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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

On March 30, Gottschalks announced they were going to liquidate, extinguishing any hope the 105-year-old chain would continue to operate. We noted a few months ago that Gottschalks existed in a weird place–kind of a dowdy combo of Kohls and Macy’s, with mostly mall-based locations–and that their senior citizen-skewing product mix wasn’t likely to keep them afloat through their troubles. This all proved to be true, but another factor in their demise was some truly terrible bad luck: the store fleet for Fresno-based Gottschalks is concentrated most heavily in the areas most adversely impacted by the housing crisis of 2008. Central Valley cities like Modesto and Stockton have been struggling with year-over-year real estate declines upward of 50%, which is truly catastrophic for the families living there–try and imagine having your personal net worth decline by two or three hundred thousand dollars in just one year! I’m really not sure what I’d do in such a situation, but I can tell you one thing I probably wouldn’t do when faced with such a situation: go shopping at Gottschalks.

The double whammy for malls, of course, is that Gottschalks and Mervyn’s co-anchored many malls together. Some malls, such as Bakersfield’s East Hills Mall, didn’t even have another anchor aside from these two. This will spell doom for a great many of the centers lining California’s Central Valley, but also many other places throughout the west where both chains operated.

The other story we forgot to follow up on–whoopsie!–is the equally-unsurprising failure of New York-based Fortunoff department stores. Like Gottschalks, we liked these guys just because they felt like a relic from another era, but “relic” and profitability don’t tend to go in the same sentence. The 2008 acquisition of the chain by NRDC Equity Partners–who helmed a successful turnaround of Lord & Taylor even in a bad economic environment (though this is now faltering, I’ve heard) and who also recently acquired Canada’s Hudson Bay Company–seemed to give these guys some hope. But ultimately their product mix and store fleet was perhaps too strange to survive in the current retail landscape. Their mostly mall-based, large stores leaned heavily towards housewares and jewelry but without any specific niche. They had neither the hip cachet of newer, smaller competitors like Crate & Barrell or West Elm nor the well-established legacy of larger old line stores like Macy’s or bargain prices of Best Buy and Wal-Mart, plus three of the four of their remaining stores were located in second-tier malls; one of them is even completely dead. What is sad about the loss of Fortunoff is that it’s a quirky regional chain that still remains well-loved; their imminent disappearance reminds me of New England losses from the ’90s and early 2000s like Apex, Ann & Hope, or Lechmere.

Midway Mall, located in Sherman, Texas, is the only major shopping mall for a section of Texoma comprised of the cities Sherman and Denison, Texas, and Durant, Oklahoma.  With a population of about 150,000, Midway Mall’s trade area is located approximately 70 miles northeast of downtown Dallas; however, the mall itself as well as the Texas side of its trade area are technically located within the behemoth Dallas-Fort Worth Metropolitan Area.  With that said, the nearest of Dallas-Fort Worth’s malls are over an hour away, which should make Midway Mall a tier ‘A’ mall and successful, especially considering its size at 600,000 square feet with three anchors and several junior anchors.  However, this is not the case; Midway Mall is currently challenged by an alarming and rapidly increasing vacancy rate.  But why is this?

The faltering probably isn’t due to the mall’s location. Midway Mall’s location is ideal, situated on Texoma Parkway smack dab in between the cities of Sherman and Denison, and only half an hour from Durant, Okla. as well as the booming sprawlburg of McKinney.  In addition to being located in between all the population centers in its trade area, Midway Mall is also adjacent to US 75, a major north-south freeway connecting Dallas and its suburbs to Oklahoma and points north.  Also nearby is Sherman Town Center, located along US 75, featuring Wal Mart, Target, Home Depot, and 30 other stores, as well as a JCPenney which relocated from Midway Mall in 2007. 

Recent problems may have also arisen due to competition.  Although Sherman and Denison are some 70 miles north of downtown Dallas, the suburbs of Dallas-Fort Worth start in McKinney, which is just 30 miles south of Sherman.  Although McKinney doesn’t have a traditional mall of its own, per se, it has nearly every store under the sun along the US 75 corridor, including many upscale options.  In addition, several of the DFW Metroplex’s best malls are in Plano, Frisco, and north Dallas, and they are all approximately an hour away from Sherman and Denison.  Also, Sherman’s own Sherman Town Center, an outdoor strip mall, appears to have more retail activity than Midway Mall, and in 2007 the Town Center stole the mall’s JCPenney.  Whoops.

Ironically, competition somewhat recently favored Midway Mall, as it opened directly up the road from another mall, the Sher-Den Mall.  Sher-Den Mall opened during the 1960s, which was anchored by Montgomery Ward and JCPenney (anything else?).  Despite extensive renovations in the 1980s to compete with the larger Midway Mall, Sher-Den Mall closed with a whimper when Montgomery Ward went bankrupt and closed in 2001; it was torn down in 2004.

Perhaps the most telling statement of trouble is the condition of Midway Mall, which is amazingly dated in terms of decor and atmosphere.  The entire one-level mall can best be described as cavernous, and the dimly lit corridors suggest slumber rather than the brightly-lit exuberance found in most modern, successful shopping centers.  Perhaps not utilitarian nor functional by modern standards, the mall’s corridors do evoke a certain sense of the past, with bland carpeting, giant palm trees, sterile marble planters and three circus-like tents which puff up some 50 feet toward the sky at three spots/courts throughout the mall, and are a sight to see.  So, too, are the mall’s maze-like corridors, which zig and zag and even double back on each other, and the nearly empty food court.  Since there are few shoppers, there are fewer kiosks, too, and frequently lots of open space throughout the mall. 

We visited Midway Mall on a recent Monday night and discovered that the mall’s online directory was way out of date, having missed the departures of Mervyns, JCPenney, Goody’s, the movie theatre, and probably some in-line stores as well.  Bealls, Dillard’s, and Sears remain, and Mervyn’s has been replaced by Burlington Coat Factory.  JCPenney moved to nearby Sherman Town Center in 2007, and Mervyn’s and Goody’s exited the market only to close outright some time later.  Also, junior anchor Famous Labels has taken what was obviously an Old Navy space, and the mall was so dark and drab.  There weren’t many shoppers, either, and the fact that the Day By Day Calendar Company kiosk boy was spaced out and listening to headphones while sitting on a nearby planter is probably telling as well (see pictures).  Did we mention how dark it was?

Midway Mall is a dim, dank, outdated mall with an amazing layout.  We were shocked at not only the mall’s condition, but at the alarming rate of vacancies; we expected this to be a much more typical, modern successful mall and not a cavernous maze.  Being retail historians, we of course found this to our liking, but we feel kind of bad for the citizens of Sherman, Denison, and Texoma.  We’d like to think they could use this; their population supports it, but it must be choosing to drive down to Dallas and its suburbs or to the outdoor strip centers rather than to patronize - or at least update – this mall.  We’ll put it on deathwatch for now and keep our eyes peeled. 

Yikes. They only just announced a Chapter 11 filing last week, but Gottschalks is on the fast track to oblivion. Inside Bay Area notes that Gottschalks needs a buyer now “or else:”

Gottschalks Inc. intends to find a buyer by mid-March or it might proceed with a complete liquidation of its assets, according to court papers filed by the bankrupt department store operator.

The retailer, whose operations include department stores in Antioch, Stockton, Tracy, Santa Rosa and Capitola, said it hopes to complete an auction by March 17 that would lead to a sale of the company. Fresno-based Gottschalks operates primarily in malls located in suburban and rural markets in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho and Alaska.

Absent a buyer, Gottschalks would move toward a liquidation during the spring, company filings with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware shows.

Like I said the other day, poor Gottschalks has seemed like a weaker player for some time. Their stores are like relics from another era, straddling a funny line between Kohl’s and Macy’s and with locations in rural malls and second-tier markets. Their loss would be a very major one for many malls in smaller western markets.

At the same time, Filene’s Basement is closing 11 stores with leases they were apparently unable to negotiate. This may be a bad sign for the overall health of the once-storied chain. Filene’s Basement has been close to the brink before in the late ’90s after a zealous overexpansion and a dilution of their brand equity, after opening scores of suburban stores that were too similar to TJMaxx, Marshalls, and Ross to differentiate. The smaller chain retrenched of late, however, and began to trend upscale by offering high-end designer goods at significantly marked down prices; a nod to its beginnings as the clearance basement under the original flagship Filene’s store in Boston. That store, which is notable for hosting its annual “running of the brides” bridal clearance event, has been closed for several years while the site is being redeveloped. Many in Boston wonder if it will ever re-open, and this latest news seems to cast even more doubt on the prospect.

Coming soon: a post about a mall that actually has a Gottschalks in it! Neat!

Macy’s, like many other stores in the country, didn’t make it through the holiday season with a surplus of cash; in fact, Macy’s has emerged from the holiday season – a time when many stores report up to 50 percent of annual sales – badly beaten and in need to purge some of its stores.  The following 11 locations will begin closing sales immediately:

1. Bellevue Center, Nashville, TN.  Former Hecht’s.
2. Ernst & Young Plaza (7+Fig), Downtown Los Angeles, CA.  Former Robinson May.
3. The Citadel, Colorado Springs, CO.  Former Foley’s.
4. Westminster Mall, Westminster, CO (Denver area).  Former Foley’s.
5. Palm Beach Mall, Palm Beach, FL.  Former Burdine’s.
6. Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, Big Island of Hawaii*
7. Lafayette Square, Indianapolis, IN.  Former L.S. Ayres.
8. Brookdale Center, Brooklyn Center, MN (Minneapolis area) Former Dayton’s and Marshall Field’s.
9. Crestwood Court (Formerly Crestwood Plaza), St. Louis, MO.  Former Famous Barr.
10. Natrona Heights Plaza, Natrona Heights, PA (Pittsburgh area).  Former Lazarus.
11. Century III Mall Furniture and Clearance Center, West Mifflin, PA (Pittsburgh area).  Former Kaufmann’s.

* What on earth?!  Macy’s was in a hotel?  It must have been small, as it only had 3 employees.  Was this a Liberty House that Macy’s “inherited” in the 2001 acquisition of that store, I wonder?

This news most certainly isn’t welcome for many of the centers listed above, as they are teetering on becoming dead malls or are already there.  Losing Macy’s will almost certainly put some of them on life support or will cause them to close outright. 

Also, note that every store, with the exception of the hotel store, was a May company regional nameplate which got eaten by Macy’s in 2005-2006.  Count on Macy’s and many other chains to continue to ”trim the fat” and eliminate underperforming locations of stores this year in order to stay afloat.  Hopefully, Macy’s didn’t bite off more than it could chew with the enormous May acquisition coming so soon before a major economic recession.      

In other retail news, Goody’s Family Clothing, a Knoxville, Tenn. based chain of over 380 anchor and mini-anchor sized stores in the Southern and lower Midwest states is closing all of its stores for good.  This news sadly comes as the first liquidation of 2009, but don’t look for it to be the last.  Liquidation sales should begin by January 9, 2009, and wind down by April 1st.  These closures are definitely more powerful and far-reaching than the Macy’s closures, as many malls and power centers throughout the south are either anchored by or contain a Goody’s store.  Not good-y.