Dead Malls - Labelscar: The Retail History Blog

Harding Mall; Nashville, Tennessee

Howdy, folks. It’s been a while. Due to school, work, and a little R&R (not to mention some content generation for this website) on the east coast this past week we’ve been a bit busy. Though fear not, we’ll churn up more interesting stuff for you to ponder well into the future.

Like the former Harding Mall in Nashville, Tennessee.

Opened in the 1960s, the 300,000 square foot Harding Mall was a small enclosed center featuring one major anchor and one junior anchor on the south side of Nashville. In later years the major anchor was Dillards and the junior anchor was Marshalls, but we’re sure history dictated some changes here and there and that wasn’t always the case. Over time, Harding Mall became eclipsed by larger, super-regional malls also in south Nashville like Hickory Hollow, The Mall at Green Hills, and Cool Springs Galleria. All of the aforementioned are still moderately or extremely successful today, and draw shoppers from all over central Tennessee. Harding Mall’s fate was sealed by this competition; it closed in 2005 and was promptly demolished following a few unsuccessful years repositioned with tenants catering to the spanish-speaking market. By Summer 2006 it was replaced by a shiny new Wal-Mart Supercenter. Not shocking, not even a unique situation, but a bit sad nonetheless.

Harding Mall scored design points for its general shape and decorative accoutrements. The mall space itself wrapped around the large Dillards anchor on three sides, creating a C-shape. Marshalls hung off to one end, and a cool backlit fountain was somewhere near the middle of the mall. The rest of the center was somewhat dated as well, and the logo is pretty neat too.

We visited in May 2001 during the mall’s major downswing, and at a time when smaller, ancillary enclosed malls began to fall out of favor in lieu of larger behemoths like the others nearby. Check out the pictures of the mall while it was still around below, and also take a look at some demolition photos posted here. And, feel free to share a few of your own memories and opinions as well.

St. Charles Mall; St. Charles, Illinois

As mentioned previously in our North Park Mall posting, the Chicagoland area was spotted with small, enclosed neighborhood malls built during the late 1970s and early 1980s during a trend in this type of retailing. In around 1979 or 1980, St. Charles Mall opened on the west side of St. Charles near the intersection of IL 38 and Randall Road, about 40 miles west of downtown Chicago. Anchored by now-defunct Joseph Speiss & Company, an Elgin-based department store which went out of business entirely in 1996, and K-Mart, St. Charles Mall also had a main enclosed hallway of stores connecting the two anchors and shorter side hallways leading out to the main entrances along IL 38.

1991 ushered in the death blow for St. Charles Mall, as a much larger mall opened across town on the east side of St. Charles. Charlestowne Mall, anchored by JCPenney, Marshalls, Carson Pirie Scott, and Kohls, quickly became the dominant mall for suburban and exurban areas in the Fox River Valley in western DuPage and eastern Kane counties and beyond. With two levels and one million square feet, Charlestowne debuted outside of St. Charles Mall’s league and immediately drew shoppers away from it. At the same time, Joseph Spiess declared bankruptcy in 1991, unable to compete with the more modern and popular emerging chains by then; the entire chain folded in 1996. By 1995, St. Charles Mall gave up and shuttered completely, yielding to the emerging presence of Charlestowne Mall and the box retail/strip mall boom along Randall Road to the north and south of it.

By 2000, we discovered St. Charles Mall randomly while exploring the Chicago area and were surprised it had been abandoned for 5 years despite the fact it was in the middle of the most prime emerging retail strip in the western suburbs. Today, Randall Road is a major retail strip and thoroughfare all the way from Crystal Lake in the north to North Aurora in the south, with many millions of square feet of strip malls and big box, including 3 trendy ‘lifestyle’ centers. Nearly all of this strip is less than 10 years old, and much if it is even newer. The blighted St. Charles Mall shell was an eyesore amid this booming success and finally it met the wrecking ball in 2002. Today, the site of St. Charles Mall is an empty field despite promises of turning it into an auto mall.

In a rather funny twist of irony, one of these ‘lifestyle’ centers, Geneva Commons, opened practically across the street from the site of St. Charles Mall in 2003. Featuring stores such as Anthropologie, J. Jill, Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel, which typically locate in enclosed super-regional malls, Geneva Commons is an uncreative, aesthetic failure of a place. The stores are organized mostly in a linear pattern – like a strip mall – and fronted by a giant parking lot, with a cluster of smaller service-oriented merchants and chain restaurants near the main entrance. The rear of the center behind the strip mall is completely disused, and it is entirely unfriendly to pedestrians who would want to walk around. But why would they, considering there is no communal focus or public gathering space whatsoever. Developers, there’s nothing new about this type of suburban development. The only difference between it and the 1950s-era strip malls are the names of the stores. Stop trying to rebrand the decades-old concept of the strip mall into anything more than it is – a boring row of stores and a giant parking lot. Since its debut in 2003, Geneva Commons has been stealing thunder from enclosed malls like Charlestowne, and possibly even other malls like Stratford Square and Fox Valley Center which are further afield.

I took these pictures in July 2001, after about 6 years of the mall being abandoned. Since the mall was only open for about 15 years and successful for only about 10, I’d guess all the decor is original. I wish I would’ve gone in the door that was open for whatever reason and gotten more interior pics. Also check out the old Spiess logo visible at the rear of the mall; it’s the only one I’ve ever seen. In addition, go see the demolition pictures posted by Mike Mustard in 2002.

The following 3 images are vintage photos taken by John Gallo in the early 1980s, probably not long after the mall opened.

North Park Mall; Villa Park, Illinois

In January 2006 the Goodwin Williams Group of Chicago released a document outlining the current and future development environment in Villa Park, Illinois. In their findings, they noted Villa Park is a mature suburb 18 miles west of downtown Chicago, with a population of 22,000 and an income level near that of adjacent suburbs like Addison but lower than that of Elmhurst and Lombard. They also noted that Villa Park is the geographic center of the entire Chicagoland metropolitan area with easy access to several interstates, including I-355, I-294, I-88, and I-290. In addition, there are two major east-west commercial arteries which bring commuters and residents alike through Villa Park from outer suburbia/exurbia to the west, IL 38 and IL 64. Also, the study outlined there are two commercial centers to Villa Park, both along a former railroad which has been abandoned and removed. One of these centers lays claim to having the first enclosed mall in the world, opening in 1926 and connecting four shops. We’ll let our readers decide that one. The largest shopping center, however, is the North Park Mall along Route 64 on the northern edge of the village.

Like many smaller, enclosed neighborhood malls in Chicagoland, the 340,000 square-foot North Park Mall was never a regional draw like its nearby monster cousins Yorktown Center and Oakbrook Center, at 1 and 2 million square feet, respectively. Instead, it was a collection of local and national stores drawing predominantly from the collection of post-WWII suburbs in eastern DuPage County. In terms of size, North Park is similar to other former enclosed neighborhood malls in the area which have since bit the dust: St. Charles Mall in St. Charles, Washington Square Mall in Homewood, Meadows Town Mall in Rolling Meadows, Forest Park Mall in Forest Park, and numerous others. The one major difference between North Park Mall and these others is that North Park is still open for business and has been virtually unchanged by current retail trends of disenclosure and repurposing – for now, anyway.

We aren’t quite sure when North Park Mall originally opened, but that’s what our peanut gallery is for. We also aren’t quite sure of the original anchors, but we do know that at some point K-Mart flanked the west side and JCPenney flanked the east side. K-Mart closed by 2000, and JCPenney had to have closed by March 2001 because that’s when Ames opened a store there during their brief re-introduction folly into the Chicagoland area before their demise less than a year later. Ames announced it was leaving Chicago in November 2001 and all stores were liquidated by early 2002, including this one. Shortly thereafter, the former Ames there became a HOBO (Home Owners Bargain Outlet) location. In 2005, Staples opened on the west side of the mall, joining a box-sized flea market and a grocery store. There are also ancillary businesses such as Pet Supplies Plus, a women’s clothing outlet, a local sandwich shop, and a Chinese buffet, which have both interior access into the mall and exterior entrances facing North Ave/IL 64. These businesses seem to be holding up, but what about the interior portion of the mall itself?

The enclosed portion of North Park Mall connected the two east-west anchors and has a side hallway leading out to the main entrance facing North Avenue. There are currently very few, if any, remaining retailers who only have access into the mall and don’t have an exterior entrance as well and all of them are on the side hallway leading out to the main entrance. Once in the mall, there are many empty storefronts and kiosks, several of which feature spanish-only signage, for the derelict retail fan’s amusement. Although the enclosed portion of the mall remains open to walk through, both HOBO and the flea market are sealed off completely. On the day we visited in October 2006, the two security guards who were chatting in the middle of the empty mall had to wonder why we even went back there. During our first visit in 2000, the interior corridor had a few more stores and a nacho stand in the middle, but aside from that it has been virtually unchanged since.

North Park Mall’s decor is reminiscent of the 80s, which was probably when it was last partially remodeled: lots of neon strips along the ceiling in the side hallway and otherwise relatively spartan. It’s also notable how wide the main corridor’s hallway is. Wide enough, in fact, for a clustering of normal-sized stores to exist toward the HOBO end of the mall. Also interesting are how old the mall directories are, which still list JCPenney, K-Mart, and a slew of other long-since retired merchants.

Competition from regional mega-malls like Oakbrook Center, Yorktown Center, and even Woodfield Mall combined with the onslaught popularity of Big Box-anchored strip malls have put nails in the coffin for gems like North Park. It’s definitely one of the last of a dying breed, and its current condition proves this. How long will it be before it is flipped inside out or knocked down like many of Chicagoland’s other sMalls like it? Take a look at the photos featured here which were taken in October 2006, and leave some comments of your own. We’re specifically interested in the mall’s history. When did it open, what were the anchors, and when did it fall down the stairs and hit its head?

Indian Springs Mall; Kansas City, Kansas

Indian Springs Mall opened at the corner of State Road (U.S. 40) and I-635 on the west side of Kansas City, Kansas in 1971. The 700,000 square-foot mall looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when it opened over 35 years ago, save for many stores which have come and gone and very minor decorating updates. Unfortunately, more stores have gone than have come, and today Indian Springs Mall’s days are numbered as redevelopment plans have picked up steam.

For dated retail architecture lovers, Indian Springs Mall is an amazing dream come true. The two-level enclosed mall stretched from Montgomery Ward in the north to Dillard’s on the south end, with a JCPenney in the middle. Impressive high ceilings with windows flank the JCPenney anchor in the middle of the mall which has a long frontage. The lower level of the mall only exists from JCPenney to Dillard’s and not from JCPenney to Montgomery Ward, and feels like a strangely dark subterranean world because it is only open to the upper level intermittently. Several retail fans like us have created a film documentary of the mall and the circumstances surrounding its condition, which is to be released in Spring 2007. You can even view a trailer at their website.

Today, with zero anchors and a hybridized focus, Indian Springs is most definitely a dead mall. It actually died as a traditional retail mall about a decade ago, but like many others it has carried on with other purposes. In 1997, Dillard’s closed, and JCPenney also closed. The last anchor to close was Montgomery Ward, which closed when the entire chain folded in 2001. As the anchors left, so too did many of the typical national retailers. The mall was then repurposed to focus on attracting a mostly Hispanic retail market, and remains with this focus today as about a dozen Hispanic stores and restaurants have opened, many featuring spanish-only signage. In addition to the Hispanic focus, several spaces in the mall have been converted to office use. The large former JCPenney space was retenanted to the Kansas City School District in recent years, which runs their entire operation from within the mall. The former Dillard’s space has been used by the U.S. Postal Service as a customer service center. In addition, several programs featuring humanities and the arts operate at Indian Springs as rent is low and space is plentiful. Also, the mall’s name was tweaked at some point during repositioning from Indian Springs Mall to Indian Springs Marketplace.

In 2006, the Kansas City government got tired of Indian Springs and decided it was time to assign it a blighted status, much to the chagrin of the mall’s owners and remaining tenants. As the city sought a developer to tear down the property and replace it with The Next Big Thing, mall owners have sued the city to challenge the blighted status. Also, as of January 2007 the Kansas City Schools are mulling over where they will move once the mall is torn down.

So why did Indian Springs fail? I suspect a combination of over-malling in the Kansas City area in general, the erosion of the local economy of KCKS, and competition from dominant super-regionals such as Oak Park Mall several miles south in Overland Park killed the chances for Indian Springs’ success. As redevelopment and razing of the structure seems inevitable, we are reminded of how fast many enclosed centers like this one are disappearing. Better catch it while you can. The pictures here were taken in April 2006, but also check out the mall’s aerial photos on Microsoft Virtual Earth.

Muscatine Mall; Muscatine, Iowa

Muscatine, Iowa, which bills itself the ‘Pearl of the Mississippi’, is a small city of about 25,000 residents which lies between the Quad Cities and Iowa City and about 15 miles south of I-80. Like many small upper Mississippi river towns, Muscatine has a rich manufacturing heritage, and is also chock full of scenic beauty and traditional Americana.

The main shopping area of Muscatine, including the mall, is located near the intersection of Park Avenue (Business 61) and the US 61 Bypass on the north side of town. I suspect, though, that many people from Muscatine and the surrounding areas also shop in Iowa City at Coral Ridge Mall and at both Northpark and Southpark Malls in the Quad Cities, all of which are regional/super regional malls and no more than 30-45 minutes away. Muscatine Mall opened in 1971, predating the enclosed malls in the Quad Cities by several years and Coral Ridge Mall near Iowa City by 27 years. In fact, Muscatine Mall enjoyed relative success well after all of the competition emerged, not going downhill until around 2002.

We’re missing some information about the earlier years of Muscatine Mall, but we know it was anchored by Wal Mart, Von Maur, and JCPenney by the late-1980s. Ancillary stores around that time included B. Dalton, Walgreens, Musicland, Radio Shack, and Foot Locker, around 50 stores in all.

Big changes came in the late 1990s and early 2000s, however, beginning with the departure of the north anchor, Wal-Mart, in 1997. However, in 1998, Menards swooped in and took the empty space, making Muscatine Mall one of the few malls anchored by a home improvement retailer. Soon after, Von Maur left the south anchor spot vacant, only to be replaced by Staples. In 1999, a redevelopment plan was announced by Landau & Heyman, Muscatine Mall’s owners, which would flip the inside out and remove the enclosed portion of the mall. However, this never happened. By the year 2000, the mall had transitioned from traditional to non-traditional, with an uncertain future. In 2002, both Staples and Walgreens called it quits and the south anchor once again became vacant, only to be replaced by Elder-Beerman in 2003.

Unfortunately, having 3 solid anchors was not enough to sustain Muscatine Mall’s success, and stores began exiting en masse around the same time Staples pulled out. Today, Muscatine Mall is home to only a handful of stores, most of which have exterior entrances only. The enclosed corridor is barren except for the Plaza Theaters, a Time Out arcade, GNC, a Christian book store, a few other stores and the entrance into JCPenney, which is at the back of the mall. The frustration from locals is evident even from teens who don’t wish to drive to Iowa City or to Davenport to shop and hang out at the mall.

In July 2006 Landau & Heyman sold the mall to a group of local businessmen, and in December 2006 minutes from a Muscatine City Council meeting indicated they were seeking to create a TIF for the mall redevelopment. As of February 2007, work is underway on the north entrance of the mall near Menards, and it is currently closed off. Mall owners claim several national retailers are interested in the mall post-renovation. Also, Menards is leaving the mall for newer digs nearby in 2008. What will become of Muscatine Mall? Will plans for redevelopment some 8 years in the making finally come to light and save the mall? Unlike many dead malls, it’s certainly possible. Leave your comments and messages concerning Muscatine Mall below. The photos were taken February 18, 2007.

Blue Ridge Mall; Kansas City, Missouri

Opened in 1958 at the corner of U.S. 40 and I-70 in east Kansas City, Blue Ridge Mall was a major shopping center anchored by The Jones Store, JCPenney, and Montgomery Ward. Once the fourth largest mall in the Kansas City area, Blue Ridge Mall slid into a quick decline and today is nothing more than a Wal-Mart Supercenter with a few outparcels. The story is interesting and even somewhat controversial, so read on.

The mall was enclosed in the 1970s following a national trend to enclose large, existing open-air centers in North America, and it also expanded as JCPenney moved into a new location. The newly enclosed mall was well received, despite competition from both nearby Independence Center in the mid-1970s and Bannister Mall, which opened in 1980. Success at Blue Ridge Mall during the 1970s and 1980s was at least partly due to its highly visible location with impressive frontage on I-70.

However, the fate of Blue Ridge changed dramatically during the 1990s. The changing demographics of the area surrounding the mall combined with a general trend favoring only large, super-regional centers left Blue Ridge with more vacancies than ever before. One of the worst blows occurred in 1997 with the closure of the largely popular Woolworth’s store as that chain folded. According to a deadmalls.com submittal, by 1999 the mall had lost many stores; however, all three anchor stores remained open by 2000.

Although Blue Ridge Mall declined dramatically during the 1990s, the first few years of the new millenium proved to seal its fate. In late 2000, Montgomery Ward closed up shop around the same time the entire chain closed. Then, in 2001, JCPenney closed, prompting mall management to think about massive renovations to save the troubled center. MBS Mall Investor-98 LLC, who owned the mall since 1998, contracted plans for the renovation. It was to feature a hybridized enclosed-outdoor combination, retaining most of the old enclosed space but complementing it with new exterior frontage facing I-70, where 216,000 cars pass daily. During the planning process, they also added non-traditional tenants to the mall, including a 97-table dinner theatre and a 91,000 square-foot antique mall. That’s a lot of antiques. In addition, they eagerly announced a national sporting goods and outdoor-supply chain were both interested in space at the renovated Blue Ridge Mall.

Sadly (and rather mysteriously), the ambitious renovation plans disappeared completely after being announced in 2001, which is very similar to what happened at nearby Bannister Mall. This caused many more stores to become frustrated and leave. Finally, The Jones Store called it quits in 2003, leaving Blue Ridge Mall anchorless. Like a car without wheels, the future of Blue Ridge by this point was rather grim, with only Applebee’s and a few stores hanging on.

The following year, in 2004, Blue Ridge Mall’s owners got in bed with Wal-Mart and announced they were going to demolish the entire mall and build a shiny new Wal-Mart Supercenter, while developing some of the outparcels and the whole shebang. But they would only do this once they secured a TIF from Kansas City to redevelop the blighted property. Hmm. And so it goes, I guess.

And so it went. In February 2005, they got their TIF and demolition began in Fall 2005. By early 2006, the former mall was a pile of rubble (with a huge rat problem), and the new Wal-Mart was up and running in January 2007. At least it’s a “green” Wal-Mart, meaning the urinals don’t waste water and the store uses renewable energy, creates less waste and sells products that sustain our resources and environment. That makes me feel better about the tons of diesel fuel they use every day, among other things…

At any rate, the mall is gone now, but lucky for y’all we’ve preserved it here on the interweb for future posterity. The pictures were taken in April 2001. Check out the decor, including the awesome vintage Jones Store scripted logo. The middle of the mall was renovated at some point, probably during the late 80s or early 90s, but the outside of the mall was as old as ever. Also, check out Rod Shelley’s cool demolition pictures. As always, feel free to add your own opinions and if possible, more information about the mall itself.

Bannister Mall; Kansas City, Missouri

The fountains here are still running, but for how much longer?

UPDATE 5/31/07: The mall has closed permanently.

Our first post from Kansas City focuses on a one-million square-foot behemoth of broken dreams. Opened in 1980, the two-level Bannister Mall is located at the interchange between I-435 and Bannister Road in southeast Kansas City. Once a poster mall for success and the center of retailing for the whole area, Bannister quickly slid into trouble and today is on life support. While many respectable retailers remain, the majority of them are local and some are transient. Most importantly, the last anchor at Bannister left the beleagured center in March 2006. As we attempt to interrogate why this occurred, we can start with understanding the history of the mall.

The decor and layout of Bannister Mall feature a virtually unchanged design from the mall’s opening in 1980. There are many wooden adornments such as the railings, and the floor and fountains sport brownish-red tiles. There are also numerous trees and planters throughout the mall, flanked with wood trim. Also unique to Bannister are several modern art-like sculptures at the two “center court” areas throughout the long, two-level corridor connecting the former Sears on the south end to the former Jones Store on the north. Speaking of the Jones Store, Bannister’s location featured an old cursive logo with a wooden store facade which is still visible in labelscar form. Finally, there is a large, mostly vacant food court on the upper level near the Jones Store on the west side. Check out the pictures for more decor detail.

When Bannister Mall debuted in 1980, the Kansas City Star featured several full-page advertisements inviting would-be patrons to join in the opening festivities. Bannister was the first KC Metro mall which had four anchors: Jones Store, Macy’s, Sears, and JCPenney. In 1986, Macy’s became Dillards as Macy’s left the Kansas City market, but it affected the mall little. Bannister soldiered on successful through the balance of the 1980s, but the 1990s brought a long, arduous decline. According to an article on deadmalls.com, some in-line stores at Bannister during its success included: Petland, KB Toys, Musicland, Pretzel Time, Saturday Matinee, Kinder Photo, Tiny Treasures (a store for little girls), Things Remembered, Mr. Bulky’s (candy), Lady Foot Locker, Foot Locker, two Claires locations, several Jewelry stores, Kids Foot Locker, Waldenbooks and B Dalton.

Although Bannister’s decline began in the early 1990s, it didn’t reach severity until later in the decade, culminating in the departure of many in-line retailers and finally JCPenney during the Summer of 2000. As early as February 1998 there were as many as 15 empty storefronts at Bannister Mall. Then, the movie theatres closed because of too many fights. In addition, more crimes were reported including petty larceny, grand theft auto, and even armed robbery. In 2001, TIAA-CREF eked out a deal for redevelopment between Bass Pro Shops and Bannister Mall which would place one of the outlet’s glorified bait shops within the declining mall. Hopes of resurrection envigorated the outlook of Bannister, but by the end of 2004 the deal collapsed and the store relocated to Independence. Also, in 2002, Dillards closed, leaving Bannister with only two anchors: Sears and Jones Store.

Following the Bass Pro debacle, in 2003 exasperated owner TIAA-CREF sold Bannister Mall to a Texas businessman by the name of Stanley Spigel. Around the same time, local government officials developed a plan to locate a massive mass-transit center near the mall. The same year, Spigel bought both the vacant Dillards and JCPenney stores, and promised to donate the vacant JCPenney space to a non-profit organization and even to give it windows. There was hope for Bannister yet, even if it became a hybridized retail/office conglomeration. However, as with most attempts at salvaging a dying mall by adding non-retail components, this plan has failed or at least has yet to come to fruition. In early 2005, the Jones Store closed and in March 2006 Sears finally closed, leaving Bannister Mall anchorless, essentially a car without wheels.

Today, Bannister Mall is a forgotten jewel in a depressed landscape. In 2006, around 3000 jobs left the Bannister area as the federal government relocated them elsewhere in Kansas City. Many strip malls around Bannister are troubled as well, and in August 2006 Wal-Mart Supercenter closed its location near Bannister Mall to relocate at the former site of Blue Ridge Mall, several miles north. The decline of this once-prosperous retail neighborhood is extensive, as people continue to shop in Lee’s Summit, Independence, or in Kansas and ignore the Bannister area.

Despite these problems, there are still several dozen in-line merchants still operating inside Bannister Mall. With some exceptions, most of the stores inside Bannister today are local and transient, and many keep nonstandard hours. There is also a flea market operating in the former Dillards/Macys location; the stores in the mall would certainly fare better if an actual anchor existded. In addition, Bannister Mall has been renamed according to one article in the Kansas City Business Journal – to Three Trails Village, signifying the three wagon trails which converged here during pioneer days, including the famed Oregon Trail.

What do you think will become of Bannister Mall? Will it remain fallow until it eventually closes for good with no redevelopment initiative, or will something save it? Leave your experiences and general comments here. The pictures here were taken in 2001 and 2006.

2006:

2001:

Lake Forest Plaza Mall; New Orleans, Louisiana

Hey kiddos. I’m sorry about the lack of new verbiage around here lately, but one of us is traveling (not me) and the other has been severely overworked (sadly, I must raise my hand). If you’re interested in paying me a living wage to drive around, take pictures of malls, and research their history, please submit your proposals using the comment feature. Please, no recruiters. No phone calls about this job. EOE.

It’s about 20 degrees here in New England, so I’m going to augment my “laziness” with another trip faraway to the warmer American South. Here is a gripping set of photos of New Orleans’ Lake Forest Plaza Mall, accompanied by some historical information, all courtesy of our friend John Espiau, who gave us a nice retrospective of Houston’s Almeda Mall a few weeks back. Lake Forest Plaza was an already-dying mall that was killed off completely due to Hurricane Katrina in September of 2005, and as such its death and current state are both a bit unique, and even more dramatic than usual. John tells the rest:

Lake Forest Plaza (The Plaza) in New Orleans was opened in 1974 in the rapidly growing east side of town. The original anchors were Maison Blanche, D.H. Holmes, and Sears. The mall featured a diamond shape design and huge ceilings. In 1985 a Mervyn’s anchor was added. This mall also featured the only ice-skating rink in the New Orleans area. In the 1970’s and early 1980’s this mall rivaled the other two powerhouse malls in the area Lakeside and Oakwood. Then the oil bust happened in 1986 and the New Orleans area started to decline especially in New Orleans east where The Plaza is located. In 1989 the mall completed a renovation that was expected to freshen up the dark design inside of the mall. This actually hurt sales even more because they removed the ice rink and installed a food court. Crime in New Orleans east was also getting out of hand, further decreasing traffic. D.H. Holmes also became Dillard’s when the company sold out in 1989. In 1993 Sears closed up their location at the mall. By 1996 the mall was in a deep decline and Dillard’s closed without any warning. The same week Mervyn’s started a closing sale despite pleas from the mayor Marc Morial to stay. In 1999 Maison Blanche became Dillard’s after they sold out and by this time the mall was barely 50% occupied. Service Merchandise next to The Plaza closed as well in 1999. A new cinema was opened outside the mall in 2003 called The Grand. The mall struggled on losing most of the corporate chains and by 2005 only about 30 inline stores remained. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 inundated the property with 7 feet of standing water for weeks and ruined the entire mall. The mall also sustained a good bit of wind damage. One year after the hurricane the property is being partially demolished to make way for a new Lowe’s. The plan is to demolish the entire mall and redevelop the property as a mixed use development with the Lowe’s and The Grand Cinema as anchors. Dillard’s has not announced if it will ever return to the site, and with only 20% of the pre-Katrina population back in the area Dillard’s would not want to return anytime soon. This mall was on its way out before Katrina and demolition is the only current solution to bring this property back to life. The redevelopment of The Plaza will be interesting to see and much needed to a community in need of businesses.

The Mall at Mill Creek; Secaucus, New Jersey

Smaller, ancillary malls have long been a favorite of mine, in a large part because they seem to be at far greater risk of redevelopment than larger malls, and also because many of them have not been substantially updated.

Another major reason is that I like the idea of a “community mall,” and am not sure why it hasn’t worked better in the United States. Suburban areas without a traditional downtown are ripe for a smaller enclosed mall that contains a mixture of stores selling essentials, such as a discount department store, an off-price fashion retailer, several restaurants, a pharmacy, service businesses (haircut places, cell phone dealers), as well as community gathering spaces like bookstores or coffee shops. When I find a mall that seems to actually achieve this balance, it’s a cause for celebration.

When I first visited the Mall at Mill Creek in Secaucus, New Jersey, in the center of the Meadowlands just 5 miles west of Manhattan, it was the summer of 2000 and the mall seemed to be doing marvelously as a smaller, community-oriented center. With about 400,000 square feet of space, it was no monster, but with anchors like Kohl’s and Stop & Shop, it drew a rather large local clientele from the geographically-isolated, inner-ring city of Secaucus and was almost completely tenanted.

Fast forward to November, when I finally went back, and see for yourself the state in which I found the mall. I wasn’t actually surprised to see it so sparse, and what seemed to be charmingly unrenovated in 2000 seems somewhat bleak and brutal in 2006. If anything, I expected this, because this is the fate that has befallen almost all enclosed malls of this size and type in the past six years. Clearly The Mall at Mill Creek is no exception: it’s pretty safe to call it a dead mall now.

There are a few interesting things I want to point out about The Mall at Mill Creek:

One of its anchors is a Stop & Shop grocery store, with its lone entrance facing into the interior of the mall. Note all of the senior citizens lined up in the mall with their shopping carts in one of these photos.
The mall is part of a larger complex owned by Hartz Retail, called Harmon Meadow. Across the highway from the mall (but linked via internal roadways) is a large, outdoor mixed use complex that includes several hotels, a movie theatre, restaurants, more stores, and several office buildings. This center appears to have been developed in the 1980s (or even the 1970s), long before the current “lifestyle center” craze, and at the moment appears to be faring far better than the mall itself.
The demographics of both the mall and the area appear to skew somewhat older than is typical, which may have contributed to the mall’s downfall. These pictures were taken on a Saturday afternoon, and a large portion of the patrons in the mall at the time were senior citizens. Similarly, Secaucus is a classic example of one of New York City’s older suburbs, densely packed with street after street of brick row houses adorned with shiny metal awnings. It’s charming, but also very mature, and it’s possible (and even likely) that a large portion of the population is no longer the mall-going crowd.

I don’t know much about the history of the mall, so if you can fill us in, please comment away.

Six Flags Mall; Arlington, Texas

With a population of over 360,000, Arlington, Texas is one of the country’s megasuburbs. An advantageous location sandwiched directly between Dallas and Fort Worth combined with a national trend of growth in sun belt regions has given Arlington an impressive 40% increase in population since 1990. In 1950, Arlington’s population was just 7,000. This explosive growth is similar to the creation of many other megasuburbs across North America: Mississauga, Ontario, Anaheim, California, Plano, Texas, Aurora, Colorado, and Naperville, Illinois, just to name a few. All of these cities share common threads, having been created in the past fifty years and consisting almost entirely of suburban sprawl and the elements which go with it. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of residents, Arlington is also home to the Texas Rangers baseball team, the University of Texas – Arlington, a large General Motors assembly facility, and Six Flags Over Texas with Hurricane Harbor. Also, the Dallas Cowboys plan to relocate to Arlington from their stadium in nearby Irving.

The history of modern retailing in Arlington stems from the construction of two enclosed malls along TX 360 between I-20 and I-30, Forum 303 and Six Flags Mall, around 1970 when Arlington had only 90,000 residents. Forum 303 was located at the intersection of TX 360 and TX 303. It floundered and failed during the 1990s after construction of a new mall about five miles away, The Parks at Arlington, in 1988. During the late 1990s, Forum 303 was retenanted into an outlet/discount mall, but that also failed and closed permanently in 2005. The current fate of Forum 303 mall is up in the air, but it will probably be bulldozed and rezoned for industrial use as much of the area around it is industrial and not retail commercial.

Six Flags Mall directory in Arlington, TX Six Flags Mall is located just two miles north of Forum 303, closer to I-30 and the Six Flags Park. Although it has enjoyed more success than its neighbor to the south, Six Flags Mall has not lived up to the successes of top tier malls like The Parks at Arlington. With a name like Six Flags Mall, one almost expects an exciting theme-park of a mall, not a dated collection of mostly local stores barely holding its own. The most notable and interesting feature about the mall’s decor are the neon-covered archways placed at regular interviews throughout the mall. The rest of the decor appears to be the result of a late 80s or early 90s renovation.

As for anchors, Six Flags Mall currently has only one. In 1997, JCPenney left the mall and in 2002 Dillards and Sears called it quits. This left the mall with only Foley’s, which closed in January 2004. However, in 2005 there was a reprieve as Dillards returned to Six Flags, this time moving from Forum 303 just down the road. Despite the anchor dearth, Six Flags Mall has made some attempts at a continued survival. Replacing the former JCPenney space are an antique mall, USA Baby, and even a college. Interestingly, both levels of the former JCPenney are used, including the original escalators from the store. Take a look at the pictures below for this.

In my opinion, further revitalization needs to occur before Six Flags Mall can be successful again. Its dated storefronts and decor are not going to woo shoppers from Arlington’s successful Parks mall, which is 10 minutes away. Furthermore, the sites around Six Flags Mall are not conducive to retail as most are industrial parks; in fact, a large GM Assembly plant is across TX 360 from the mall. Most of the category killers and new retail development are along the Interstate 20 corridor on the south side of Arlington. Even though Six Flags theme park and the baseball park are very close to Six Flags Mall, it doesn’t appear to be helping and before long, Six Flags Mall will go the way of Forum 303.

We visited Six Flags Mall in July 2005 and took the pictures below. Feel free to leave some comments of your own.