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:

During the height of the economic collapse last winter, I took a trip to one of the most threatened malls in California: Bakersfield’s East Hills Mall. It doesn’t take a genius to see why this place is having a hard time, because it has practically everything stacked against it:

• Its anchors are/were Gottschalks (which was, at this point, a few weeks shy of announcing that they were going out of business), Mervyn’s (whose stores had all just shuttered), and Harris, who were acquired several years ago by Gottschalks. The Harris store at East Hills Mall was shuttered a few years ago. This leaves only a United Artists Theatre as a major anchor tenant in the center.
• It’s located in California’s Central Valley, one of the regions of the nation most heavily impacted by the precipitous drop in housing prices from 2007-2009
• It’s located on the *EAST* side of Bakersfield, which is a higher-crime and lower-income part of town.
• East Hills Mall isn’t a terribly large mall overall.

First, just a few notes about Bakersfield itself. Bakersfield is one of the largest cities in California’s central valley, located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles and due west of the Mojave Desert. The region has long been known for its oil production and agriculture, and was one of the prime spots for migrants from the Dust Bowl during the depression. As a result, the region has long held the honor of being California’s most conservative city, due to the influence of Evangelicalism and country music (Buck Owens and Merle Haggard were both from here, and Bakersfield is sometimes referred to as the Nashville of the west). In recent years, however, Bakersfield’s identity has been transforming from its Okie past as new residents–mainly from the Los Angeles area–have come to the area in search of cheaper housing. In addition, a significant number of immigrants from locations as diverse as Mexico, Phillippines, and many countries in the middle east and northern Africa. Bakersfield has even become known as something of a destination for Basque food, which isn’t easy to find just anywhere. Despite the city’s considerable growth, however, it does not remain much of a cultural hotbed, and has significant issues with poverty and crime (as well as a nasty history of racism), and its hot, dusty climate is one of the least favorable in California. With a population of around 330,000 in the city proper and approximately 800,000 in the entire metropolitan area, Bakersfield is the third largest inland metropolitan area in California after Sacramento and Fresno.

The East Hills Mall is one of only two enclosed malls serving the Bakersfield metropolitan area, and is the far smaller of the two. Unfortunately, there’s also almost nothing about the history of this unloved mall floating around on the internet. Judging by the architecture, it appears that the 415,000 square foot mall was probably built sometime in the late 1980s. Although we know Harris and Gottschalks were former anchors, I’m not entirely sure if the third anchor was originally a Mervyn’s–something about the architecture of the store tells me it may have been a Target originally (and there is a Target on the outlots of the parcel) but I’m not entirely sure if the timeline matches up for Target to have been in California at the time. I also wouldn’t be shocked if one of these anchors had at one point been a Montgomery Ward or a Robinson’s-May, but I am really guessing here. It does appear that the mall’s decline began a long time ago–late ’90s-ish, and was sold in 2003 to a developer who had a plan to modernize and expand the center, especially to cater to the growing suburban area in the city’s northeast hills. Bakersvillians, help us out!

When I visited in early January 2009, there was a robust plan to redevelop the center, bringing in new tenants and adding more of an entertainment and dining focus. A year later, the anchorless East Hills Mall filed for bankruptcy, its hopes dashed by the low likelihood of a housing rebound in this somewhat depressed corner of California. While the mall remains open, it serves as little more than a lobby for the movie theatres and a handful of local merchants who have been able to survive with so little foot traffic. The bankruptcy itself may also force even more dramatic changes–such as the (possibly likely) outcome that the mall will be demolished and completely replaced. Given its condition, that may not be a terrible option.

Albuquerque is the largest city in sparsely populated New Mexico, America’s 5th-largest state by area.  With a metropolitan population of approximately 850,000 people, nearly half the population of the entire state of New Mexico lives in the Albuquerque area.

Albuquerque is known for its natural beauty and Spanish and Native American influences, which have together created a very distinct culture unique to New Mexico and the American Southwest.  As Albuquerque has progressed into modernity, it resisted the types of growth found in other cities.  The impetus for growth in Albuquerque was not the manufacturing age and the industrial revolution – as was the case in many eastern and northern cities – but the Atomic Age during and after the Cold War.

The establishment of Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia Base, and Sandia National Laboratories during the 1930s into the 1950s positioned Albuquerque for immense growth, and from 1940 to 1960 the city grew from 35,000 to 200,000.  The area has grown at a fast pace since, and in 2007 was named by CNN and the U.S. Census as the 6th fastest growing city in America.

As much of Albuquerque’s growth occurred after World War II, developers assumed people would rather drive than walk places, so development patterns followed suit.  Albuquerque’s major streets are on the grid system, with shopping and convenience centers at major intersections.  This is a very typical development pattern throughout much of the American Southwest and Sun Belt region in general.  Also, due to both geography and the positioning of Albuquerque’s industry, growth patterns favored filling in the valley to the east of downtown.

In response to its tremendous growth, Albuquerque decided to jump on the mall-building trend and began planning the state’s first mall in 1960.  Due to development patterns favoring the sprawling east side, combined with the pending completion of Interstate 40 across Albuquerque around the same time,  a centrally-located site was selected along Interstate 40 at Louisiana Boulevard – about 6 miles east of downtown.

Once the site was selected, Victor Gruen - the Grandfather of malls - was hired to design Winrock Center, which opened in March 1961.  It opened with 42 stores, anchored by Safeway, Kresge, Walgreens, Fedway discount mart, Montgomery Ward, and JCPenney.  Wards and Penneys flanked the eastern side of the center, and the rest of the anchors were located along the western side with a semi-enclosed mallway in between.  The semi-enclosure consisted of a roof with open grillwork to allow the free flow of air into and through the center.  In addition, two completely open-air plazas existed on the east and west ends of the center.  A good illustration of Winrock’s 1960s layout can be found here, and Malls of America has a great photo of Winrock from this era.

Not only was Winrock a shopping destination, but it was also a pioneer of mixed-use developments, housing a Best Western motel and offices on site, starting in 1963, with housing on its periphery.  Also in 1963, the Fox Winrock Cinerama Theatre opened in the mall’s north parking lot.

Eager to capitalize on the instant success of Winrock, another developer built a competing mall kitty corner to Winrock in 1965.  Called Coronado Center, it was anchored by Sears and Tacoma, Wa.-based Rhodes; and, like Winrock, Coronado contained a single level of open air shops.   However, despite the opening of Coronado within sight of Winrock, Winrock’s fortunes didn’t immediately suffer – it would take another three decades before Albuquerqueans favored Coronado over Winrock.

The 1970s brought many changes to both of Albuquerque’s malls as they attempted to modernize and adapt to competition from each other as well as the peripheral retail strip and smaller shopping centers popping up all over town.  In 1972, Dillard’s arrived at Winrock, replacing the Safeway/Fedway area on the west side of the mall.  Then, in 1975, both Albuquerque malls decided to expand and fully enclose, providing a fully climate-controlled environment in the relatively harsh Albuquerque weather (wind, heat, cold), as well as providing an edge over other non-enclosed shopping venues in town.  The Cinema was also replaced in 1975 by the larger Winrock 6 complex.

After it was enclosed in 1975, Winrock has retained much of the same overall design.  Many Gruen-esque features remained after the enclosure and subsequent additions, such as high ceilings, large windows, and wide mallways.  The mostly-’L'-shaped mall features an oddly canopied second level existing on only one side of the mall, ending in a very interesting configuration for the Dillards Womens anchor on the northeast end.  The upper level exists from that anchor down to the food court, located at the crux of the ‘L’, where there is also a small basement level and an impressive three level atrium.  Both the upper level and small basement court have been permanently closed off as of 2009.  Considering Winrock Center’s website is now defunct, Mall-Hall-of-Fame has provided an excellent illustration of the mall’s current layout on its site.

Throughout the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, Winrock and Coronado competed head-to-head, even in spite of a new 2-level showplace mall – Cottonwood Mall - which debuted on the northwest side of town in 1996.  Despite being almost across the street from one another, Winrock and Coronado contained mostly complementary stores and anchors.  This harmonious co-existence between the malls came to an end during the 1990s, however, as Coronado tweaked its image and stores in order to better market itself to the masses.

Beginning in the mid-1990s and lasting into the 2000s, the balance of power began to change between the two malls.   In 1990, JCPenney jumped ship and moved across the street to Coronado Center, but this was quickly remediated by another Dillards taking its place.  Also in 1990, the huge Montgomery Ward store was subdivided, with 30,000 square feet of its space going to Marshalls.  Winrock became known as a haven for seniors, and the stores started to reflect this.  Coronado tweaked its tenancy to provide better stores, and vacancies started to erode the customer base at Winrock; more and more people began choosing the hipper, cooler, and most importantly, variety-laden Coronado Center.

In 2001, Montgomery Ward went broke and closed all their stores nationwide, delivering a massive blow to the already-flagging Winrock Center, and one from which it would never recover.  Anchored by two Dillards locations, the mall began losing even more stores, especially the high-volume popular national chains the mall counted on.  After Wards closed, their space was converted to a Bed Bath and Beyond, which didn’t nearly replace the same amount of traffic.  However, as late as November 2003 Winrock was 100% leased for the holiday season, albeit with a fair share of temporary tenants.

In 2002 following the Wards closure, and again in 2005, realizing the 874,000 square-foot mall was near the end of its useful life in its current state, owner PruWinrock LLC (owned by New Jersey-based Prudential) decided to remodel Winrock Center by returning it to an open-air mall, adding offices and apartments.  In doing so, PruWinrock decided to let many of the remaining store leases expire without renewal, beginning in 2005, forcing the mall to become even more empty – but this time on purpose.  The 174-room Best Western Winrock Inn also closed in 2005, after 42 years of business.

The new “Lifestyle Center” – called Winrock Market Center – would capitalize on the New Urbanism ideal, allowing people to potentially live, shop, play and work in the same space.  It would juxtapose the enclosed nearby Coronado Center with a fresher, more modern environment and possibly give it a run for its money.   The plan was presented in May 2005, and included 66 multifamily units, a 174-room hotel, a movie theater, and retail, restaurant and office space.  Similar plans like this one in other cities have showed promise and have met with success, so it all seemed like a done deal, until…

At the same time Winrock’s owners were seeking to de-mall and revitalize their center, an El Paso-based company – Hunt Building Corporation – decided to enter the open-air mall building race, with a goal of beating Winrock to the punch.  They secured city approval and permits, a builder, and lined up tenants for a project directly across the street from Winrock and also next to Coronado Center, all in time for a Fall 2006 opening.

Their project is called ABQUptown, and the first phase of the project featured retail offerings not previously found in Albuquerque.  Stores like Pottery Barn, J Jill, Apple and Coldwater Creek opened, which previously required a daunting 900 mile round-trip drive to either Phoenix or Denver.  A second phase featuring 198 upscale apartments has also opened at ABQUptown, and a third phase featuring more retail, offices, and condos is planned.   ABQUptown was instantly successful, with several of the popular chain stores posting record sales, on par with markets in much larger cities.  As a retail metaphor for what was happening, one of the last major tenants at Winrock, Borders Books – which opened in the mid 1990s – jumped ship and moved from Winrock across the street to the new ABQUptown development in early 2007.

Embittered and beaten by ABQUptown, Winrock’s owner – PruWinrock LLC – became quickly disillusioned, and wanted out of the deal altogether.  Amid controversy, lawsuits, and disapproval from the city of Albuquerque, Winrock Center was finally sold to a pair of local developers - Gary Goodman and Mike Kelly – in September 2007, with high hopes that a successful new project could soon materialize on the site.

In June 2008, Goodman and Kelly unveiled grandiose, extremely impressive plans for Winrock’s redevelopment.  About half of the mall would be saved, including existing stores Dillards, Bed Bath and Beyond, Sports Authority and Toys R Us; the rest would be demolished and reconfigured.  In addition to those anchors, a new 16-screen movie theatre with IMAX would be built on the north side of the property.  Also, at least one full-service hotel, community gathering spaces, a park, communal gathering plazas, a higher-end neighborhood supermarket and about a dozen restaurants would be built.  The retail portion will represent a “cross section” of local and national brands, and one area will be devoted to ethnic foods, according to Goodman. In place of a fountain, a 400 foot long recreation of the Rio Grande River would be created to illustrate the river’s ecology.

Wow!  Sounds really exciting – if it could all come together, that is.  The recent economic downturn wrecked the earlier, aforementioned sales records at ABQUptown and put a pall on the Winrock project, which - as of November 2009 - has yet to break ground.  Goodman and Kelly have had a really tough time securing financing for the project, even with the help of local government.  In December 2008, the Winrock redevelopment was given a $137 million TIDD – a Tax Increment Development District – which donates a portion of gross state tax receipts to help specific projects.  Because the Winrock development is infill – and green-friendly –  and will create over 5,000 jobs over the life of the project, it was deemed important enough to provide assistance.

As of May 2009, the Winrock project is stalled, and owner Goodman expressed frustration that financing has yet to materialize.  His frustration was amplified by the fact that there has been considerable enthusiasm by retail entities willing to commit to the project, with 2 leases ready to be signed and 9 letters of intent committed.  As expected, Goodman has pared down the initial phase of the project considerably, and has rejiggered the first phase to consist of only the construction of the IMAX theater, remodel of one of the Dillards locations, and the demolition of the vacant enclosed mall, along with some site improvements.  In desperation, Goodman has even approached New Mexico Senator Bingaman, in order to possibly secure a loan from the federal government to get the project off the ground.

We have no new concrete updates about the progress of the Winrock redevelopment, so we’ll assume everything is still status quo until further developments arise.  We visited Winrock in November 2009 and were astounded that the mall was still open, seemingly exclusively for mall walkers and the like.  The exterior entrances of one of the Dillards locations, as well as Sports Authority and Bed Bath and Beyond seemed to have permanently closed, but the lower level Dillards entrance on the northeast end of the mall was actually open.  We assume that once financing is secured for the redevelopment, the mall will close as quickly as possible for demolition.  So, if you want to see this gem, better get there as soon as possible.  Feel free to add your own comments, whether you have extra light to shed on Winrock’s history, past or present, or your reactions.

Recently I’ve been following coverage of some pretty extensive renovations taking place at Lincoln Mall, a long-beleagured super-regional mall in south suburban Chicagoland.  Initially I was excited at the prospect of even a modicum of success here, especially considering I’ve never seen the mall even close to its potential.  I first visited Lincoln Mall about a decade ago, after it fell in the toilet but before it drowned.  I recently re-visited for the first time after some of the renovations have materialized, and was extremely dismayed – both by the progress of the renovations and also by a personal, not-so-fun experience I had there.

Matteson, Illinois (pronounced matt-uh-son) is a diverse suburb of Chicago, located about 30 miles south of downtown.  With a population of about 17,000, Matteson is economically middle class, squeezed in between poverty-stricken Chicago Heights to the east, and wealthy Frankfort to its west.

Within Chicagoland, Matteson is part of – and centrally located within – a larger economic region known as “Chicago’s Southland” – a regional economic development and tourism consortium comprised of nearly all of the suburbs south and southwest of Chicago.  Made up of 86 communities with a population of nearly 2.5 million people, the region is simultaneously diverse yet allied by common goals.  Much of the region, specifically the suburbs directly south of the City of Chicago and east of I-57, has been negatively impacted by the loss of heavy industry during the latter part of the 20th century.  In an attempt to promote the region’s shift from a manufacturing to a service based economy, the consortium advertises the region’s proximity to Chicago, the transportation network – numerous rail lines as well as 5 interstates converge here – and the region’s affordability in comparison to the western and northern suburbs.

Suburban blight, crime, and poverty have become significant problems in the Southland region, with some good examples in postwar suburbs Harvey and Chicago Heights.  In fact, one of the most famous dead malls in the country is located in Harvey, and – as of late 2009 – is still standing after being abandoned for almost 25 years. However, this traditionally blue collar region is by no means lacking in riches; some of the Chicago area’s wealthiest zip codes are in Frankfort, Orland Park, Palos Heights, Olympia Fields and other areas within the region.

Matteson is home to a concentration of numerous strip malls and big box stores, mostly located along Route 30 and Cicero Avenue (Route 50).  It’s one of several areas in the south suburbs of Chicago with a high concentration of retail strip, and also home to one of the south/southwest suburbs’ first super-regional malls, Lincoln Mall.

Lincoln Mall opened in 1973 on the southeast corner of the intersection between Route 30 (Lincoln Highway) and Route 50 (Cicero Avenue), just east of I-57.  When it opened, the mall contained nearly 1 million square-feet of retail space shared between 4 anchors – Carson Pirie Scott, Wieboldt’s, JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward – and two levels of mall space connecting the anchors.  The original design of the mall was very similar to Yorktown Mall in Chicago’s western suburbs, which is still open and successful, and the former Lakehurst Mall in north-suburban Waukegan, which closed in 2001.

Lincoln Mall was an instant success, predating Orland Square by three years and the enclosure of River Oaks Mall by two decades.  In fact, it wasn’t really until the late 1990s when things began to dramatically go south, despite the closure and 8 year vacancy of the Wieboldt’s store when that chain folded in 1987.  In fact, the mall was refurbished with a major remodel and update in 1993, and Sears moved into Wieboldt’s old location from nearby Park Forest Plaza – an outdoor center that predated Lincoln Mall and died due to its competition – in 1995.

The 1990s saw the beginning of the end for Lincoln Mall.  In 1993-94, nearby River Oaks Center was enclosed and up-sized.  In response, Lincoln Mall remodeled and filled in the dead Wieboldt’s anchor with Sears, but in the end it wasn’t enough.   The unsurpassed growth of the 90s moved the almighty dollars westward, and cities in the Orland Park and Frankfort corridor saw the most growth and the best incomes in the Southland.  Thus, the retail strip surrounding and including Orland Square, along 159th Street and Route 45 got the best stores.  This is still true today.  Lincoln Mall’s retail portfolio began to slowly disintegrate, as middle tier and popular national chains began to leave and were replaced by local stores and vacancies.  The core demographic of the mall’s clientele changed too, slowly yet surely, from racially diverse to predominantly African-American by 2000 or so, and the stores began to reflect this.

In 1999, Montgomery Ward closed up shop at Lincoln Mall, about two years before their nationwide shuttering, and in 2000 JCPenney left during a round of closings in a lousy period for that chain.  These two blows left only Sears and Carson’s at the helm of a sinking ship.  During the early 2000s stores began to leave in droves, and the mall was put on life support.

In 2005, a commercial realty partnership from Texas, Realty America Group, was contacted by the mall’s owner to sell the mall.  The owner apparently wanted to cut their losses and get out, but Realty America said “Wait just a dog gone minute!” – I’m paraphrasing now – and decided that Lincoln Mall was more of an asset of opportunity than a dead mall that should be left for – well, dead.

So, after completing due diligence, Realty America went to the Village of Matteson and apparently made a stellar presentation for redevelopment, because they were awarded $45 million for the project in April 2005.  Groundbreaking took place in August of that year, with the construction of a new four-lane road behind the mall connecting Route 30 and Cicero.  The theory behind this was that prospective new tenants wouldn’t want to be at the “back” of the mall with restrictive visibility and access.  The new road essentially eliminates the idea of the “back” of the mall altogether, providing – in theory – the same level of access on all four sides of the mall.

Renovation proceeded with some pretty grandiose plans, including the demolition of both dead anchors, complete renovation of the interior space, structural updates, outside facade updates including a new entrance, and a cherry on top.  A cornerstone of the entire renovation project is the Promenade at Lincoln Mall, a non-enclosed district comprised of retail boxes, other shops, restaurants, and entertainment taking the space of the anchors that were demolished as well as along the new four-lane road.  The new open-air space would comprise between 400,000 and 500,000 of new retail space, restaurants, and a planned movie theatre, bringing the total square-footage back to the original size of the enclosed mall – about 1 million square feet.  The end idea, according to Lincoln Mall’s general manager, was to create a “best of both worlds” scenario, complete with an enclosed mall for people who want a climate controlled environment in the harsh climate of the upper midwest, along with an outdoor area for big box stores and other tenants who don’t want to be in the enclosed part of the concept,  as well as to indulge the somewhat-nonsensical fad of outdoor shopping for outdoor shopping’s sake.  Sounds great, doesn’t it?

In Summer 2007, the new road behind the mall was complete, just in time for Target to open their new 126,000 square foot store on a parcel south of the mall, south of the new road.  Then, in Fall 2007, JCPenney opened a 106,000 square foot store southeast of the mall, also south of the new road.  Then the project kind of stopped.  Whoops.

In October 2008, the village of Matteson threw another $10 million at the project, to get the next phase running  – the filling in of the demolished anchor pads, the exterior/interior renovations of the remaining enclosed mall, addition of other tenants, etc.  About the same time, in September 2008, the Texas partnership of Realty America, who owns the mall, apparently stopped making mortgage payments on it, according to their lender, Texans Commercial.  Not so, said the manager of the partnership, Rives Castleman (what a name); instead, he claims that the lender is forcing them into default by playing dirty tricks and instead owes them $20 million; they have filed counter suit.  This is all from court documents, as both Castleman and his lawyer, Eugene Geekie (another name!) have refused to comment to reporters. Texans had agreed, in 2004 – when this entire project began – to finance the initial stages of the redevelopment, in addition to the $45 million received from the village at the get go.  The loan had an outstanding balance of over $37 million at the time of the foreclosure.

The court case began in January 2009, and has apparently screeched the renovations to a halt.  As of October 2009, the enclosed mall looks like a weird retail Frankenmonster (hey, it’s Halloween) – there are gross, visible concrete seams and an unappealing mess where the dead anchors were torn off and demolished, and a temporary fence sits along the half of the mall where the demolition took place.  They, at least, cleaned up (most of) the rubble, and the JCPenney and Target are operating in separate buildings south of the new road they constructed.  It honestly looks like a terrible mess, and if I were a resident of Matteson I’d be really embarrassed of this eyesore.

Here’s an obvious question – why didn’t they just put Target and JCPenney in the mall?  They had two vacant anchors, and one of them even WAS JCPenney, and they had 2 anchors to put into place.  Seems like simple math to me.  The mall would have definitely been reinvigorated by having two brand new anchors, including the ever-popular Target, so how is putting them outside and essentially across the street going to ever help the interior part of the mall that they wanted to keep?  We’re really scratching our heads here.  Unless it really comes together into something cohesive and pedestrian-oriented, linking Target and JCPenney and funneling people into the mall, the Promenade at Lincoln Mall is nothing innovative nor remotely beneficial to the mall structure.  It’s been done before – ever see businesses on a mall’s ring road?

The interior portion of the mall today is kind of sad.  There are some popular national retailers, like Old Navy, Bath and Body works and Express, but there are seemingly more vacancies and local stores.  You know your mall is unwell when Dollar Plus is listed under the food ‘catagory’ (sp) on the directory map.  Also, they converted an old Sbarro into a place that advertises a combination of Mexican and Italian food.  Furthermore, the center court area has been sectioned off with cages where you can pet live tigers, and a temporary stage is set up near one of the demolished anchors where magic shows are held nightly, performed by a mullet-clad man named Joe Exotic.  The show itself costs no money to the mall, and Joe even suggests on his website that his shows are great for dead or dying malls. This is a unique and possibly innovative idea, but obviously temporary and not a real solution.

We visited the mall in October 2009, on a weekday night, and walked around and took pictures of the mall as usual, when we noticed we were being mysteriously followed by someone who appeared to be an employee of the mall – a janitor?  He had a walkie talkie or a cell phone, but we weren’t sure; the mall wasn’t that crowded, and this person was definitely following us.  It appeared to be time to leave, due to this turn of events, but as we were leaving a security guard by the name of C. Mack popped out from somewhere on the 2nd floor of the mall and approached us with fervor.

Uh oh.  Here it comes, the “we caught you photographing in the mall” spiel.  We’ve heard it before, and it’s never pleasant, but what actually transpired here was unexpected and sort of shocking, but ultimately kind of hilarious.  He got out a little notebook – the kind real police officers use to take statements – and got out a writing utensil and kept up with our pace (we didn’t stop to indulge him), all pretty intently.

“I have reports that you were soliciting.”

“[WTF??]”

“There have been reports based on your description that you were soliciting in the mall.”

“Well, I haven’t opened my mouth or talked to a single person since I entered the mall, so no.”

“Well, the description I was given was definitely you.”

“Again, no.”

At this point, I was admittedly a little freaked out, and a few thoughts whizzed around in my head.  Why was I being accused of soliciting when I honestly hadn’t spoken to anyone, at all, since I entered the mall?  I had only been there maybe 10 minutes at this point.  I was taking pictures, the ones featured with this post, but that’s not soliciting.  Did someone not know what soliciting means?

At any rate, after I denied soliciting a few times he immediately backed off and started walking the other way.  I wasn’t kicked out of the mall, and nothing else happened.  I did leave immediately, as planned, and maybe this was their intent, but it’s still kind of puzzling.

I have a few questions to pose to y’all:  Is this mall a case of biting off more than one can chew, resultant of the current state of the economy combine with the greed and mismanagement of non-local entities looking to make a few bucks?  Or is it just a case of bad luck and some honest tries?  Maybe it’s a combination of all of these factors.  Or maybe we’re completely off the mark here.  Leave comments and let us know!

Austin’s Highland Mall has become one of 2009’s most famous dying (though not yet dead) malls due to some high profile craziness and catfights. What’s going on down in the Lone Star State?

I got to check it out for myself a couple weekends ago when I made my first visit to Texas (not counting my two brief swings through Amarillo, anyway). The Highland Mall, developed by James Rouse Company, opened in 1971 as the first enclosed shopping mall in the Austin metropolitan area, just a few miles north of downtown and the University of Texas at Airport Blvd. and I-35. The center’s pretty well located to the city center and the north and east sides of town, but Austin has been one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. in the past decade, and has sprawled dramatically from the city center, bringing more of the population closer to other malls. There’s also one huge, gleaming new outdoor mall (The Domain) that’s in the process of expanding dramatically and it has likely stolen most of Highland’s customer base.

It seems Highland did a pretty screaming business for a long time, possibly until as recently as a few years ago. The center was expanded in 1979 with a new wing and new anchor (Foley’s) adding to its original three, and given another renovation in 1987. The center today has four anchors: Macy’s, Dillards (two stores), and a vacant space that had been JCPenney from 1971 until 2006. According to Wikipedia, the Macy’s had been a Foley’s until the 2006 Federated merger. The Dillard’s at the southern end of the mall had been a Joske’s location until Dillard’s acquired the chain in 1987; the other Dillard’s space was until 1992 a Scarboroughs, a local Austin chain.

Some crazy stuff has been going on at the Highland Mall lately, though:

• In early April of this year, Dillard’s announced they were suing the Highland Mall Limited Partnership–the mall’s owners, made up jointly by GGP and Simon–for letting the mall deteriorate so sharply. This was a very unusual move that made national news–and we covered it here. The best part was a big brouhaha where Dillard’s was upset about having some co-tenant that supposedly sells toilet paper (I didn’t notice it). Mall owners countersued, basically accusing Dillard’s of making crazy stuff up to get out of their lease. Dillard’s wants to shut both of their stores and is seeking to cancel a lease for one of them.
• Also in April of this year, mall management made the controversial decision to close the entire mall on April 4 during the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays event in Austin. The Texas Relays draw thousands of fans each year–mostly African-American–to Austin, and mall management closed the mall due to what they termed “security concerns” during the event. Yow. The NAACP was understandably livid, and planned a demonstration as well as calling for a boycott of the mall. This is especially damaging since Highland Mall’s location within the Austin metropolitan area places it closest to East Austin–the most heavily black area of the city. It seems a questionable business decision to alienate your customer base by insinuating that an entire race of people are criminals.

Now, let’s get realistic for a second: Highland may have a bit of a patina to it, but it didn’t seem that bad to me. There were still plenty of A-level tenants (Gap, Forever 21, etc.) and it didn’t even seem to be struggling with that severe of a vacancy problem. The original 1971 portion of the mall was a little dated, but not severely so (nothing that, say, some new flooring couldn’t fix). The Macy’s wing felt almost newly renovated. I was there on a sunny weekday morning, but the place felt totally safe to me.

Also, downtown Austin is located only a few miles to the south, and is rapidly urbanizing and filling up with moneyed young professionals. For all the things Austin has to offer–including tons of bars, restaurants, and one of a kind boutiques–there’s not a ton of the kind of chain retail that’s found in the city’s malls. With a proper repositioning and clean-up–added entertainment options, for example, or an essentials retailer like Target–the Highland Mall shouldn’t really have much trouble coming back.

Rumors are that the mall is likely to close entirely in 2010 and be demolished to be replaced with something else entirely, possibly a stadium for the Austin Aztex soccer team and a lifestyle center attached to it. One benefit to redevelopment would be Austin’s proposed light rail line, which would directly access the property: any attempts at mixed use or urban density for the site would also have mass transit access, which would be useful for people who want easy carless access to downtown. The site also has some challenges for redevelopment, though;  it’s cut off from on all sides by highways or rail corridors, making it hard to make it feel like anything other than an island–like the mall always was. This is also true of The Domain, so maybe it won’t hurt. The Domain is also located in a generally better area of town, though–as Andy Sarwal, lead developer for East Avenue Investment Group LP, told the Austin Business Journal in an article speculating on the site’s future:

“Look at the immediate surroundings in every direction, and it’s generally what people refer to as Class B,” Sarwal said. “It could be Class B office or retail space, or Class A industrial. I don’t anticipate seeing Highland Mall transform into the next Domain or Mueller or La Frontera.

Either way, it seems everyone’s rapidly giving up on this old place.

More on Highland Mall:

• A bunch of savage Yelp reviews
• Mall Hall of Fame article on Highland Mall

 

Our third Denver-area post comes to us from reader Jacob Doherty.  The following commentary, as well as the photos here, are his.  Thanks for the contribution, Jacob, and the multitude of pictures!  Maybe some of our commenters can help us label some of the “unknown” dead stores? (mouseover for the photo tags)

Westminster is a large suburb immediately northwest of Denver.  Like many of the suburbs in the Denver metro area, the city is relatively new, and has no old town or downtown area to speak of.  In these suburbs, like many similar suburbs around the nation, the mall was the town center.  Unfortunately, because of how densely packed the Denver Metro area is, each mall that went up in each suburb leeched the shoppers from the mall in the adjacent suburbs.  This, combined with the falling fortunes of certain suburbs, as well as a series of recessions, has killed a majority of the Denver Metro area’s malls.  There are now at least eleven “lost malls” in the Denver Metro area that have either razed or demolished and transformed into lifestyle centers, according to the Mall Hall of Fame, from the gargantuan Cinderella City, to the high concept Villa Italia, to the family-friendly Buckingham Square.  If nothing changes, it looks as if the Westminster Mall may become the twelfth.

Westminster Mall is special for me because it was the mall my family went to when I was young, from when I was born until I was about six when we moved.  Westminster Mall, combined with Buckingham Square in Aurora, my grandparents’ local mall, was my first concept of what a mall is.  I remember quite clearly walking around the mall with my folks, and marveling at the quartet of hot air balloons that ascended and descended in the main court of the mall.  These were the glory days of the mall, the early and mid-eighties, and Westminster Mall was a powerhouse, providing jobs and revenue for the burgeoning city of Westminster.

I am unsure of the complete history, but what follows is compiled from several sources, including the Mall Hall of Fame, Deadmalls.com, and several news articles from local papers.  Westminster Mall was built in 1977.  At that time, its only anchor was a two-level Joslin’s department store, and the mall featured only thirty other shops.  However, it quickly became one of the most popular malls in the Denver Metro Area.  In 1986, the mall expanded, gaining three more anchors: May D&F, Mervyn’s, and Broadway-Southwest.  It added JC Penny in 1987. During this time Sears moved its Northglenn Mall store into the now abandoned Broadway-Southwest Building at Westminster Mall.  At this point, the mall plan was like a cross with one crooked arm in the north.  JC Penny anchored the smallest arm, May D& F and Joslin’s anchored two other prominent arms, and Sears and Mervyn’s anchored the extra long crooked arm, with the arm kinking at Sears and then trailing down to Mervyn’s at the end. During this time, the mall’s symbol was a series of hot-air balloons floating amongst the clouds: a reference to its center court feature which was a water fountain flanked by four real hot air balloons that rose and fell on air vents.  In the mid-eighties, the city of Westminster was on the up, and the mall’s location, on Sheridan, and just off US-36, the main pipeline to Boulder and the northern suburbs, made the mall a huge success.

Perhaps too much of a success.  The enormity of the mall started bringing in shoppers from all over the north suburbs, including as far away as Boulder.  These shoppers stopped going to their local malls, and instead came to the new Westminster.  The Westminster Mall contributed to the downfall of at least three other malls and the crippling of a third.  Crossroads Mall in Boulder (now the lifestyle center Twenty-Ninth Street), North Valley Mall in Adams County (now filled with offices), and Northglenn Mall in Northglenn (now the open-air strip mall called the Marketplace at Northglenn) all could list Westminster Mall as a contributing factor to their deaths, either by stealing customers or stores.  The Thornton Town Center was hit badly by Westminster Mall, but has recovered and transformed into a more open-air mall.

Having killed off its competitors, Westminster Mall reigned supreme in Northern Denver through the 1990’s.  In 1993 May D&F became Foley’s and in 1997 Montgomery Ward opened one of the last Ward’s in the nation in the mall between Sears and Mervyn’s.  This made for a huge number of anchors: six, and all of them giant.  There were hundreds of smaller stores and even a small food court near Mervyn’s.  Restaurants flocked in as outparcels, such as Traildust Steakhouse, the Olive Garden, and Steak & Ale.  Finally, a six-plex theater opened inside the mall near Foley’s, and this same theater had an outparcel eleven-plex building with even more space, and both were known for having the latest in digital sound.  A US Bank opened as an outparcel during this period as well.

However, during the late 1990’s competition reared its head as the planned upscale combination mega-mall and lifestyle center, Flatiron Crossing, was being built a scant fifteen miles northwest in Broomfield along US-36.  This spooked Westminster management enough to arrange for a $10 million renovation and overhaul, with $7 million contributed by the City of Westminster itself, about the same time Flatirons opened up in all of its glory in 2000.  Gone was the old balloon logo, and in was a new, hip “WM” logo, as well as a litany of color changes in the decor.  The balloons themselves persisted however, and the old logo can still be found on the mall directories.

Even with the competition, Westminster was holding its own, especially with its new $10 million facelift.  However, as anyone familiar with retail will attest, this was when things started to go south.  Montgomery Ward’s went under in 2001, taking its anchor with it.  No one wanted the space, as every major department store already had a space at Westminster, so Westminster covered the entrance. They left the building vacant and intact, and used its secondary entrance as an overflow entrance during the holidays.  Sears took over the Ward’s Auto Center.  Joslin’s was taken over at this time and became Dillard’s. 

When Mervyn’s closed in 2005, this was the beginning of the end.  The north wing, the crooked arm of the cross, lost Mervyn’s at its end.  Now having lost Ward’s and Mervyn’s the farthest part of the north wing was all but dead, its food court languishing in a sea of closed, darkened shops.  Though Sears stayed, shops closed all along the north wing, leaving Sears virtually alone.  This is where I can step in again and recount from firsthand experience.

When I moved back to the Denver Metro Area as an adult in 2006, the Westminster mall was coincidentally the closest mall to me.  I was eager to go and check out the mall of my early youth.  I was dismayed and saddened by what I found.

By 2006, Foley’s had become Macy’s, but Macy’s looked at the Westminster location, surrounded by closed shops, and the Flatirons location, new and vibrant, and decided that the Westminster location would be closed as they made their recession cuts in 2008.  Macy’s closed in 2009, and its wing died with it, including the 6 and 11-plex theaters.  Traildust Steakhouse closed its outparcel, leaving so quickly it forgot to take its signage and décor.  Steak & Ale went under as its parent company died.

The mall is now a ghost town. Utilized mostly by rowdy teenagers and elderly mallwalkers (everyone who wants to actually shop goes up to Flatirons), it seems that every time I go, at least two to five stores have closed since the last time I went.  Most stores have been closed and stripped of their branding, but a few are still recognizable.  In quite a few, mall management has set up cutsey little displays or art which make little sense, and contribute to the dead nature of the place. 

It’s sad.  This was my mall, and now it’s in its death throes, and there is little I can do about it.  Still, the mall hosts small conventions and events, but these attempts to bring people in seem pathetic, especially because no one shows up.  My fiancée and I call it the “zombie mall,” as it is both lurching on past its death, and eerily quiet and dark, like the shopping malls in each iteration of “Day of the Dead.”

This feeling of helplessness is compounded by the fact that no one knows what will happen to the mall.  Oddly, everything surrounding the mall is thriving, and most are strip malls and small shopping centers that sprouted up to capitalize on the success of Westminster Mall.  But now the mall seems to detract from the environment rather than add to it.  Rumors abounded that the mall was to be reworked and razed to create a lifestyle center to capitalize upon the upcoming light rail Fasttracks train system that was to be built along US-36 as it was along I-25 and the existing RTD (bus) park and ride.  Mall management even went to court to keep Burlington Coat Factory out of the Mervyn’s location so they would have no one standing in the way of demolishing the mall.  However, with the souring economy, it looks as though the light rail will not be built along US-36 for a long while, and all the financing that could overhaul the site has dried up.  Westminster management seems to be mum about what is happening and their website acts as though nothing is wrong (showing no photographs, of course).  In fact, rumors are that management is paranoid about photographs of the premises being published, and forbids staff from photographing their places of work.  Security will stop patrons if they are noticed taking pictures and demand they delete them.

The most recent news, reported by the Denver Post on April 30, 2009, is that the City of Westminster had Westminster Mall declared blighted, after it was inspected and found to be wanting in a variety of different safety areas.  Why this was necessary, beyond allowing for taxes to help refurbish the mall, I’m not sure, but local bloggers think it may be to push the management into taking some steps towards doing something with the mall, as the move will let the City of Westminster threaten to take over the property from mall management or store owners through eminent domain.   Otherwise, it seems the mall will become more and more dead as we keep hearing about the planned “remodel” that never seems to come.

I do sincerely hope something can be done, though I would prefer that the option of a lifestyle center be taken off the table.  Most of the lost malls of Denver are now lifestyle centers, and though they can be fun, this is Colorado.  It gets cold and windy, and open air shopping is not enjoyable for everyone when it is bitterly cold and precipitating.  Wasn’t protection from the elements the whole point of the shopping mall in the first place?  However, I would prefer anything over the nearly vacant building that stands there now.

So here are the photographs, a record of a mall that will soon be no more, and a record of my earliest shopping memories.  I’m glad I took the time to preserve the mall photographically, even if the pictures are not stellar.  Thanks for the inspiration.

As usual, feel free to leave your comments on Westminster Mall and retail in the Denver area in general, and thanks again Jacob!

Forest Park, Illinois is an inner-ring suburb of Chicago, located about 10 miles directly west of downtown.  Most of the built environment in Forest Park is a result of the post-World War II building boom, and most of the housing stock is between 40-60 years old.  Forest Park is hemmed in by other inner-ring suburbs of similar age.  Oak Park, Maywood, River Forest, and Riverside are all neighbors of Forest Park, and other large suburbs like Berwyn and Cicero are nearby.  Because of this, Forest Park is done expanding – at least outwardly.  

The demographics in these post-war inner-ring western suburbs vary wildly.  Oak Park is known for its tony neighborhoods of stately mansions and its upmarket downtown; Maywood is almost 90 percent African-American; Berwyn and Cicero have transitioned from Italian to Mexican; Riverside is a quiet, suburban, mostly white enclave of upper middle class homes situated along curvy, tree lined streets.  Forest Park is more of a melting pot in terms of demographics, and more diverse than many of the other suburbs; in addition, it has a centralized location along the Eisenhower Expressway (I-290), giving it direct access to downtown Chicago as well as points west.

The retail scene in Forest Park itself, however, is kind of lacking.  Downtown Oak Park has a myriad of options, including mall store chains like The Gap, but the nearest mall and a large concentration of box store options is located just a few blocks south of the city along Cermak Road and Harlem Avenue in the village of North Riverside.  This corridor also contains a large, regional two-level mall, North Riverside Park Mall, which opened in 1976 and features Carson Pirie Scott, JCPenney, and Sears.  It wasn’t until the early 1980s that a situation emerged giving Forest Park a chance to build a significant retail venture, the Forest Park Mall. 

Forest Park Mall was a 400,000 square-foot enclosed mall located along Roosevelt Road just west of Harlem Avenue, and about a quarter of a mile south of I-290.  Helmed by the same developer who created Ford City Mall on Chicago’s southwest side, Forest Park Mall – just like Ford City - was also a redevelopment project that converted an old factory into a shopping center - albeit on a smaller scale. 

The site that would become the mall originally operated as a Naval torpedo plant during World War II.  After the war, the site was used as a Naval training academy, and subsequently utilized by the U.S. Postal Service for a time after that.  Then, in the late 1970s, the then-abandoned building was purchased by the city of Forest Park. 

Not knowing what to do with the abandoned eyesore, which had been off the city’s tax rolls due to the fact that it was owned by the federal government for decades, several options emerged for the site, including retail and manufacturing operations.  It was quickly determined the best use for the site would be retail, as there was little interest from companies wishing to relocate here, and the revenue generated from retail would put more money into the city’s coffers; Forest Park’s tax base was already extremely restricted because there weren’t many businesses in the city, and much of the city’s land is cemeteries.  Win, win. 

The city, who owned the site, then teamed up with the same developer who converted the Ford factory on Chicago’s southwest side into a successful regional mall in 1965.  Because of the space constraints of the building and the 1976 opening of North Riverside Park Mall, a large, regional mall just one mile to the south, it was determined that the retail development in Forest Park would be smaller, at least to begin with.

Forest Park Mall opened in 1983, anchored by a Venture discount store on the west end and a Courtesy Home Center home improvement store on the east end, complemented by an enclosed hallway of stores connecting the anchors, containing room for 70 stores.  Some early stores in the mall were Deb Shops, Perry’s Drugs, Tom Olesker’s Menswear, and Gift Horse.  In addition, a giant Child World children’s store/castle was built on the northwest corner of the mall’s lot.  The decor of the mall featured period-typical beige walls with wood paneling and multiple skylights throughout the interior walkway, providing ample natural light.  A small lower level also existed, but was mostly used for offices and restrooms rather than retail use. 

Forest Park Mall received its only expansion when a small food court was built near the Venture end of the mall, with its own dedicated entrance to the south of the mall.  The food court, much like the rest of the mall, was never fully tenanted. 

However, the mall never filled to capacity, so management brought in temporary stores and filled in smaller store spaces with larger stores.  Holidays brought Spencer’s Gifts and temporary store FIM, which sold Christmas merchandise during the winter, and TJMaxx was also brought on board.  Old Country Buffet also opened near the mall entrance closest to Venture in a former shoe store.

Unfortunately, throughout the 1990s Forest Park Mall encountered many setbacks.  First, Venture decided to remodel their store, and in doing so, shut their entrance to the mall.  Whoops.  Courtesy Home Center closed their eastern anchor store a couple years later, and left with only TJMaxx as an anchor the stores began to leave in droves.  TJMaxx eventually closed also, leaving the mall somewhat anchorless, and the Forest Park library took up temporary residence in the mall’s lower level while a new facility was being built.  Meanwhile, the large Child World castle closed in the early part of the decade and was demolished for a Portillo’s Hotdogs location.

In 1998, anchor Venture went under as the whole chain went out of business, leaving another ominous hole in Forest Park Mall’s roster.  It was, however, miraculously filled rather swiftly with a K-Mart store which still operates as of 2009.

About the same time Venture discount store left Forest Park Mall, a new and unique venture moved into the former Courtesy Home Center on the other end of the mall – a church.  The Living Word Christian Center, Pastored by Bill Winston, opened up shop in the former home improvement anchor in 1998, and has since expanded throughout the entire mall.  Living Word now owns the entire mall and its outlots, including Portillos, and has expanded its church services into the mall.  According to Pastor Winston, the vision for the mall is a “one stop shop for the spirit, soul, and body.”  There’s also a business school in the mall, and a handful of other stores and services, including a clothier aimed at young black men.  At one point, a bank was even planned for the site. 

Today, a myriad of retail exists along with the church, including a large grocery store named Ultra Foods which has set up shop inside the former Courtesy Home anchor.

The transformation of this property, from Naval weapons facility to retail mall back to tax-exempt status as a church is quite the wild ride, and we’re glad to be able to properly document the journey.  The pictures featured here were taken in June 2000, and a more recent set exists here.  As always, feel free to leave some comments concerning the mall and its unique history.

Located 10 miles southwest of downtown Dallas, at the interchange between US 67 and Interstate 20, Southwest Center Mall is both an anachronism and an eyesore.  But what an amazing eyesore it is.  One needs only to take a look at the photos to understand what a unique specimen this is, in terms of design, decor, and blatant inadequacy.  But let’s dig a little deeper and try to figure out what happened.

It wasn’t always this way.  Opened over 30 years ago in 1975, Southwest Center Mall opened to the masses with a different set of principles, and a different name – Red Bird Mall.  The DeBartolo Group developed this two level mall with a simple layout, and Red Bird Mall was anchored by four stores -  one on each end of the mall and two flanking center court.  Sears anchored the east end of the mall, JCPenney the west, with Dallas based stores flanking the mall’s center court – Sanger-Harris on the north, and Titche’s on the south.  Red Bird Mall enjoyed instant success as south Dallas’ only enclosed mall, inspired by a proud neighborhood and a good location.   

Several anchor changes took place at Red Bird Mall throughout the 1970s and 1980s.  In 1979, Titche’s became San Antonio-based Joske’s, and in 1987 two changes took place – Joske’s became Dillard’s, and Sanger-Harris became Houston-based Foley’s.  Also, at some point a large Montgomery Ward was constructed at the southeast corner of the mall next to Sears. 

As early as the mid-1980s, demographics began to change dramatically in the area surrounding Red Bird Mall, and at the same time a perception of crime began to brand the area – numerous car break-ins, vandalism, and robberies caused even loyal shoppers to begin taking their business elsewhere.  And, in 1988, this became a lot easier, as a massive super-regional mall opened just 15 minutes from Red Bird Mall in Arlington.  Called The Parks at Arlington, this new mega-mall would ciphon customers from Red Bird’s south Dallas consumer base more than any other, as most of its other competition is way up in north Dallas.

During the 1990s, Red Bird Mall continued its downward spiral.  A man named John Wiley Price, a flamboyant Dallas politician, decided to make the mall and its woes part of his political platform, and staged protests outside the mall demanding retailers change their stock to reflect the black community, making statements it was ‘their’ mall.  All the while, the mall got continuously worse, and DeBartolo, owners of the mall since it opened in 1975, unloaded it to NAAMCO Financial of California in 1997.  At the time of the sale, the 1.12-million square-foot mall was only 65 percent leased.    

In an attempt to disassociate the mall from its troubled environs and checkered recent past, NAAMCO gave the mall a small refurbishment and a new name – Southwest Center Mall – in 1997.  A new food court, begun under the reign of DeBartolo, was finished and occupied in 1998 at the mall’s northwest entrance.  With a price tag of $18 million, the food court took up the lion’s share of updates to the mall upon its change of hands and change of name.  In addition, though, Dillard’s increased their store size from 100,000 to 150,000 square feet, and Sears renovated their entire store in 1998. 

The new millenium brought more of the same problems for the newly named mall.  In 2001, Montgomery Ward closed as that chain folded, but it was swiftly replaced by a Burlington Coat Factory which moved from a nearby box center.  Also in 2001, JCPenney closed their store in Southwest Center Mall, which remains vacant today.  In 2006 Foley’s became Macy’s, and Dillard’s left the mall in 2007 for a new development 10 miles further out – its store is also still vacant.   

Also gaining speed in the early 2000s was a movement to bring more retail to Cedar Hill, a suburb of Dallas approximately 10 miles southwest of Southwest Center Mall along US 67.  Cedar Hill, combined with surrounding communities such as DeSoto, Duncanville, and Lancaster – known locally as the Best Southwest  – represent a portion of south Dallas with higher incomes and demographics expanding national chain stores like to see.  In addition to a glot of big box centers and other retail which seemingly sprang up overnight, Cedar Hill is the home to the DFW Metroplex’s newest lifestyle center – Uptown Village at Cedar Hill – which opened in March 2008.  This new urbanist-style shopping center is anchored by Dillard’s (the one that moved from Southwest Center), Dick’s Sporting Goods, Barnes and Noble, and features 725,000 square-feet of retail space – featuring stores found in better malls like Hollister, Chico’s, and Aveda.   It’s an outdoor mall and features nicely landscaped courtyards between the modern-looking buildings contaning stores, and has a decidedly upscale feel not found in other centers in south Dallas.  From the perspective of Southwest Center Mall, Uptown Village is not only a slap in the face, but a few more nails – possibly more than enough –  in the coffin.

Perhaps another factor in Southwest Center Mall’s troubles is the lack of commitment from ownership.  In the past eight years, the mall has had four owners, and its value on the tax rolls has decreased from $22 million in 2000 to just $6.25 million in 2008.   In 2008, Southwest Center’s then-owner Thomas E. Morris – owner of other faily malls like Six Flags Mall in Arlington – declared bankruptcy, and in January 2009 the mall almost closed because the electricity was going to be shut off due to nonpayment.  Whoops.  An eleventh-hour save by a new owner – Madison Capital – who paid the bills, collected outstanding rent from some of the tenants, and even hired a professional security company.  It’s no wonder the mall’s been in peril with such terrible past management problems, but Madison Capital is looking to sell the mall again to a more responsible owner.  We’ll keep our fingers crossed.

In June 2009, nine economic development experts from the Urban Land Institute, with briefing books in hand from the Dallas Economic Development Office, will descend on Southwest Center for an intense week of study.  Hired by the city of Dallas, the Urban Land Institute – a non-profit education and research organization focusing on land use and urban planning – is being paid $150,000 to study the mall, inteview patrons and tenants, and tour the environs in order to offer suggestions on how to make it better.  In addition, Dillards – which relocated to Cedar Hill in 2007 – is currently marketing its dark anchor store to interested suitors. 

Despite all of these problem, however, there remains a niche of stores which are making it at Southwest Center Mall.  Most of these stores cater exclusively to an African-American clientele, and feature clothing and knicknack shops which reportedly attract shoppers from a multi-state region.  According to the article, these tenants also realize the mall’s in poor shape and wish there were typical mall stores like Bath and Body Works, Victoria’s Secret, and discount boxes like Marshalls and Ross.  One tenant even wants the old name, Red Bird Mall, to be re-established.  Also, others have expressed frustration and concern that while there is direct access from the US 67 freeway, there is no direct access from Interstate 20. 

Whatever happens to Southwest Center Mall, one thing is for sure – something drastic needs to happen in order to change fortunes here.  The reality may be that demographics have shifted and other centers have opened to ciphon consumer pennies away from this particular mall, but even today a dedicated group of tenants and local residents still want this property to succeed.  The photos featured here were taken in Summer 2005 (images 1-13) and January 2009 (images 14+).  As usual, feel free to leave your own comments, experiences, and opinions about the mall and its plight.

Baystate West Mall photo from Architectural Record, mid-70s

Springfield, Massachusetts is the second largest independent metropolitan area in Massachusetts–and third largest city overall–and is located about 90 miles west of Boston and a half hour north of Hartford, Connecticut. Like many old New England manufacturing centers, the Springfield area has fallen on some hard times in the last few decades, facing a loss of jobs and general disinvestment in the urban core.

Tower Square–which was born as the Baystate West Mall–is a prime example of a common attempt 1970s at reviving an urban downtown. The mall opened in 1970 with about 200,000 square feet of retail space on two levels, but the low figure is somewhat misleading; the mall also adjoins a large Marriott Hotel and was built on a parcel in the center of downtown (at Main & Bridge Streets) between the city’s two flagship department stores: Forbes & Wallace and Steiger’s, and contained skywalks to connect to both.

For a significant time during the 1970s and 1980s, Baystate West Mall helped stabilize downtown Springfield, and as a result the city appeared to be in much better shape than similar-sized urban areas like Providence which bled most of their retail base and street activity. All was not completely well, however; Forbes & Wallace went out of business pretty early on, in the mid-1970s, and their building was demolished to be replaced with a large office complex. This paved the way for other, newer, larger suburban malls (especially the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, but also the Fairfield Mall and two others) to begin to userp its audience.

Tower Square center court, 2007

The real kiss of death for Baystate West’s retail dominance was the 1995 loss of Steiger’s. The May Company bought the chain in 1994 and re-branded their locations with the more well-known, Boston-based Filene’s nameplate, but the downtown Springfield store was dumped in the process. Several years later, Steiger’s art deco flagship store was demolished and replaced with a park. In the time since, the remains of Baystate West Mall became more of a convenience-oriented downtown mall with shops and services catering primarily to the downtown office and hotel crowd, with a busy food court and “essentials” type stores such as CVS, a bookstore, or Dunkin’ Donuts.

The 1970s vintage photo at the top of this page is from a period issue of Architectural Record on the mall, and highlights the giant rotating cube that hung in the center of the mall’s center court. As you can see from my more modern photos (taken January 2007), it’s not quite so snazzy now: gone are the distinctive colors, and instead the mall has a more institutional, lobby-ish feel. While some of the space is still devoted to retail–and the mall still gets some traffic due to the hotel and the downtown office crowd–it’s not really much of a mall anymore in its current “Tower Square” incarnation.

Deadmalls has a somewhat more complete write-up of Baystate West’s history, if you want more details.