This mall is doing remarkably well for it’s age. Many if not most vacancies in recent years have been due to bankruptcy of the larger chain, while the CTC locations were profitable. Bennigan’s, Bombay, Steve and Barry’s, Montgomery Wards a few years ago are examples.

Locals have been saying that the mall is dying for 15 years, but it’s still here and mostly full. People use the fact that 40% of the food court (which was never really full, it was too big) and what was the 4th anchor are now offices as an example of the mall doing poorly, but I see it as evolving into being more like what large urban developments built in the last 10 years look like. They virtually all include retail, office, a hotel, residential space (the only thing CTC doesn’t have). Hundreds of people working in offices in the mall has been great for the retail, particularly the food court. Weekday lunches are packed.

I didn’t understand the previous commenter who said there’s nowhere to eat. Even with 2 table service restaurant spaces and one food court slot vacant, there are 4 table service (Outback, Chili’s, Tidewater and Chop House restaurants), 9 quick service restaurants in the food court, and 2 pretzel places, Starbucks, and 2 cookie stores for coffee and snacks. What more do you want?

I watched the moderate remodel for the mall’s 20th anniversary several years ago, and saw why the waterfall had to go. Water always splashed onto the 2nd floor behind the waterfall (always had to be roped off with wet floor signs, brick floor tiles coming up) and had leaked into the structure on the 3rd floor. 20 years of water had rusted the structural steel badly. It could have been fixed, but it would still have been a loud, messy, expensive maintenance headache.

I don’t find the decor that dated. It’s a little dark on the 1st floor, but 2nd and 3rd (food court) are bright. I like the brick floor tile that looks like the brick sidewalks in much of the rest of downtown.

Most store fronts are current or refreshed. In the last 2 years, GNC, Lids, Hot Topic, Spencers, Bath and Body Works, FYE, Buckle, Kid Country Toys, Sbarro and maybe more tenants have remodeled or moved to a new either larger or better space. Several new chains or concepts have opened (Pink, Aerie, Salad Creations). That’s a lot of investment on the part of the retailers.

The basic structure is dated. As one commenter said, it’s unfortunate that it’s inward facing, surrounded by parking structures on 2 sides, but that was the thinking 30 years ago when it was planned. At least the anchors all have sidewalk facing entrances (not that they get much use) and the east entrance in particular has a street presence, with outdoor seating for Chili’s and Tidewater, and outside entrances for Outback and the vacant restaurant space.

I see this mall doing well for a long time, if for no other reason than the fact that the only thing that could kill it (a new development luring the anchors away) in unlikely. Given the demographics here (relatively small and shrinking, as well as low median income) it’s unlikely that a developer would make (or could get financing for) the huge investment that it would take, given that it take years of hugely expensive blasting to level out a big enough flat area to build on a large scale.

The developer of some of the big box shops on US 119 last year announced a new development in South Charleston that they said would being some chains that aren’t currently in the area. I took this to mean an Old Navy, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, etc were likely. This is stalled due to the recession (not being able to get pre-construction leases signed prevents them from getting financing). That will hurt if it is ever built, but I don’t see anyone building the type and scale of development that would lure Macy’s, Sears and Penney’s away anytime soon.

Sorry to write so much. I know that the original article here and many commenters have said that this mall looks fairly healthy. It’s just a pet peeve of mine that so many locals constantly complain about the mall, say that it’s dying, that $1.75 is too much for parking (huh? really? what are you going to spent inside?) or most laughably, that downtown or the mall specifically is dangerous! When I hear that I know that some racial issues are at work.

Overall, CTC is one of the few examples of an almost 30 year old urban retail development that’s still successful that I can think of anywhere.

THe Steve and Barry’s was quite a large site, once having been a Best Products, then an Elder-Beerman. It looks like they’re cutting it into little pieces; there is currently something called “Real Deal” — a sort of general store, apparently local merchants — in one third of the space, an inflatable center for the kids called “Jump Street” in the next third, and some sort of pool gear shop, again local merchants, in the final section. The shoe repair shop beside Penneys went out recently, and has been replaced by a local shop called “THe Salvage Yard,” which looks like goth or hiphop stuff. The Sleep Number Mattress place on the first floor is also gone, replaced by, you guessed it, some locals selling woodcrafts and similar folksy items.

Also, I’ve heard this mall once had a BEST Products showroom. Is this true?