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Places are building new malls though - they are just trending more towards the outdoors layout .... lifestyle centers or whatever they want to call them
Out here in the Phoenix metro most recent and planned malls are being built in this fashion ..... However, some of the largest malls and most popular malls are all inside (Scottsdale Fashion Center, Chandler Fashion Center, Arrowhead Mall, etc) ..... Some of these get expanded, remodeled, etc but will remain indoors.
In the past year or so two large outlet type malls have opened in the metro, both with the open layout and the open layout is very popular right now.
Personally I prefer it, but I really don't have an aversion to the indoor mall either as far as form/function - especially since it's a bit easier or more common out here to have multiple floors on the indoor malls and when you combine the stores with the footprint they pack a pretty strong punch
Its good to see that some new malls are being built since I feel despite some lifestyle changes, indoor malls still have a place. Sure I feel the slowdown was due to a combination of factors (recession, outdoor trend, big box stores, online shoppng trend), but it seems like those trends (especially the recession and big box stores) have passed and renovating, expanding, and even building some new malls are good again. One thing I'd prefer is for them to be more than just "fashion centers". Having a wide variety of merchandise and other services is what makes malls worth going. Building them near mass transit stations, within districts with lots of mixed-use housing (urban and suburban), and having good design are what's going to keep malls alive. Sadly for the Washington DC/Baltimore area, the last mall that was built in the area was Arundel Mills in 2000, and several have closed since then, with White Flint being the latest. This region is still embracing the lifestyle trend.
Dulles Town Center in Sterling, VA is 13 years old, but FWIW it's undergoing an expansion right now that was started last summer. The cold & icy weather lately has made it the place to go lately, especially for those who want a place to take a walk or meet friends for coffee. Parking is free, and they have plenty of spaces.
A few miles down the road, Village of Leesburg is a Town Center style open air mall. It was quite the place to be a few years ago but seems to be struggling this year (although it has the extremely Wegman's grocery as its anchor store). I was just there the other day, and there weren't many cars parked there. Nobody was out walking from store to store . Hopefully things will pick up for them when the weather gets nicer.
I agree that there have been very few shopping plazas of any sort built in the last 5 years due to the recession. This includes indoor malls, town center style outdoor malls, and even the large strip malls. Loudoun County has a few large shopping plazas that are part of housing developments that were under construction for several years, and then finally opened in the last few years. Not sure if that really counts. In Williamsburg, the Williamsburg Pottery Factory was rebuilt into a covered mall style. It had formerly been a series of buildings that you walked between. I'm not sure if that really counts either since all the sub-stores there are departments of the same large umbrella company.
Few indoor shopping malls have been built in the last five years because in the 1990's and 2000's, Simon, General Growth Properties and the other major shopping mall developers built far more shopping malls than were needed, or could be sustained, even without the recession.
Has there been a large (150 + stores) INDOOR Regional Shopping Mall built in any city in America in the last five years? If so, where is it and what is it called?
Many cities are moving to more of an open-air concept of shopping rather than enclosing the businesses. Malls are passe, but newfangled "town centers" are in.
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