Located in south central Wisconsin along the Illinois state line, Beloit is a hearty, working class city of almost 40,000 residents, with a historic past.  Located approximately 15 miles south of Janesville, the county seat of Rock County, and 15 miles north of Rockford, Illinois, Beloit has long been known for its roots in manufacturing and for its small-yet-exceptional liberal arts school, Beloit College.  However, changing fortunes in the manufacturing industry have outsourced most of these jobs overseas or elsewhere, and Beloit has struggled in recent years to find a foothold in the modern economy – or what’s left of it.

Beloit’s retail scene, which existed downtown for many decades, began to be influenced by competition, taking shape in the form of a shift from downtowns to large-scale, regional suburban shopping centers beginning in the mid-20th century.  In 1966, Beloit beat its neighbor to the north - Janesville - to the punch and opened the first of these regional shopping centers in Rock County.

Beloit Plaza, a 400,000 square-foot center, was strategically located just north of downtown Beloit on top of a large bluff overlooking the Rock River.  Anchored by three major department stores, Charles V. Weise (a Rockford based department store), JCPenney, and Sears - along with three minor anchors, Walgreens, Woolworths, and Kohl’s (a Wisconsin-based grocery chain, developed in tandem with but not the same as the famous department store chain), Beloit Plaza instantly became a popular regional draw. 

At first, accessibility and competition were not problems for Beloit Plaza.  Located along busy U.S. Highway 51 in the heart of Beloit, the popular, new outdoor mall enjoyed easy access from Janesville, Rockford, and other cities in its large trade area.  However, about the same time Beloit Plaza opened in the middle of Beloit during the 1960s, the interstate highway system was being constructed across the country with Interstate 90 passing the outskirts of Beloit on its east side.  The opening of the Interstate past Beloit began to change development patterns throughout not only Beloit, but its neighboring cities as well, creating an era of intense competition that, combined with the local economy, eventually led to the demise of Beloit Plaza.

In the early 1970s, large enclosed malls in Janesville, Madison, and Rockford were constructed, giving the outdoor Beloit Plaza not only competition, but makng it somewhat outmoded in terms of design and functionality.  Enclosed malls are not only climate controlled, providing the same quality and level of access year round, but the enclosures traditionally bring people together and give them a sense of place and community not often found at outdoor centers.  These enclosed malls were also muh bigger than Beloit Plaza, and although Beloit Plaza continued to succeed, it was no longer the super-regional draw it once was.  Plus, every one of the newer nearby enclosed malls was closer to Interstate 90, whereas Beloit Plaza was not.  Not only could Beloit residents quickly get to better malls in Janesville and Rockford, but residents of Janesville and Rockford no longer needed to go to Beloit Plaza, as most of these stores were duplicated in the newer enclosed malls.

The 1980s brought both infamy and resurgence to Beloit Plaza.  On February 2, 1981, two people were murdered at the Beloit Plaza Radio Shack store, and the mall gained a reputation as unsafe.  About the same time, manufacturing jobs began leaving Beloit in droves.  Meanwhile, nearby Janesville’s economy thrived as manufacturing jobs were added there, driving the regional economy.  As a result, Janesville’s population continued to grow while Beloit’s remained stagnant, and Janesville’s retail strip – including its mall - grew along Milton Avenue (Highway 26) between downtown Janesville and Interstate 90.

Likely citing nearby competition, its unsavory location, and the recent high-profile murders, Beloit Plaza owners decided to renovate and enclose the 16-year-old center in 1982.  The center retained its wide corridor; however, the 16-foot ceilings were low and the mall always seemed dark inside, even during the middle of the day.  Beloit Plaza’s name was also changed to Beloit Mall, and the two-level Weise’s store was renamed Bergner’s during a nameplate consolidation in the P.A. Bergner company.

Throughout the rest of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the renovation and enclosure appeared to work.  Beloit Mall held its own against fierce competition from Rockford and Janesville malls, retaining all of its anchors and many in-line stores as well; however, the first casualty came in 1991 when P.A. Bergner declared bankruptcy.  As a result of its reorganization, Bergner declared the Beloit Mall store a liability and shut it in 1992.   

With one large anchor vacant and a crumbling economy facing Beloit, the city stepped in and attempted to intervene before the mall fell further down the rungs on the ladder of insolvency.  Under an agreement with Canada-based Dorchester Corporation, the city pumped $4.5 million into the mall in order to keep it open; in return, the city gained ownership of nearly half the mall, and the city’s investment was to be repaid over time by taxes and loan repayments – this never happened, but as part of the deal the former Bergner’s was quickly retenanted by Ohio-based Elder Beerman in 1993 – Wisconsin’s first.  Elder Beerman chose to demolish the smaller footprint 2-level Bergners and build out into the mall’s east parking lot, disrupting traffic flow around the mall.

Despite the addition of Elder Beerman and a complete roster of anchors and junior anchors at Beloit Mall, more trouble began brewing as Beloit’s economy fell flat and more stores in the mall closed.  The next casualty to Beloit Mall was the closure of the Kohl’s grocery store, which happened around 1993-1994.  The building was never retenanted and its swoopy arched facade still sits to the side of the north mall entrance, complete with barbed wire placed along the top of the arches to prevent adventurous souls from climbing on its roof.  Also about the same time, Woolworths closed its large Beloit Mall junior anchor store citing poor sales and a dowturn for the company in general.

In 1996, the most ominous news came for the Beloit Mall, as the owners of the Janesville Mall were seeking ways to ameliorate the large number of vacancies there, and began talking to Sears.  The owners of the Janesville Mall offered Sears the opportunity to build a giant 2-level store at its center court entrance, as well as financial incentives and an auto center on an outlot parcel, all in a city with economic growth on the busiest retail strip in the county.  Also, by this point Janesville was almost twice the size of Beloit, which stopped growing in the 1960s.  Meanwhile, the Beloit Mall Sears was aging, small, and in a city with little to no economic growth.  It wasn’t long before Sears made the obvious decision, and announced it was “moving” from Beloit Mall to Janesville Mall.  Despite a passionate letter writing campaign on behalf of Beloit residents to keep the Beloit Mall store open, it closed in Fall 1997 just in time for the brand new store at Janesville Mall to open.

The closing of Sears at Beloit Mall caused a mass exodus of the remaining stores there, which once again alerted municipal officials trying to stave off blight.  Local billionaire Ken Hendricks formed a Real Estate group and purchased Dorchester’s interest in the mall, and for the first time in its history Beloit Mall was entirely locally owned by Hendricks and the city.  Unfortunately, it was far too late for the failing venture, and more bad things kept happening.  In 1997, JCPenney was robbed at gunpoint, and – possibly not coincidentally – JCPenney announced they were leaving and the store was shuttered in 1998.

Also in 1998, realizing the lost potential of Beloit Mall, developers rushed to give Beloit residents some retail options and opened one of the first Wal-Mart Supercenters in the state near the interchange between Interstate 90 and WI 81 on Beloit’s east side.  In the decade since the mall failed, this retail district has become its de-facto replacement, attracting many national chain restaurants and retailers in strip malls, as well as new Staples and Menards locations.  Just like Janesville and everywhere else, it seems that even Beloit eventually succumbed to development patterns favoring the Interstate. 

Once JCPenney left in 1998, only two major stores were left – Elder Beerman and Walgreens – and a small handful of mostly mom and pop stores took up a few spaces in the mostly vacant mall.  That same year, Hendricks formed another group and paid off the city, owning the entire mall after that.  But, it was far, far too late to consider anything but a total redevelopment, as two more stores in the Beloit Mall – Walgreens and Radio Shack - closed in 2000.  After they closed, Elder Beerman sealed their entrance to the mall.  Following a series of Hispanic-oriented flea markets in 2000 and 2001, Beloit Mall was sealed except for the Elder Beerman anchor which continues to operate (as of 2009) at the back of the mall.

In the years since the Beloit Mall’s closure, numerous ideas have been floated for the blighted mall.  Early on, some of these plans ranged from another go at commercial development, housing, and even a Native American casino, but none of these came to fruition.  In 2004, Hendricks bought the entire property from his retail partners with the idea of giving it back to Beloit for municipal/community offices as well as possible retail and other uses.  The Beloit 2020 plan, enacted by the city, has embraced Hendricks’ plan and several county and community offices have already relocated into former store spaces in the mall. 

In 2007, Hendricks and his development group renamed the mall for the second time - to Eclipse Center, named after the former Eclipse Windmill Company, which was located on a part of the current mall’s property.  The new Center opened a banquet facility capable of seating 1000 that same year, a school, and plans were also finalized to relocate the City of Beloit’s Public Library to the site.  Also, new signage was put up for the first time indicating the mall’s new name on the main Highway 51 pylon as well as other entrances.  In 2008, construction began on the new library, which will be an architecturally pleasing new building located on the site of the former JCPenney. 

Unfortunately, although Hendricks successfully rehabilitated many buildings in Beloit and was an ardent supporter of its economy, he will not be able to oversee the full redevelopment of Eclipse Center as he passed away as the result of an accident at his home in December 2007.  

Also in 2007, a new shopping center – Oakfield Crossing – was proposed in South Beloit, Illinois, just south of the state line near the interchange of Interstate 90 and IL 75.  This center would certainly serve Beloit and the northern Winnebago County, Illinois communities of Rockton and Roscoe, and would feature two anchors and a strip of stores in between them.  As of late 2007, Target had signed on to be one of the anchors, and Bergner’s was to be the second; however, the project was put on hold in mid-2008 because Target had changed its building design.  If a Bergner’s would open here, I suspect the Elder Beerman would probably leave Eclipse Center.   

We visited Eclipse Center in January 2009 and took some of the pictures featured here.  The only retail on the site today is the holdover department store Elder Beerman, which is still shockingly still in operation and ironically now owned by the Bon Ton Corporation, who also owns Bergner’s.  Also, parts of the mall are actually becoming accessible again as more offices and services locate here.  As of January 2009, the north entrance was open and most of the mall was accessible.  However, the entrance is technically only open to access the offices located just beyond the entrance, and signs and tape indicate not to go farther into the mall or alarms will go off and the police will come immediately.  Yikes.  In addition, it is not known how the library will interact with the mall space once it is complete, nor is it known why the signage for the mall’s center court, advertising where ‘people connect’ exists, as these doors were locked!

Personally, I have many fond memories of Beloit Mall from the late 1980s and early 1990s – its enclosed heyday.  Our family often took shopping trips to the mall for both variety’s sake and also because Beloit Mall had Sears when Janesville didn’t.  Even though Janesville Mall was technically 10 years older than Beloit Mall (at least by dates of enclosure), I always felt Beloit mall was older and not as nice.  I remember the anchor stores seemed ancient, which makes sense now because they were much older than the mall.  I also remember Fannie May Candies, Mr. G’s Soup-er-Sandwiches - I didn’t get this pun until I was an adult; I thought the sign was indicating indecisiveness or a stutter – Woolworths, Walgreens – both had old-fashioned lunch counters - and several smaller 80s-style glass kiosks were shoved up against the wall at Sears near the north end.

We’ll keep an eye out for updates to this story.  It would be great if most of the mall could be opened up for re-use and benefit the community at the same time.  Feel free to leave your own comments and experiences with Beloit Plaza, Beloit Mall, or Eclipse Center. 

March 2001:

January 2009:

Janesville, Wisconsin is a small city of some 60,000 people located in the south-central region of the state, about 15 minutes north of the Illinois state line, and the county seat of Rock County.  It’s also my hometown, for better or worse.

Founded in 1835 by a wandering pioneer who apparently enjoyed naming towns after himself, Janesville got its big break in 1919 when General Motors came to town, establishing a long-term presence of relatively high-paying blue collar jobs which the city has relied upon for decades of economic prosperity.  Even throughout the latter portion of the 20th century and into the 21st century, Janesville has grown tremendously in spite of other corporation towns which went bust as the corporations left.  Janesville’s neighbor to the south, Beloit, was one of these towns and has had a rockier road than Janesville, as manufacturing facilities left and right closed down leaving abandoned shells in their wake.  During the middle of the 20th century, Beloit and Janesville were the same size and had roughly the same economic prosperity; but, as Beloit’s fortunes went away while Janesville had continued corporate investment by General Motors, peaking in the 1970s, Beloit’s growth stagnated while Janesville has more than doubled in size and as a result has become the dominant commercial center in the county.  For now, that is.

The retail scene in Janesville and Beloit has always been heavily influenced by competition from neighboring larger cities, even Beloit, and this was further reinforced with the addition of the interstate highway system during the 1960s onward.  Both Madison and Rockford are about 30 miles from Janesville, and are both easily accessible via interstate.  Being larger cities, both Madison and Rockford offer shopping malls and strip areas with more variety in store selection than Janesville.  Even Beloit was a formidable retail competitor from the 1960s into the early 90s, as the Beloit Mall was considered to be on-par or even better than the Janesville Mall until it skidded downhill to failure in the late 1990s.  In addition, even more shopping possibilities exist considering both Milwaukee and Chicago are less than a two-hours drive away.  As such, Janesville’s retail offerings have often been called slim for a city of its size; comparable cities in their own markets such as Wausau and LaCrosse have always had more significant retail offerings than Janesville.  All of the above notwithstanding, Janesville’s primary retail market still reaches about 200,000 people; but, it wasn’t until the late 1990s before they didn’t have to drive long distances to shop. 

For decades, the dominant retail area in Janesville was downtown.  Like many other small manufacturing cities, downtown provided everything necessary for consumers, housing major chains like Kresge, Woolworth’s, JCPenney, and Sears, along with local department stores like Bostwick’s and small old-fashioned specialty stores of every kind.  During the 1960s and 1970s, though, a new trend began sweeping across the country.  As Janesville grew by leaps and bounds during the height of the manufacturing boom at General Motors, housing developments were constructed at an alarming pace in order to keep up with demand.  Suddenly, downtown was too distant and less convenient to this new growth, and didn’t offer the variety of larger stores such as supermarkets and discount boxes which were popping up all over. 

Most of this new growth occurred disproportionately to the north and east of downtown, near the interstate (90) which was constructed around Janesville in the early 1960s, connecting Seattle to Boston.  The first major, modern style box store to come to Janesville was K-Mart, which opened at the corner of US 14 and Hwy 26, in 1967.  At the time, this location was far from the edge of town, but it was also pivotal: it was near an access point to the recently completed I-90.  Developers quickly realized the growth pattern of the city was moving in this direction, and as the 1970s progressed several more stores located to the Hwy 26/US 14 corridor in between what was then the edge of town and the interstate. 

Janesville already had two ‘modern’ styled shopping centers which opened in the 1950s: Sunnyside Shopping Center on W. Court St/Hwy 11, and Creston Park Mall, located on Hwy 26 on what was then the edge of town.  However, these small regional centers were being outmoded nationwide by large malls with huge department store anchors and many more stores, often in a climate-controlled environment functioning dually as retail center and community meeting place.  

Following the lead of K-Mart, Creston Park Mall, recent residential growth, and the development of the interstate, local developer Roger Benjamin sought to build a strip mall featuring midwestern discount chain Welles in 1970 somewhere in northeast Janesville.  His search brought him to the Milton Ave/Hwy 26 corridor between downtown Janesville and I-90, and his decision to locate there became the catalyst for Milton Ave/Hwy 26 to become the region’s major retail strip.  He selected a parcel next to a site where Montgomery Ward was already building a store and the two ventures combined, deciding to build an enclosed mall between the two proposed anchors instead of a strip mall.  Around the same time, Rockford-based department store Charles V. Weise signed on to be the middle anchor, and construction began on the $10 million mall in 1971.    

During construction, however, a big problem arose.  The parent company of Welles, the slated north anchor, abruptly went out of business in early 1973, leaving the mall high and dry only months before its slated opening.  As a result, developers first approached Sears, who already operated a store in downtown Janesville, as well as one in nearby Beloit.  Sears declined, citing success in both locations, so developers then approached JCPenney, who also operated a very small store in downtown Janesville.  JCPenney realized the opportunity and accepted the offer, taking the north anchor, and Janesville Mall opened on schedule in September 1973.

The rest of the 1970s and 1980s proved to be enormously successful for Janesville Mall and its environs.  During that time, the Milton Ave/Hwy 26/Hwy 14 strip filled in with numerous fast food outlets, strip malls, restaurants and boxes as the city’s population swelled by many thousands.  The large mound of dirt behind the mall, created from digging the mall’s basement, became the city’s most popular sledding hill.  A large strip mall called Janesville Plaza opened directly across from the mall, and big box retailers ShopKo (1980), Farm and Fleet, Menards (1984), Copps Department Store and Wal-Mart (1989) all opened in the general vicinity.     

Anchor changes at Janesville Mall began in the mid-1980s, when Peoria-based Bergner’s acquired and rebranded the Weise’s division, first to Bergner-Weise and then finally Bergner’s around 1985.  Also, about the same time, Montgomery Ward shut their Janesville Mall location in a round of nationwide closures, and Milwaukee-based Kohl’s, then a very small chain of department stores in southern Wisconsin, opened to fill the vacancy in one of their earliest major expansion moves.  In addition, Janesville’s downtown riverfront Sears closed in 1986, setting the stage for a much-needed revival for Janesville Mall a decade later.

The change in anchors from Montgomery Ward to Kohls and from Weise’s to Bergner’s also became the catalyst for a much-needed mallwide renovation in 1986.  The early 1970s look was removed during a top-to-bottom revamp, replacing the mall’s flooring, removing all the fountains, and adding new benches and even live fig trees.

Following the renovation, the early 90s began a tumultuous decade for Janesville Mall, beginning and ending in success with a dip of uncertainty in the middle.  The 90s debuted with the reuse of the vacant Montgomery Ward Auto Center, opening as a Blockbuster Video in 1990 during that chain’s meteoric rise.  I remember seeing their grand opening spotlights for many nights from my house several blocks away.  In addition, an anchor shift occurred in 1992 when Bergner’s was rebranded Boston Store, in an effort to consolidate all of P.A. Bergner’s Wisconsin brands under one nameplate (They also owned Carson Pirie Scott, and are today all regional nameplates owned by Bon-Ton Inc.).  The store was also remodeled during the rebranding.  Meanwhile, retail elsewhere in Janesville continued to thrive during the early 1990s, as a new Target and Toys ’R’ Us opened in 1992 along with a large strip mall adjacent to ShopKo.    

The early to mid 90s also began a shift not unique to Janesville Mall but also seen in many malls across the country, trending away from local chains and favoring national chain retailers.  In fact, the main problem at Janesville Mall during the 1990s was the lag time between the local chains’ exit and the national chains’ entrance.  There was a gap of no fewer than several years when the mall was alarmingly vacant and trouble seemed imminent.  Local stores like That Boutique (women’s clothing), Baxter’s Menswear, J. Rundell’s, Hal’s, Saxer’s Sporting Goods, Bostwick’s, Mother’s Ice Cream and others disappeared, but there were relatively few national chains opening to replace them.  Mall mainstay Thrift Drug, owned by JCPenney, closed in the mid 90s as well, around the same time that nameplate was retired in favor of Penney’s other brand, Eckerd drug.  A few exceptions were clothing retailers Clothestime, Merry Go Round, and County Seat, which opened during this period, but for the most part stores either remained vacant or were a revolving door of failed ventures like the short-lived Cinnabon, which appeared in 1993-94, only to close almost immediately to be replaced by a local Pizza-by-the-slice joint which was equally short-lived.  I recall visiting the mall frequently during this period (1992-1995) and noting many vacancies until about 1995-96, when things slowly, and then dramatically, shifted back to a period of success for Janesville Mall, which has lasted until the present.

After a period of low turnover and high vacancies, fortunes began to change at Janesville Mall with the arrival of a few very popular national chains.  In 1995 and 1996, Software Etc. (now GameStop), Wilson’s Leather, Bath and Body Works, Finish Line and GNC arrived and got the ball rolling on a trend to attract chains which heretofore would have required a visit to either Madison’s or Rockford’s malls, a trip local residents were resigned to make given the meager local offerings.

The biggest boon to the late 90s resurgence of Janesville Mall was the addition of a two-level, 110,000 square-foot Sears as the fourth anchor store, which opened in late 1997 amid a mild controversy pitting Janesville and Beloit as rivals.  The opening of Sears came about in 1996 as the Beloit Mall, some 15 miles south of Janesville, was experiencing difficulties of its own, due to a less wealthy economic base, smaller and less modern-feeling mall structure, and weird location in between heavy industrial buildings and small, older single family homes.  However, the Sears in Beloit was one of the only businesses in the mall doing well, and had room for growth in its cramped location.  It was then when Janesville Mall developers approached Sears and asked them to jump ship and leave Beloit Mall to open a brand new store at the Janesville Mall.  So, despite a fierce letter-writing and petition campaign to keep the store in Beloit, Sears did leave Beloit and moved 15 miles north to a bigger, brand new store in a mall with better potential on the county’s best retail strip. 

As soon as Sears opened, national chains that previously avoided Janesville suddenly clamored to open at the mall, and stores like American Eagle, Victoria’s Secret, Gymboree, and The Buckle soon followed suit.  In 1998, Kohl’s renovated and expanded its store for the first time since it opened in the mid 1980s, annexing the Blockbuster Video/former Montgomery Ward Auto Center and several adjacent in-line stores in the mall.  The entrance to Kohl’s was also moved to the corner of its store where it is more visible and accessible from the parking lot.  It was rumored Kohl’s threatened to leave the mall and build a standalone store elsewhere in Janesville if the conditions for its expansion were not met.  Blockbuster moved to a new standalone building in the mall’s parking lot, becoming the first and only parcel in the mall’s outlot.  The mall was also minorly renovated during this time, removing what little character it had by taking away all the fig trees and revamping the center court area’s stage to a flat, tiled surface in order to fit a sea of kiosks in.  Today, the entire mall corridor is one kiosk after another with almost no space in between them.  Suddenly Janesville Mall became viable again due in large part to the reinvestment by Sears, making it the county’s top retail destination after a few sketchy years.   

1998 also saw the opening of the largest shopping center in Janesville since the mall debuted in 1973, introducing many national chain box retailers to town.  Called Pine Tree Plaza, this 400,000 square foot behemoth box center and strip mall, complete with outlots, redefined shopping in Janesville and for the first time a shopping trip out of town wasn’t as necessary.  Included in Pine Tree Plaza’s debut were Wisconsin’s first Home Depot as well as Movies 10, Gander Mountain, TJMaxx, Staples, Shoe Carnival (closed and replaced by Famous Footwear in 2004), Old Navy, Petco and Michaels, with space for several small in-line stores and restaurants and outlots as well.  As a result of the movie theatre opening, the small, dirty 3-screen cinemas in the Janesville Mall closed and was replaced by a Chuck E. Cheese franchise.  Pine Tree Plaza and its outlots have grown even more popular since, with the addition of Starbucks, IHOP, Best Buy, Cold Stone Creamery and Pier One Imports.    

The new millenium ushered in continued growth and prosperity for Janesville Mall, as more national chains appeared and the mall reached capacity for the first time since the 1980s.  It was considered to be big news for the mall when Gap opened a 10,000 square-foot location in 2000, followed by stores like Aeropostale, Vanity, Pac Sun, and CJ Banks. 

A semblance of a food court even appeared at Janesville Mall in the early 2000s, taking shape with a Sbarro, McSnack (an experimental limited-menu McDonalds which has since closed), Panda Express, Orange Julius, and recent-addition Kobe Japanese.  Many people, especially kids growing up in Janesville, noted the absence of a food court as another reason to mock and ridicule the mall’s lack of ‘legitimacy’ - and now the mall officially recognizes this area as a food court, even though it’s really just a concentration of food stalls along the main concourse near the Kohl’s end, with tables and chairs set out.  Prior to the food court, the mall’s meager food options were long-time tenant Diamond Dave’s, a decent sit-down Mexican restaurant, a cookie place (now closed), Hot Sam (also closed), Karmelkorn/Corn Crib (recently closed), Cream City Cafe inside Boston Store (closed), Mother’s Ice Cream (now Panda Express), A&W Hot Dogs and More (now Orange Julius), and long, long ago there was a restaurant inside Montgomery Ward which is obviously closed.  In addition, for many years a full-sized regular food court was rumored for the vacant space in between Sears/The Buckle and the former cinemas, but this never came to fruition and since then the space has been occupied by Chuck E. Cheese.  It should also be noted that a Regis Salon and a nail place are both in/near the ”food court” area, which is at least moderately offensive to the olfactory.  

Today, the 600,000 square-foot Janesville Mall continues to thrive and attract popular mid-tier national chain offerings; most recently, Limited’s Justice brand as well as a Journeys have opened in the mall.  The mall is limited moreso by space than by interested chains, which was not the case 15 years ago.  Furthermore, most of the recent closings are due to corporate restructuring rather than sales at this specific location, such as the closure of both Sam Goody and Suncoast Video in 2006.  In fact, the mall may have even become too big for its britches as many of the smaller, local retailers and service-oriented things appear to have opted to relocate outside the mall due to ever-increasing rents.   

In addition, retail in and around Janesville continues to grow and change.  The most recent changes have been the addition of a new Mega Menards, a new Super Wal-Mart, and a brand new Sam’s Club, all of which opened in 2007 and 2008.  Replacing the old Wal-Mart was to be a Borders, Hobby Lobby, and Dollar Tree, but unfortunately Borders backed out and it’s currently Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree, and a temporary Halloween Express store.  Kind of sad, but nonetheless not shocking in the least.  It is yet to be announced what will replace the old Menards, which has an excellent location yet less-than-stellar, squirrely access to the major arterials.  Another problem I’ve seen along the Milton Ave/Hwy 26 strip in Janesville recently are the numerous “instant cash” quick-loan places, which appear to be present in Janesville moreso than I’ve seen anywhere else on earth.  Awesome. 

The Janesville Mall will continue to be a viable place as long as the local economy can support it, which actually wasn’t in question until very recently, when it was announced the lifeblood of Janesville, General Motors, was closing the factory it had operated for almost 90 years sometime before 2010.  So, I guess we’ll watch what happens.

The pictures featured here were taken in March 2001 and July 2008.  Not much really changed between these years, but they’re there anyway.  As always, feel free to leave your comments and your own experiences with Janesville Mall here.  And, most importantly, this is the mall I grew up going to the most, so I’d love to have some vintage pictures. Even pre-2000 pictures would be great.  Feel free to contact me directly at any time if you want to send me stuff.

March 2001

July 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Located in the middle of downtown Milwaukee, the Grand Avenue Mall opened in August 1982.  Part of a larger civic revitalization effort, the mall premiered downtown during a time when retail (and nearly everything else) had moved out to the ‘burbs and downtown Milwaukee was left to the 9-to-5ers and the bums.  A nationwide problem not unique to Milwaukee, the loss of downtowns across America led city planners to develop resurgence programs, and many plans offered up enclosed malls.  I suppose they figured what was working well in the suburbs at the time might work in the downtowns and save them.

The plan worked.  For a while, at least.  Many who had abandoned downtown to shop in the suburbs returned to this large, glassy, modern two-level structure.  Occupying two city blocks on two levels with a third level food court at center court, Grand Avenue Mall skywalks over a street on the second level and is split into discontiguous pieces by the street on the first level.  The 1980s and early 1990s saw the mall at near 100 percent capacity, with upmarket local stores as well as chains such as Laura Ashley and Banana Republic. 

However, you can’t reinvent the wheel, especially in the midst of dramatically changing demographics.  As soon as the mall opened, Milwaukee’s manufacturing economy began to erode, with unemployment jumping high as more and more factories left town for cheaper labor elsewhere.  As a result, crime in the city spiked at unprecedented highs during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the murder rate doubling in the eight years between 1982 and 1990. 

While few of these murders occurred in the heart of downtown, where the mall is located, many were too close for comfort in the poorer neighborhoods adjacent to downtown to the west and north.  As a result of these changing demographics, shoppers jumped ship and instead chose to plug their money into malls closer to where they lived, like Bayshore, Southridge, and Mayfair.  Vacancies skyrocketed at Grand Avenue in the mid- to late- 1990s.  Longtime east anchor Marshall Fields, which was previously a Gimbels flagship, decided to leave in 1997 after years of declining sales.  This sent the mall further into a downward spiral, and many stores in the eastern section of the mall (Plankinton Arcade) closed as a result.  The western section of the mall, with the large third-level food court and Boston Store anchor, fared slightly better but also eventually faltered.

By 2002 the mall was on life support.  The few stores remaning were mostly athletic and urbanwear chains, and the food court remained viable due to the large number of office workers nearby.  However, a huge breath of life came in the form of a remodel and repositioning.   The mall’s dated, early-1980s look was replaced with a more modern facade inside, and the main entrance on Wisconsin Avenue was given a facelift as well.  Management leveraged this remodeling to attract new stores, citing the recent growth of residential space downtown.  Extensive development in the third ward, downtown, and lower east side would provide a significant local retail base to give Grand Avenue viability again.  Also, crime in the city scaled back dramatically to pre-1980s figures, and job loss in the region was slowed.   

But, instead of reinventing the wheel and trying to re-establish a top-tier superregional mall downtown to compete with Mayfair, Bayshore, and Brookfield Square, management sought to instead establish a different niche for Grand Avenue.  The first step in this transformation was to rename the center from Grand Avenue Mall to The Shops of Grand Avenue.  In-line small store space was scaled down dramatically in the eastern section of the mall by replacing all of the stores on the first level and the hallway with two box stores, Linens ‘n Things and TJ Maxx.  The result is kind of interesting, design-wise.  One can look down from the second level of the mall directly into the stores, as little was done to change the old configuration other than removing the small stores’ walls.  Old Navy was also brought into the mall, replacing another large section of vacant in-line space.  Also, the vacant Marshall Fields was redeveloped into a Borders and Residence Inn and renamed ASQ Center.  Although not technically part of The Shops of Grand Avenue, ASQ Center is connected to it by the same skywalk which connected Marshall Fields. 

Today, The Shops of Grand Avenue is chugging along all right.  By no means is the center as successful as it was during the 1980s, but neither is that the current owner’s intention.  Instead, the mall functions to serve the needs of the retail base which supports it, the newer neighborhoods downtown, and the 80,000 office workers which funnel in and out of the city center daily.   The store roster speaks to this, and the food court is still as busy as it ever was.  If management continues to woo more tenants in, it could really work out.  The design features of the mall, and the way it’s hemmed in with hundred-year-old buildings, is rather unique and pleasing to the eye.

At any rate, Grand Avenue is currently the last enclosed shopping mall in the city of Milwaukee.  As of ten years ago there were three others: Southgate, Capitol Court, and Northridge, but each met its own fate largely due to the same demographic problems which felled Grand Avenue.  We took the pictures featured here in April 2007. 

With nearly 10,000 residents, Sturgeon Bay is the county seat and gateway to the popular Door County tourism region of northeastern Wisconsin.  Since the advent of the automobile, tourists have flocked from Milwaukee, Chicago, and other midwestern cities to Door County for a beautiful, relaxing vacation.  For those who don’t know, Door County is Wisconsin’s “thumb” - a long peninsula of hilly land with Green Bay on one side and Lake Michigan on the other.     

The Cherry Point Mall is a small, enclosed two-anchor L-shaped center which we like to refer to as a “sMall” here at Labelscar.com.  Because it’s pretty small, right?  It’s very typical of an ”up-north” mall, common throughout more sparsely populated areas of northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and also very similar to many small enclosed malls in relatively isolated cities across rural America in general. 

Anyway, the mall is decently old; I’d guess it opened around 1980.  It opened anchored by a Schultz’s Family Store location which was acquired in 1989 by Prange Way, a discount department store based in Sheboygan.  Prange Way closed in 1997 with the foreclosure of the entire chain, and was eventually replaced by Dunhams Sports which is still open today.  The other anchor, which was a Family Dollar from 2002-2006, was very recently replaced with Dollar Tree in June 2007.

The decor of the small L-shaped Cherry Point Mall is relatively dated.  The entire mall is carpeted with a beige berber, and many of the stores inside have wooden facades.  Also of interest were the hanging banners from the ceiling with the mall’s name and logo, a throwback to the past and a commonplace in these little up-north sMalls.  In addition, the store roster is typical of rural sMalls as well, with a much higher prevalence of local retailers rather than national chains, with the exception of the anchors.  Also typical of an up-north sMall are the placement of the ubiquitous Hallmark and the numerous craft stores; one here is named Country Bumpkin, I think that’s all we need to say?

The pictures featured with this post were taken in July 2001.  Leave us some comments and let us know how the mall has changed in the past six years, or any other information you have – such as, when the mall opened and what the Family Dollar/Dollar Tree anchor has been over time.

Southgate Shopping Center, later Southgate Mall, was the first significant post-World War II suburban-style shopping center in the Milwaukee area. In 1949, local brewery supplier (how very Milwaukee) Kurtis Froedtert laid the framework for Southgate and three other major suburban-style shopping centers in the area, during a period of this kind of retail development nationwide. Southgate Shopping Center was the first of these planned centers which would rim the city; the others were Westgate (later Mayfair) and Northgate (Bayshore?).

Located on what was then the far south fringe of the city of Milwaukee, Southgate was not randomly placed but rather strategically situated. On one side of Southgate were the older, ethnic neighborhoods which created Milwaukee to the north and east, and on the other were vast expanses of immense suburban growth to the south and west. Also, Southgate was placed directly on Highway 41 (27th Street), which was then the major thoroughfare from Chicago on up to Green Bay and all points in between before freeways took over.

When Southgate opened in 1951, it was essentially an anchorless strip mall, with 20 stores under the same canopied roof. Yet, because this type of development was so innovative, people flocked from all over southeastern Wisconsin to Southgate. In 1954, Southgate finally got an anchor in Milwaukee-based Gimbel’s department store. Krambo’s grocery store opened on the opposite end of the center a year later in 1955, and the center retained its immense popularity. But of course this probably comes as no shock, considering there was no other competition like it anywhere in the area. Very soon, though, this would change as other similar shopping centers opened around the city during the 1950s – Bayshore in 1954, Capitol Court in 1956, and Mayfair in 1958. These centers didn’t quite steal Southgate’s thunder, but rather were peers who held their own in the respective regions of the city they covered. Southgate reigned as the dominant south side shopping center until 1970, when a monster appeared to change Southgate’s fortune forever.

Southridge Mall opened a few miles to the south and west of Southgate in suburban Greendale in 1970. A self-contained shopping environment, Southridge outclassed Southgate in nearly every way. For one, it was gigantic in comparison. Almost ten times larger than Southgate at that point, Southridge featured 5 anchors on two enclosed levels, and to this day is one of the largest malls in the state. Also, Southridge was closer to the growing, suburban-middle class population in the suburbs.

As shoppers flocked to Southridge, Southgate decided it had no other choice but to renovate (Yes, I just personified a mall here). In 1971, Southgate aggressively repositioned itself through an expansion which doubled the size of the mall and enclosed it, giving it some leverage on Southridge’s success. Southgate soldiered on through the 70s and 80s as an ancillary enclosed mall of about 500,000 feet, including anchor stores. In 1986 the main anchor was swapped as one heritage Milwaukee store replaced another, when Gimbels closed and its space was immediately taken by Boston Store.

However, any measure of success ended in 1994 when two of the largest stores occupying 40 percent of the mall closed, Boston Store and Woolworths. From then on the mall slowly deteriorated into a shell of its former self, with more and more vacancies as time went on. In 1995, Media Play and Trak Auto were to split the anchor space and help revive the mall but it never came to fruition. Then, in 1998, Southgate Mall’s ownership changed hands and the new owners announced that most of the mall would be demolished for a Wal-Mart store.

And so it was. During the Summer of 1999, most of the structure was demolished and a huge standalone Wal-Mart was put in its place in 2000. Walgreens relocated to a different side of the property and the Marcus Cinemas remained, as well as a small outdoor portion of the old mall which ironically was part of the original 1950s Southgate. This is pretty much how it is today.

As I never got to see Southgate apart from driving by, all our photos came from contributor John Gallo. The Gimbels and interior shots were taken in 1986 or prior, the Boston Store shot was taken sometime between 1986 and 1993, and the others are a more recent depiction of how the site looks today (post-1999). If you have any more pictures of the “old” Southgate, in any of its incarnations, feel free to send them in and we’ll post them.

Manitowoc, Wisconsin is a small port city in east-central Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan. With a population of 34,000 and micropolitan area (with Two Rivers and the rest of the county) of just over 50,000, Manitowoc is hardly a large place. Most of its roots are in manufacturing, shipping and agriculture, and thus growth in the region has slowed in recent decades as the economy shifts from that of building things to one of building knowledge. That said, Manitowoc still maintains a retail presence, but it is important to consider that it has always been on a local scale. Being about 30 minutes from both Green Bay and Sheboygan, and less than an hour from Appleton where ample retail offerings exist, Manitowoc has never been the center of super-regional (or even regional) retail activity. Instead, the offerings in Manitowoc and Two Rivers have been just enough to sustain local shoppers, including two enclosed malls right next to each other: Edgelake Plaza, at 210,000 square feet, and Lakeview Centre.

From time to time, we feature guest bloggers here who have their own stories to share. The following entry comes to us from Matt A. (a.k.a. Matt from WI from the comments board on this site) as he tells the story of the newer of two adjacent malls between Manitowoc and Two Rivers, Wisconsin:

My home state of Wisconsin, like many other Upper Midwestern states, was dotted with small community malls of this ilk during the days of the enclosed mall building boom in the late 1960s-1980s. While the cities of Manitowoc and Two Rivers already shared the Mid-Cities Mall, which opened in 1968 and boasted a Wards, Penney’s, and over 20 other shops, most of those shops were the local / regional flavor, save for a large Woolworth, A&P and Osco Drug. Edgewater took up the slack when it opened directly across the street in 1979, bringing with it another 20 stores, most of them featuring a heavy regional / national presence. It was originally anchored on the west end by a Prange’s (now Younkers) and Prange Way flanked the eastern end, with in-line space in between. The newer more modern mall even took away some of Mid-Cities’ stores.I’m not sure as to how ’successful’ Edgewater Mall was back in its first years of life (’79-’89), but I’d imagine it did well enough when it was 100% occupied, when Wal-Mart wasn’t ‘the place’ people shopped (it was Prange Way or K-mart back then), and the local economy was still in halfway decent shape -but more on that in a moment. At least four reasons account for why this mall died: 

1 – A new interstate, I-43, opened in 1981 and finally gave Manitowoc and Two Rivers a major highway link to the major cities of Green Bay and Milwaukee, taking away consumer dollars that otherwise would have been spent locally.

2 – Location. The Mall, while located just off the lakefront on the northeast side of town, is not near the main commercial hub of Manitowoc. The southwest side of Manitowoc is the new retail strip for the area, with big box such as K-mart, ShopKo, and several strip malls that opened starting in the 1970s. While old Highway 42 (Memorial Drive) is / was the main link between Manitowoc (and points south including Milwaukee) and the Door County region, once I-43 was built (shortly after the Edgewater Mall opened), all the thru-traffic going past the mall was sucked away, and with it, the retail heart of the city swung around to the southwest at the intersection of I-43 and U.S. 151. Mid-Cities Mall, renamed Lakeview Centre in the late 1980s, already a dying mall by then, didn’t help either. That building was an eyesore already by 1979 when Edgewater opened, the bottom falling out when Wards, Woolworths and Osco all pulled out and left gaping vacancies that would never be refilled. I believe this had some crossover effect on Edgelake Plaza, especially in the past 10-15 years.

3 – Tenancy. Prange’s switching to Younkers wasn’t such an issue. Hanging onto national tenants was always a problem for small malls of under 300,000 sq ft, or so it seemed. At its peak, Edgewater had names like Id Boutique, Kinney Shoes, Kindy Optical, Regis, Deb, Brooks Fashions, an arcade, several food counters, and various other major stores, at least 20 in all. Bankruptcies and the big blow came in 1996 when Prange Way went bankrupt and shuttered their Edgewater location along with the rest of the 22-store chain of regional discount stores.

4 – Local Economy: During the World War era, Manitowoc flourished due to its shipbuilding industry. There was also the Mirro Company, and several other major manufacturers within the city providing an economic base. When all of this was outsourced starting in the late 1970s and continuing still to this day..well, you can guess what happens over time. No money to spend = retailers struggle and eventually go out of business. Such was the case here.

I’ve attatched two sets of imagery. The outdoor ones I snapped in 2004. The interior shots I took last year. You can really tell this is a 1970s mall. The outside was given a paintjob in 2002, but you can still tell when it was built by the plain boxy look of the building, and the typical vertical-slotted cinderblock details. Inside, the dark terra-cotta flooring, the low tiled ceilings, the fluorescent light fixtures instead of mecury-vapor bulbs (energy crisis in the late 1970s prompted the use of fluorescent lighting), lots of planters and wood-tone benches, and those treated-wood-style storefronts that chains like Brooks, Id, and Regis used back in 1979…very dated and a dead giveaway as to the era this mall opened. The mall only consists of one wide concourse stretching between Younkers and the vacant Prange Way, and a short hallway going to the mall’s lone rear entrance. Two entryways take up the front.

When I visited last year to take the interior pics, all that was left was a tanning studio, a NASCAR paraphernalia store, a nail salon, an eyecare/opticians office, and a Sears Authorized Dealer store that only sells Sears’ hardlines (Craftsman and Kenmore stuff).

I’m not sure how much longer this mall will last, considering there’s not much left. However it seems to still be in operational mode, because when I was there, the floors were getting buffed as you can see in the pics (they’re unusually shiny and look new), and several old storefronts were being repainted, leading me to believe maybe the new owners / management have intentions to lease space. In the end, it’s a dying, yet decently maintained little mall. Trust me, I have seen worse in the upkeep department when it comes to these smaller malls.

With most malls like this in Wisconsin having been either reconfigured into strip malls, or torn down outright, it was a nice find that Edgelake Plaza has been open long enough for me to capture an example of
what we were seeing during the mall boom in the 1970s and is today disappearing in favor of big boxes and
super-mega malls. These were not ‘regional’ malls in the sense of the term, they were community malls
(though they did serve the rural areas within the county as well), and it is quite a shame to see many of them going the way of 8-track tapes and VHS movies. They hold a certain aura and charm that the huge behemoth malls just can’t capture. It sure would be nice to see Edgelake Plaza be fully occupied again someday and thriving once again.

Thanks, Matt. We appreciate the submission. If you have any other comments, feel free to add to the discussion. The pictures featured with this article were taken by me in 2001 and by Matt A. in 2004 and 2006.

Oh, and by the way…Matt submitted an article on Wikipedia about Edgelake Plaza, and their content selectors flagged it for deletion today for not being notable enough. We here at labelscar feel it’s rather ridiculous (not to mention incredibly subjective) to try to decide which malls have notability and which do not, especially considering no precedent has been set for determining shopping center notability. Is a shopping center notable because it has a certain number of stores, or attracts an affluent customer base? What about its sheer size? Maybe it’s just notable for the people who live in the area and shop there regularly.

Whoever thinks that shopping centers, even this one, aren’t notable should thoughtfully reconsider. While Wikipedia is not the yellow pages, shopping malls are an important piece of our collective history and culture. Whether you like them or dislike them notwithstanding, they have proven themselves functionally and have a continued following. In addition, they function more than just systems of utilitarian commerce. In fact, many people do find them interesting as reflections of their own style of architecture, their varied retail presence, relative locations in our cities, and even their varying physical conditions. I would argue that in general, shopping mall articles belong in a reference encyclopedia if, for nothing else, to provide an index of these important historical agents of our collective history, our pieces of Americana. We must continue to be very careful in filtering content so that we don’t become an irrelevant collective source of information.

We don’t usually use the blog to further a specific agenda such as this, but we feel marginalized by those who essentially don’t understand the appreciation and legitimacy of retail places, and who view them as thin and not unique. To us, nearly all retail places are unique in some interesting way, and the claim of a reference encyclopedia asserting it does not wish to index every shopping center is as absurd as saying “We also no longer wish to list every city; some are just not that notable.” So, if you could go to the page and voice your concerns, that would be great. End rant for now…

July 2001

2004

2006

Located in the south-central part of the state, Madison is not only Wisconsin’s second largest city, but the state capital, home to the high-ranking University of Wisconsin at Madison, and historically is known as a progressive hotbed of political activity.  With a population of over 200,000, metropolitan Madison has a population of over 500,000, including most of Dane County (which is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island).  The city is located on an isthmus between two beautiful lakes (with several more in the area) and is aesthetically gorgeous, especially during summer months.  In addition, over the years Madison has claimed numerous awards and ranks attesting to its livability, intellectual capacity, and beauty, such as #1 city in America, healthiest city for men, one of five emerging spots for Biotech in the world, and rather surprisingly, most romantic city in the country.  I agree completely, but I also live here so I’m pretty biased. 

East Towne Mall opened in former farm fields along East Washington Avenue (Highway 151) near Interstate 90/94 in 1971, a year after West Towne Mall, its twin across town.  East Towne was originally anchored by Sears, JCPenney, H.C. Prange & Company (a mid-tier department store chain based out of Sheboygan), Prange Way (Prange’s discount store chain), and Gimbels (a Milwaukee-based chain).  East Towne Mall was developed by Cleveland-based Richard Jacobs, but now it is owned and managed by CBL Properties. 

As the years passed, East Towne found itself the centerpiece of an explosive area of rapid retail growth, drawing the traditional shopping base away from downtown Madison which is five miles away.  Condos, strip malls, chain hotels, fast food and chain restaurants, and big box all exploded onto what once were pastoral farm fields in the far-reaches of Madison, enveloping them with buildings as far as the eye could see.  Today, the sprawl has extended far beyond East Towne and even the Interstate, and blurs into Sun Prairie, Cottage Grove, and DeForest to the north and east.

East Towne has always enjoyed success, but in varying degrees.  From the 70s on through the 1980s the mall enjoyed a great deal of success.  In 1986, the Gimbels became a Boston Store location after Gimbels went belly up.  In 1992, another anchor shift occurred, as Pranges became Younkers (an Iowa-based chain) following the demise of Pranges. 

Through the 1990s and into the 00s, East Towne stagnated significantly, not attracting many emerging, popular stores and simultaneously losing some it already had.  The reasons for this stagnation are do to demographics and the competition resulting.  West Towne Mall, almost 20 miles away, has long been considered the best mall in Madison, always drawing the best mall retailers.  Abercrombie & Fitch, Williams-Sonoma, H&M, Godiva, and J Crew and other top-tier mall retailers have chosen West Towne to showcase their only store in Madison. 

But why is this?

Madison has always been a very economically (and racially) segregated city.  The east side, where East Towne is, has always been the more industrial, working-class side of town.  The west side, which is larger, has always been collectively wealthier, stemming historically from university professors and faculty choosing to build their nice homes on the near west side.  Even today, many businesses who only have one store in Madison have chosen to locate only on the west side, even though many chains (including big box) have duplicate east and west locations.  In 2003, Madison’s first lifestyle center, Greenway Station, opened on the west side (in Middleton), featuring many popular top-tier offerings not found on the east side.  I grew up about half an hour from East Towne but we rarely visited. West Towne was always so dominant during my childhood despite East Towne actually being closer.   

As the 00s began, East Towne found itself stagnating and had earned a reputation of being Madison’s second-class mall to West Towne.  Unwilling to let East Towne go further downhill, CBL decided a major overhaul of both Madison malls was in order in 2003.  At both malls, the Younkers locations closed and Boston Store moved into their respective spaces, as Saks consolidated their southern Wisconsin stores into one banner.  This paved the way for a major remodel of both malls as the former Boston Store locations were razed for the construction of Dick’s Sporting Goods locations as well as additional mall space.  For East Towne, it meant the addendum of a fifth, but short, short side wing ending at the Dick’s anchor (the old Boston Store anchor used to face the mallway directly), and also the expansion of the adjacent Dunham’s Sporting Goods space, replacing it with Gordman’s (a discount department store chain based in Omaha).  In addition to the expansion, the entire mall was remodeled with new flooring and signage and a new Steve and Barry’s was tacked onto the back of the mall near where the old theatres were.  The food court was also renovated losing its “Tastes of the Towne” name, and a Barnes and Noble was added adjacent to it at the same time.  All of the renovations were complete by Fall 2003.  This latest renovation has very solidly repositioned East Towne as a top-tier mall without question, once again able to compete with West Towne in the market. 

The pictures featured here were taken November 2006, with the exception of the first image which was provided by EMJ Corporation.  If you have any comments or experiences related to the mall feel free to share them.  In addition, if you have any photos (especially vintage) of East Towne feel free to contribute them as well. 

Located on the bustling west side of beautiful Madison, Wisconsin, Westgate Mall is a small enclosed retail center totalling just over 250,000 square feet in size.  It is located along Whitney Way between Odana Road and Tokay Blvd, near the West Beltline Highway.  Westgate is flanked by anchor stores TJ Maxx, Hancock Fabrics, and Dunhams Sports.  The mall also has a DMV Service Center, Cosmetology School, Art Cinema, several apparel stores, other retail outlets and two fast food establishments.  In addition, the mall contains a great deal of office space for tenants such as healthcare software author Epic Systems (partially in an old Sergio’s Mexican restaurant, no less; see pictures below).  Adjacent to the mall are several large office buildings including the University of Wisconsin Research Park, where stem cell research and biotechnology occur.  Across from Westgate Mall are several other large shopping centers, including a Copp’s grocery store, Marshall’s and several sit-down restaurants.

Westgate is owned by Denver-based real estate investment and management group J. Herzog.  They acquired the property in 1990 and were responsible for the center’s major renovation during the mid to late 1990s. 

The city of Madison is the second largest as well as capital city of Wisconsin with a population of about 220,000 and a metro population of about 500,000.  It is frequently ranked as one of the best places to live in America and boasts one of the better (and larger) state universities in the country, UW-Madison.  Madison currently has four enclosed malls: West Towne Mall, Westgate, and Hilldale mall on the city’s economically bustling west side, and East Towne Mall for the east side.  There was a substantial enclosed mall on the southeast side called South Towne, but it was disenclosed and turned into a strip center in 2000 and currently remains mostly occupied.  Also, there is a lifestyle center in northwest suburban Middleton called Greenway Station, with many upscale shops and restaurants. 

Westgate is our textbook definition of an ancillary enclosed mall.  An ancillary mall is one that lies in the shadow of a larger, often very successful dominant center.  Westgate is about one mile from the Madison area’s most dominant center, West Towne Mall, which was recently renovated and expanded to include Dick’s Sporting Goods, H&M, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and soon J Crew.  Westgate’s success lies in being distinctly ancillary to the retail dominance of West Towne, with off-price and specialty retailers, services, and even a hybrid of office space.

The current decor of the enclosed portion of Westgate Mall is currently rather modern, as it was last renovated in the mid to late 1990s.  The color scheme is predominantly white: white ceiling panels, white walls, and a tiled floor with alternating white and gray tiles.  Westgate’s floorplan is mostly shaped like an L, with a small circular court looping around to the back of the mall near the crux.  Also notable is the fact that a strip mall of stores extends on both sides of the enclosed L-shaped mall, elongating it, with exterior entrances only on those portions. 

I’m not exactly sure when Westgate opened, but I first visited with family in the early to mid 1990s and it had a markedly different and older decor.  There was a lot of wood paneling, darker tile and overall color scheme, and even a B Dalton Bookstore location.

Despite Westgate Mall’s recent success as an ancillary to the West Towne behemoth one mile down the road, there have been a few vacancy issues as of recent.  Radio Shack and several other in-line stores, particularly in the TJ Maxx wing, are vacant, and there’s even a Hit or Miss labelscar.  Also, the back loop of the mall which contains the DMV Express, Cosmetology College, Theatre, and offices, has experienced a loss of the Cost Cutters location recently. 

Hopefully these closures aren’t indicative of a trend and Westgate can continue to retenant the vacancies and further establish itself as an off-price, specialty, service alternative. 

The pictures below were taken August 2006.  If you know anything more about Westgate Mall’s history, stores, or have an anecdote or just a comment to share, feel free to post.

UPDATE 12/12/2008:  After years of sliding downhill, a developer wants to breathe new life into Westgate Mall, bringing Iowa grocer Hy-Vee to the south end of the mall.  The proposal indicates a teardown of the existing portion of the mall south of TJMaxx, which mostly consists of stores facing outward to the parking lot in strip-mall style fashion.  It doesn’t look like, as of yet, that the majority of the enclosed portion of the mall would be affected.  However, we think a great idea would be to relocate Dunham’s sporting goods and the other businesses on the south end of the mall to the enclosed portion which has lost several tenants recently, including Epic Systems, the theatre, and the cosmetology school.

When I was a freshman in college I used to talk to people about their hometowns and through them I learned some interesting things.  One of them was the existence of an enclosed shopping mall in downtown Oshkosh, Wisconsin (population 63,000).  I had always wondered why a city of Oshkosh’s size never seemed to have a mall.  I always assumed that competition in Appleton and Fond du Lac killed a potential mall before it became a possibility.  I was wrong.  Park Plaza Mall opened in the 1970s and was the beginning of a trend of downtown renewal projects across the country, as suburbs began to sprawl up all over with their Big Box stores, huge enclosed malls, and rampant retail strips. 

People realized even then this was sapping downtowns at the expense of suburban development, and in some cases the downtowns were failing completely.  Rather than being faced with unchecked decay and blight, developers sought to resurge the languishing downtowns with destination venues, places that were more unique and offered a reason for people to escape the suburbs and come back downtown.  They realized the traditional downtown with rows of stores and services along a series of main streets was no longer a draw because people were doing this type of shopping in the suburbs where they lived, so they thought long and hard.  Someone came up with the idea of taking what was such a big hit in the suburbs and putting it downtown: enclosed shopping malls.  Thus began the trend of enclosed, traditional malls being erected in downtowns across the country.  Some of them have worked, but most have not.  The logistics of getting downtown, parking, and most notably competition have taken a toll on these centers and made many fail, even after initial success.  Downtown malls in places like Green Bay, Milwaukee, Appleton, Columbus, OH, and Worcester, MA have all failed or languished severely, citing these concerns.

Park Plaza Mall enjoyed a period of success in the 1970s and into the 1980s, and was anchored by Sears, JCPenney, and H.C. Prange Co., a Sheboygan-based department store chain that went bankrupt and was purchased by the Younkers chain in 1992.  The center was over 800,000 square feet in size, including anchors and office space, and included an U-shaped hallway with an impressive multi-level atrium with hanging modern art scupltures, common areas, and large amounts of office space above the mall.  The mall had many of the national chain stores and was a regional draw, bringing in shoppers from Appleton and Neenah-Menasha in the north to Fond du Lac and the surrounding areas to the south.  Appleton already had a downtown mall of its own and two very small, aged enclosed centers on the north and south sides of town, respectively, but they were not as large or as regional a draw as Park Plaza. 

In 1984, Park Plaza Mall experienced its worst blow as the gigantic Fox River Mall opened in Grand Chute (Appleton) along U.S. 41.  Just 15 minutes north of Oshkosh, Fox River Mall immediately became a shopping destination for the entirety of the Fox River Valley region and all of northeast Wisconsin.  Even today, people regularly make weekend shopping trips from several hours away in the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan to Appleton.  Also, U.S. 41 in the entire Fox Valley from Fond du Lac up to Green Bay became the central location for retailers along the corridor, sucking stores out of downtowns in all cities along it.  Fond du Lac’s Forest Mall was a quick 15-20 minute drive down U.S. 41 from Oshkosh, and also sapped shoppers from Park Plaza.  Prime Outlets opened a massive outlet mall on the southwest side of Oshkosh adjacent to U.S. 41, and strip malls and big box stores began sprouting up along U.S. 41 and Koeller Street in Oshkosh.  People once again began to ignore downtown Oshkosh, despite there being a mall there, for competition in Appleton, Fond du Lac, and along Oshkosh’s new main street, U.S. 41. 

In the early 1990s the bottom fell out at Park Plaza and the stores began to leave in droves.  Sears left in 1993, and returned in 2006 as Sears Grand along the U.S. 41 corridor. Prange’s became Younkers with the buyout of the chain in 1992, but also left soon after.  In perhaps the most telling move of local retailing trends in the 1990s, JCPenney closed their Park Plaza store for a standalone location along U.S. 41 near the outlet mall.  It remains there today.  During the mid-1990s developers realized the mall was transitioning away from a retail destination and allowed it by encouraging specialty stores and services to move into the mall such as a local book store and a kids’ art studio.  More offices moved into the mall and the Park Plaza Hotel continued to be successful operations. 

In July 2000 I visted what was left of the mall on an acquaintance’s tip, and I was impressed.  Even though none of the anchor stores were left and most of the stores were either vacant or converted to office space, it was very apparent it was once a large mall.  Several of the corridors were left mostly untouched as public walkways and retained many labelscars which you can see in the pictures below.  In 2001 the mall was renamed City Center as yet another attempt to revitalize the former mall and Oshkosh’s downtown was underway, though there is no current focus on the center’s retail viability.  More office-type businesses have been wooed to the center since, and there have been talks of renovating and removing most of the mall’s former in-line space for more offices or other non-retail use.  Some of this may have already happened.  Let us know more about Park Plaza Mall!  Leave your personal anecdotes, historical facts, or other comments here.