mall underwent a $20-million renovation. 

In 2004, a major retail shakup occurred in the Des Moines market as a brand new retail destination opened in West Des Moines.  Jordan Creek Town Center instantly became the category killer mall in all respects, consisting of an enclosed mall and two separate lifestyle center-style districts comprising not only retail but recreation, hotels, entertainment, and destination dining.  The insanely popular Jordan Creek has consistently sucked shoppers in central Iowa away from the three other regional malls; however, due to extensive renovations and repositioning; the other malls seem to be holding their own.  At Merle Hay Mall, Famous-Barr closed in 2004 and due to anchor shuffling Target was able to build a new store in the old Younkers space, as Younkers relocated to Famous-Barr’s old location.   

Today, Merle Hay Mall is not only still the state’s largest enclosed regional center, but also the oldest in all of Iowa.  According to ICSC, Jordan Creek Town Center has more retail space but the enclosed portion is smaller.  Interestingly, while most of the mall is located in the city of Des Moines, the tail end of the western expansion has yielded a food court which is actually located in the city of Urbandale.

Possibly the most interesting aspect of Merle Hay are its design features.  After the 1974 expansion, Merle Hay was left with two main wings.  The older (1972) wing, which connected Sears and Younkers (now Target), has very high ceilings with large windows near the top and a wide corridor.  In addition, this corridor was home to two separate “basement courts” - one which housed a bowling alley, and another which housed a restaurant and other entertainment options.  Both of these basement courts were extremely open, but only the bowling alley one is currently open.  Management appears to have shuttered the other basement court, as evidenced by the conspicuous placement of a large planter blocking the staircase leading to it from the main corridor.

The newer (western) wing, built in 1974, is absolutely amazing.  It connects the main corridor, at center court, to Kohls, Younkers, and the food court at the west side of the mall.  The best part, however, is the middle of this western wing where it randomly splits into two levels.  To get from the one-level to the two-level part requires going up or down a half level, respectively.  Also, the decor in this area is dated, and the ceiling becomes this massive archway which extends across this wide area.  It’s really kind of unexpected, and at the end it goes back to one level again to continue to the anchors and a short side hallway veers right to the food court where the mall finally ends.

Most recently, Merle Hay Mall has been in the news for being a ’struggling’ mall - which I couldn’t disagree more with; however, the mall has lost $13 million in value since 2005 and is probably in need of some renovation to continue its overall viability into the future.  The city of Des Moines has also become antsy as the erosion of its tax base is terrible for them, so in response they have enabled a TIF district in the area surrounding the mall.  Monies from the city will help the mall and its neighbors update their facades and renovate existing locations to keep shoppers happy and in the end hopefully to get some people to ease off the gas pedal in the direction of Jordan Creek.  However, on the flip side, more than a few residents are miffed that the city is giving this area TIF financing when there are several other sections of the city that are much worse off.  Either way, I hope it helps, Merle Hay’s a cool place and we want to see it around for a long time.

The pictures featured here were taken in March 2008, when the mall seemed busy enough to me.  I think if you want to see a struggling mall, you should take a look at a few others on this site…  Feel free to add your own experiences or post something interesting you know about the mall.     

Thanks to Jay for these more-than-ten-years-old photos of the Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah. Far from a dead mall, Fashion Place is one of the most dominant shopping malls in the Salt Lake City area, with Macy’s, Dillard’s, Nordstrom, and Sears as anchor stores.

Jay took these photos in 1997, though the mall has changed fairly significantly since and is in the process of changing again. In the summer of 2007, it was announced that the 876,000 square foot Fashion Place would get a 230,000 square foot expansion. Nordstrom and Dillard’s would get brand new stores, and the mall area itself would be expanded to add new stores and restaurants, and the interior of the center will be renovated.

I’ve never visited the center and am not too sure of much of its history, but I do know that the mall opened in 1972, and the Dillard’s store (which is pictured in the link above) was opened as a Weinstocks and then later became The Broadway. The existing, 4-level Dillard’s is going to be demolished as part of the mall’s renovation to make room for more mall space.

In 2006, Fashion Place was one of a dozen American shopping malls to open on Black Friday at 12:01a.m., and experienced crushing crowds. Reportedly the earliest Black Friday ever, the mall was open for 22 hours… placing a great strain on employees and managers throughout the center. The gimmick seems to have been a success.

Also, check out this undated photo from the University of Utah’s J Willard Marriott Library–it showcases a much-older Nordstrom logo! Any guesses on when it’s from? I didn’t have Nordstrom in my area until about a decade ago, so I’m not as familiar with their older logos.

With a population of just over 100,000 residents, Green Bay is Wisconsin’s third largest city and the largest of the string of cities collectively called the Fox Cities in the northeastern part of the state.  Interestingly, Green Bay is one of the oldest continuously settled places in the United States, having been established as a French trading post in 1634.  Today, however, Green Bay is known primarily for its homegrown football team and economy of paper mills and other manufacturing industries.  However, the economy is far from robust, and the city is one of a few in Wisconsin losing population in recent years due to manufacturing cutbacks and negative job growth as many of the city’s historic industries invest elsewhere in cheaper labor and materials.  However, the Green Bay metropolitan area has grown by about 6 percent since 2000.

Green Bay’s retail scene has evolved quite a bit since its early days as a trading post nearly 400 years ago.  Unlike southern Wisconsin, Green Bay and the Fox Cities got on the super-regional mall-building train relatively late.  One of the first large-scale regional developments was planned to simultaneously reinvigorate downtown Green Bay from its loss of retailers to suburban strips in the 1970s, and also to give the area a super-regional multi-anchor mall.  Port Plaza Mall opened ceremoniously in 1977 featuring anchor stores H.C. Prange, which predated the mall by 50 years, and JCPenney, as well as about 100 smaller stores under one roof in the middle of downtown Green Bay.  Four years later in 1981 Boston Store opened as well as a small food court. 

The 1980s were mostly kind to Port Plaza Mall, as it retained immense popularity despite other competition being constructed nearby.  Most notably were the large malls Bay Park Square in Ashwaubenon, a suburb of Green Bay, and Fox River Mall, located in Appleton about 30 minutes away.  Both Bay Park Square and Fox River Mall opened as large-scale regional developments and were an immediate threat to Port Plaza’s customer base, opening in 1980 and 1984, respectively.  Fox River Mall, being both the most centrally located center for all of northeastern Wisconsin as well as being located in one of the most economically prosperous areas, has enjoyed the most success to date.  It has attracted a sea of boxes and category killers to surround it, and is a retail destination for all of northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan.  As an immediate response to this competition, Port Plaza Mall embarked upon a large scale renovation in 1988. 

As the 1990s began, Port Plaza still held its own and remained a destinational offering anchoring downtown Green Bay.  In 1992, anchor store Prange’s became Younkers as the former chain was purchased by the latter, but didn’t really affect much.  More numerous changes were afoot by the end of the decade, as problems emerged at Port Plaza Mall.  It seemed as though shoppers were no longer willing to go downtown and deal with parking, and much preferred shopping at Bay Park Square, which was renovated about this time, or to travel to Appleton for all the offerings there. 

In 2000, the Boston Store closed and so did numerous other national chain retailers, signaling a red flag for the mall’s prosperity and the beginning of a downward spiral.  In 2001 and 2002, the mall was sold and a few attempts were made to return it to glory.  First, the mall was renamed to Washington Commons, to reflect the new owners’ plans to integrate ‘other’ uses into the mall, like offices.  McDonald’s and Osco also jumped ship about this time, and the food court was moved to near center court while the old food court was demolished so Washington Street could be reconnected through the mall as it was before the mall opened.  In 2004, another blow came to the mall as Younkers closed, relocating to a vacant spot at Bay Park Square.  In 2005, the Green Bay Childrens Museum left the mall, and all the while more and more stores left like Bath and Body Works.  2005 also saw the last anchor tenant, JCPenney, leave the mall in October, leaving the mall with only a handful of stores. 

In February 2006, following numerous failed attempts to repurpose at least some of the mall into office space or anything useful, owners decided to kick the remaining tenants out and close the mall permanently.  They sort of had to do this, because the mall was being foreclosed upon by the bank it was financed with, and the electricity would be shut off after February and it’s mighty cold in Wisconsin about this time.  Anyway, the mall closed, but not before yours truly paid it a visit on the last day it was open.  These pictures were taken February 26, 2006. 

In Summer 2007, the Pranges/Younkers building was demolished to make way for new developments at the mall, which could include a small lifestyle/retail portion and trendy condos or something; you know the drill by now.  Take a look at the pictures and feel free to leave us your own comments and experiences at Port Plaza Mall/Washington Commons in Green Bay. 

Big news last week out of New York: the Nanuet Mall in Nanuet, New York will soon be closing to be demolished and replaced with an open-air lifestyle center.

I only visited the Nanuet Mall once–way back in 2000–and I remember being amazed at the time that it seemed to do fairly well given that it exists in the shadows of Nyack’s mammoth Palisades Center Mall, a far newer behemoth that’s one of the largest malls in the tri-state area. Nanuet seemed quieter and more civilized than its cousin down the street; clearly a case of a mall that had (successfully, then) positioned itself as a convenient option for residents living in the immediate area, much in the same way that Paramus Park manages to thrive in the shadows of Garden State Plaza. I guess that times have changed since then, however, and the center needs to dramatically reposition itself to remain viable.

The Nanuet Mall was the largest mall for affluent, suburban Rockland County in the lower Hudson region for 30 years. The mall opened in 1969, with Bamberger’s and Sears as anchor stores. Here’s a vintage photo of the Nanuet Mall from that era; the Bamberger’s signage is plainly visible in the shot. In 1986, Bamberger’s was converted to Macy’s. In the mid-1990s, a new wing was added (creating a “T” shaped layout) with an Abraham & Straus anchor store; this store would later become a Stern’s. When Stern’s and Macy’s merged in 2001, the store was shut and later replaced by a Boscov’s store; one of only four in New York State.

The redevelopment plans call for eliminating the entire center save the Macy’s and Sears stores; Boscov’s is leaving the complex for good. There were rumblings of something like this happening for awhile, with a scare around the holidays about the mall cutting its hours from 10-9 down to 11-6. Instead it looks like they’ll be cut back a whole lot more than that.

Prangeway took all of these photos in 2001, a much better time for the poor old Nanuet Mall.

The mailbag arrived the other day, stuffed with a bunch of (very touching, I assure you) notes expressing some grave concern about my whereabouts. I figured that I might as well come clean.

Many of you noticed that I haven’t been around as much, and that poor ol’ Labelscar just hasn’t had quite as much content as it used to. In a nutshell, the reason is a very big personal and professional change for me that I’m very slowly adjusting to. A very exciting career opportunity presented itself, and this exciting opportunity actually whisked me 3,200 miles across the country to the San Francisco Bay Area. That’s right, good ol’ Caldor is a New England boi no more–at least not for the moment.

While this has–quite understandably–taken up much of my time, I also see this as an opportunity to develop even more content. Labelscar has leaned heavily on the midwest and northeast largely because that’s where its authors reside. I have quite a bit in the can from the northeast (though, sadly, I do not have photos of *every* mall or antiquated retailer, which I would like) but now that I’m here in a brand new area, I can begin to bag some stuff from a whole new region of the United States that had been previously underserved. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope that all the logistics involved with my recent switcheroo don’t completely bury me in other concerns.

One of the more interesting bits of this shift is that I’m staying–temporarily–with a friend who lives in Mountain View, California. In addition to being the home of Google (which is not where I work, in case you were wondering) and a part of Silicon Valley, Mountain View is also home to a total of three ghost malls! Sadly, all three of these were redeveloped over a decade ago, and very few remnants of any of them exist. But thankfully a local citizen who created a very comprehensive guide to this pretty South Bay suburb managed to document these three malls in great detail (along with photos of each), and I strongly encourage you to check it out!

I live right in the neighborhood where these three malls are located, and I was completely unaware of two of them. The Mayfield Mall building (just north of Central Expressway, east of San Antonio Road) even still exists, but it was converted to an office building (which itself has been abandoned) so long ago that it’s unrecognizable. The Old Mill Mall was demolished long before I arrived and no trace of it remains–today it is the condo complex that runs along Pacchetti Way. The San Antonio Center, which was the largest of the three, has the largest amount of artifacts, mainly in the intact Sears and Mervyn’s stores, as well as small pieces of the original outdoor mall. That crazy old pylon remains too, thank goodness. Unfortunately the rest of the center today is a pretty graceless big box center; a large patch of concrete with a few dozen box stores, strip malls, and restaurant pads scattered willy-nilly around its patch of land.

Read about the missing malls of mountain view–you won’t be sorry!

For those out there who are true dead mall fans, this one’s for you.  Get ready for a tale of competition, empty promises and sad outcomes, but not before a complete pre-demolition tour of an empty ghost mall nine months after it closed for good.   

Located in northern Tarrant County, Texas, about 10 miles northeast of downtown Fort Worth and 25 miles west of downtown Dallas, North Richland Hills is a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, home to over 6 million people with a geographic spread larger than the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined.  North Richland Hills has a population of about 60,000, but is surrounded on all sides by other suburbs and the city of Fort Worth. 

North Richland Hills has an enviable location in the DFW Metroplex, in between Dallas and Fort Worth and relatively close to DFW Airport.  The city is served by Loop 820, the freeway which circles around Fort Worth, and also by TX 183, one of the three east-west freeway linkages between Fort Worth and Dallas (the others being I-20 and I-30, respectively).  In addition, North Richland Hills is also home to a popular water park, and until fairly recently was home to two large, adjacent enclosed malls.  The city was also ranked in 2006 as one of the “Top 100 Best Places to Live in America” according to Money Magazine.

Because of its location and prosperous demographic base, retailers sought to establish presence in the area early on.  North East Mall opened in 1970 or 1971 (which?) in the small city of Hurst, right next to North Richland Hills.  North East Mall was anchored by Montgomery Ward, JCPenney, Sears, and Leonard’s (later Dillard’s).  As the area grew, a complementary mall called North Hills Mall was built directly across Loop 820 from North East Mall, in North Richland Hills.  North Hills Mall opened in 1979, anchored by Stripling and Cox, Foley’s and Mervyn’s.  As it was newer than North East Mall, it stole the thunder for a period of time; however, due to the anchor balance between the two malls the relationship proved a complementary balance for many years.   

This all changed in 1997, when North East Mall struck a deal that would forever change the co-existing relationship between the two malls.  It was announced then that a subdivision of over 100 homes would be demolished south of the existing mall for a large expansion, which doubled the size of the mall and added destination anchor Nordstrom in one fell swoop.  The entire mall was also updated and renovated and when the whole thing was complete, North East Mall also received several high-end fashion stores, putting it miles ahead of its former competition across the freeway.

As renovation proceeded on North East Mall, the owner of North Hills Mall scrambled to get in gear and embark upon a renovation of its own.  In November 1999, North Hills Mall was sold to a new group of investors with ideas as big as Texas itself.  Plans were unveiled to promote North Hills Mall as the ‘entertainment’ complement to North East Mall’s fashion dominance.  In theory, the two malls would continue to co-exist peacefully again as they had for years prior.

In a June 2002 edition of the Dallas Business Journal, developer Burk Collins announced a $93 million loan for renovation and expansion of North Hills Mall, over two years after first announcing the same project.  Among his plans included a Cinemark Tinseltown theater, a Jillian’s entertainment complex and an Olympic-sized ice rink.  Another of his most far-fetched yet awesome ideas was a people-mover system throughout the planned 1.2 million square-foot mall, a man-made three acre lake, and a fountain which would project 200 feet into the air.  The rest of the new space would be filled with themed restaurants including a Dave & Buster’s and a new Burlington Coat Factory anchor.  “It’s a lot of fun…” Collins said. “I hope we can work something out.”

Unfortunately, nothing remotely close to the above plans panned out for North Hills Mall, for various reasons.  First, access to the mall stemming from TXDot construction on Loop 820 in prevented traffic from getting to the mall efficiently for several years.  This, combined with the lag time in development in comparison with the booming success story across the street caused the closure of Stripling and Cox in 2000 and Foley’s in Fall 2001.  Foley’s also added insult to injury in building a brand new store onto adjacent North East Mall.  Then in 2004, the architectural firm responsible for the proposed renovations, by this time long overdue, sued developer/owner Michael Kest because Kest apparently wouldn’t return their blueprints and instead distributed them to competitors.  Whoops. 

All this time, the mall became more and more troubled.  While North East Mall thrived immensely, North Hills Mall went from 75% occupancy in 2000 to 20% occupancy by mid-2004.  Mervyn’s was the only anchor left by Fall 2004, and legal wranglings were still ensuing between California owner Kest and local developer Burk Collins over what to do.  Meanwhile, the bottom fell out and the mall was bleeding money profusely, and, On October 15, 2004, North Hills Mall’s remaining tenants were forced out and the mall locked up for good.  

Well, almost.

In July 2005, we arrived at North Hills Mall unwitting to the above story and attempted a visit.  It was not immediately apparent that the mall was closed for business; however, there were signs that the mall was on its last legs.  Several signs in the parking lot advertised sales of fixtures etc., but we figured a couple stores might still be open because the mall’s doors were wide open and many people were walking around the site.  We ventured into the shuttered Mervyn’s store and gained access into the main walkway, and became instantly aware that the mall was being prepared for demolition and the people walking around were workers harvesting any valuable fixtures from the site.  Most of them ignored us, and we were able to walk the entire length of the mall unfettered, and even use the mall’s restroom which was located in the former food court.  However, upon leaving the mall we were confronted by a man on a bicycle (?!) who wanted to know what we were doing, and also admonished us for being there.  He followed us out on the bike the same way we came and also back into the parking lot, before riding back into the mall.  The whole ordeal was a bit strange, but it allowed for all the pictures you see here and in the end the mall’s memory can be preserved.

Rather shockingly, when researching for this article we discovered the mall was not immediately torn down following our visit.  Instead, due to legal wranglings over the site, the mall sat and rotted until early 2007 when a court order from the city finally forced them to tear it down completely.  Other uses for the shuttered center included developing an Asian-themed mall or turning part of the abandoned structure into medical facilities, but the mall fell into such disrepair that none of this became possible without a complete demolition. 

So what will become of the site?  That’s a question we can’t really answer right now.  After all the legal wranglings and funding issues, the site was supposed to become a 900,000 square-foot “Lifestyle Center” called Citywalk at Calloway Creek (link to PDF), with at least two-thirds of the space devoted to retail and entertainment in order to complement the mega-monster mall next door which still thrives today.  Isn’t that what they tried to do with the old mall?  Hmm.  Furthermore, this Citywalk business was announced in 2005 and has yet to come to fruition (as of February 2008) despite numerous online articles announcing it would already be open by now.  We won’t hold our breath.

It seems rather sad to me that the poor citizens of this area have watched their once-thriving mall literally crumble to pieces while a perfectly viable option was proposed and seemingly funded for several years.  I hope someday something beneficial and unique returns to the vacant site, and is much more than the typical vapid sea of box stores floating amid a shiny gray abyss of parking stalls.

Directory snagged from defunct mall website.  Thanks, wayback machine!

Outside, including former Foley’s:

Inside, including dark abandoned Mervyn’s and stripped mall corridor:

Joliet, Illinois is a booming sprawlburg located about 40 miles southwest of downtown Chicago with a current estimated population of nearly 150,000 residents.  In its long history, Joliet has worn a lot of hats, from industrial-era superpower to beleagured rust-belt city and back to a different kind of economic success supporting the great machine of Chicagoland.  In fact, Joliet has doubled in population since 1990 and is considered the fastest growing city over 100,000 in the midwest.  Whereas just a few decades ago Joliet was considered distinctly separate from Chicago, today the suburban areas between the cities are completely filled in and Joliet functions as a bedroom community for the suburban mass-at-large, as well as behaving as an anchor city containing many support activities and jobs for a metropolitan area of almost ten million people. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, however, Joliet’s plight was a bit different, as it was then considered both farther and further from Chicago, physically as well as ideologically.  Also, the rust-belt problems which ensued across the entire midwest and northeast hit Joliet pretty hard, as many of the city’s enormous factories closed or scaled back operations dramatically as the nation moved from a manufacturing to service economy.  Even so, developers recognized the city’s need for adequate shopping, being a rather large distance from other large shopping malls in Chicagoland. 

As such, the first retail mall constructed in Joliet (actually neighboring Crest Hill) was Hillcrest Shopping Center along the Larkin Street (Route 7) retail corridor.  Opened in 1959, this outdoor mall was anchored by Chicago-based Goldblatt’s and Joliet-based Boston Store (no affiliation with the current Boston Store chain owned by Bon-Ton).  This popular outdoor center soldiered on until 1975 when a larger, more modern enclosed mall opened along West Jefferson (Route 52) just west of Larkin: Jefferson Square Mall. 

Anchored by Wieboldt’s and Montgomery Ward with both Woolworth’s and Walgreens as junior anchors, Jefferson Square quickly gained popularity as Hillcrest faded.  The Boston Store, which was going broke citing competition from all the larger regional retailers and discount boxes which were emerging, closed its downtown branch in 1972 and the Hillcrest Location by 1977.  Goldblatt’s, a Chicago institution and the other anchor at Hillcrest, was the next to go following an unsuccessful round of competition with other Chicago-area stores, and closed in 1982. 

Meanwhile, an even larger and even more modern behemoth, Louis Joliet Mall, opened on what was then the edge of Joliet and almost to Plainfield at the intersection of Route 30 and I-55 in 1978, expanding through 1979.  In all ways, Louis Joliet Mall was the category killer of its time.  Not only did it have interstate access, it was more easily accessible from the fast-growing communities of Romeoville, Plainfield and Bolingbrook to the north, as well as from all points along I-55 southward and I-80 westward.  Also, Louis Joliet had a more impressive roster of stores, with Bergner’s, Sears, JCPenney, and Marshall Fields, and was more in line with a demographic recipe for continued success.

Unfortunately, just as things were looking up for both Jefferson Square and Louis Joliet Malls, they were taking a turn for the worse at Hillcrest.  In the mid-1970s, a Service Merchandise replaced the old Boston Store location, and in 1984, Venture came to rescue the space vacated by Goldblatt’s.  In 1986, Service Merchandise closed and briefly became a Highland electronics store and a Discovery Zone; today the site has been subdivided into smaller stores.  Venture lasted until 1998 when it became Ames for less than a year from 2000 to 2001, and ironically briefly turned back into Goldblatt’s before closing again to be subdivided into smaller stores including a Food4Less grocery store.  It seems Hillcrest, despite its ups and downs, has withstood the test of time by constantly reinventing its purpose, from super-regional draw in 1959 to the everyday melange of stores which makes up a traditional suburban strip mall.

A few miles away at Jefferson Square, the mall soldiered on successful a bit longer; however, Louis Joliet’s dominance in location and stores continued to slowly eat away at Jefferson Square’s base.  Jefferson Square was only convenient to central Joliet, whereas Louis Joliet became closer to the expanding communities of Romeoville and Plainfield, and also the booming part of Joliet.  A large retail strip developed around Louis Joliet, whereas the established retail strip around Jefferson Square was not as complete with category killers and modern big box giants. 

The first major blow to Jefferson Square was the closure of Wieboldts in 1987.  Up until this point, Jefferson Square had many of the in-line stores Louis Joliet had, and effectively served the population of central Joliet better in this fashion.  However, once Wieboldt’s closed, Jefferson Square quickly began a downward spiral from which it could never emerge, despite several life-saving attempts.  In 1991, Menards, a midwest-based home improvement warehouse store, was brought in to replace the Wieboldt’s location.  Instead of revitalizing the core of the mall, Menards decided to close their mall entrance within a couple years, effectively rescinding any promise to revitalize the decaying interior of the mall.  Way to go, Menards. 

In 1996, the mall’s 60-plus stores had been pared down to only about two dozen, and management decided to unload the mall on a new owner, who embarked on radical new renovation plans.  The mall was given a woodland decor, and renamed Wilderness Mall.  With the renovation came several indoor changes, includng a ridiculously large fake tree placed in center court - a tree so large you could walk through it.  See the pictures for a better explanation of this.  Sadly, the bandshell and kiosk area which formerly occupied center court were replaced by this ‘tree’ and other faux-woodland things, like fake branches and fake pine trees.  I’m not ever sure how ‘up north’ corresponded to Joliet, but here it was, for better or worse.

Unfortunately, the ‘worse’ began to be what materialized following the woodsy renovation.  Only the Secretary of State (Read: DMV) decided to relocate into the cavernous dead mall, and things just got worse and worse.  The cinema began to run discount movies, and when Woolworths closed in 1997  the entire east wing was sealed off - for good.  Then, when Montgomery Ward closed in 2001, the mall began life support as only a few services and the Off-Track Betting parlor were located inside.  For some reason, one of the last “real” tenants of the mall was a Foot Locker near center court.  I remember a visit there in 2001 or 2002, and the Foot Locker was the lone tenant at center court.  The employees were nearly asleep sitting on the bench waiting for customers, and it seemed like the store was all but forgotten.  Other favorite stores included a western wear store and a store called “Scrunchie Heaven” - imagine what they could have sold!  There was also a travel agent, and most of the stores were located either around the north (main) entrance where the OTB was, or the south entrance where the cinema and Secretary of State was. 

Once Wards closed, the mall was actually sold to Menard Properties, and only a few more years passed before Menards unveiled plans to raze the mall, build a Menards Supercenter, and lease the other half of the site to Wal Mart so they could build their own Supercenter.  And so it was done.  What was left inside the mall (The OTB and the Secretary of State) were moved to outlots, and construction began on razing the mall in 2004. Today, both Wal-Mart Supercenter and Menards Superstore sit side-by-side on the site formerly occupied by the mall.  Hooray?

I wonder what became of the ‘tree’ and the rest of the ridiculous wilderness-themed tomfoolery?  Did it just go in the trash heap, or was it somehow recycled for more people to enjoy?

The pictures featured here were mostly taken in 2002, with the razing pictures taking place in 2004.  Enjoy them and leave your comments as usual.