Macon Mall (What Happened) (Atlanta, Columbus: sale, foreclosure, lease)

[HephBlythe]

I remember going to the Macon Mall about 7 years ago and was impressed with it. It was the largest outside Atlanta and blew the other second tier cities out of the water. I visited the mall last week and to my surprise there are allot of closed stores and more going out of business. I remember Brookstone, Bebe, Banana Republic, Parisians, and many other stores that were only found in the Atlanta market were gone. Now it is a bunch of shoe stores and mom and pop type stores. with the upscale clientele that live in Macon, what is going on with the mall? surely when the economy picks up the mall will reposition itself in the south east and give the Augusta Mall and the Mall of Georgia a run for its money. Where is P.F. Changs, Apple, and other stores at the Macon Mall? Starbucks is even leaving the Mall? How did this mall go from being so upscale to what it is today? Cant Macon support better stores?

[pickleswanson]

It is primarily because of the area that surrounds the mall.

Macon has very distinct social classes that go way beyond skin tone or money. It is the largest city of its type that I know of where the social elite want to keep their supposedly high-class appearances truly high class even if it means closing the mall. The money and power is very poorly distributed in Macon. An extremely tight grasp is held on everything like a power hungry kingdom.

The city and its people are played much like a game of chess. The nicest of commodities will always follow the social elite there. Macon has a very strong Stepfordish sector, if you will. This group of people have transferred all of the money and power of a once strong city into the suburbs of its northern county limits. Left its core to die in hopes of complete disembowelment to later reap the rewards of a failed, extremely cheap and disposable core to tear down and rebuild once the local peasant population realizes that they cannot live without their kings and queens to their north.

So there you have it. It is not that the mall is not there anymore. You just did not keep track of what the social elite wanted and got. Take I-75 north to triangular intersection of Bass Road , Hwy 87 and I-75 and you will again find your crown jewel.

[ATLCOL1]

Simple:

1) Bad location
2) Too much retail in Macon too fast
3) Crime
4) Malls are old and "out-of-style" (that's why Life-style Centers are built)
5) Economy

Macon is way and I mean way over saturated with new retail. That is the reason that a lot of the stores have closed and moved to the newer developments. Macon is too small to support multiple stores.

[powerplay]

Originally Posted by ATLCOL1

Simple:

1) Bad location
2) Too much retail in Macon too fast
3) Crime
4) Malls are old and "out-of-style" (that's why Life-style Centers are built)
5) Economy

Macon is way and I mean way over saturated with new retail. That is the reason that a lot of the stores have closed and moved to the newer developments. Macon is too small to support multiple stores.

I agree.....Columbus has had even bigger problems with the above and the saturation factor has now reached even North Crossing with several retail and eatery closings scheduled in the next 3-6 months.

Word is around town that large layoffs are expected at Aflac,Synovus and TSYS as well....and retail stores are cut to the bone.
They just let 10 percent of Pratt Whitney go last week.
Why talk about commercial growth when nobody is buying...

[yerocal]

Originally Posted by ATLCOL1

Simple:

1) Bad location
2) Too much retail in Macon too fast
3) Crime
4) Malls are old and "out-of-style" (that's why Life-style Centers are built)
5) Economy

Macon is way and I mean way over saturated with new retail. That is the reason that a lot of the stores have closed and moved to the newer developments. Macon is too small to support multiple stores.

Macon being to small to support duplicate stores is not the real reason stores are closing in Macon...... Most of the retail stores that have closed in Macon is because most of these companies are facing Bankruptcy due to a troubled economy and they are closing to store to restructure financially and this is not something thats happening just in Macon, but in cities all cross this country even in Atlanta as well.... Goody's just announced a couple of days of it filed bankruptcy and that they are closing most all of the Georgia stores even the Macon store and the 6-7 six stores in metro Atlanta are closing too......

[powerplay]

Originally Posted by yerocal

Macon being to small to support duplicate stores is not the real reason stores are closing in Macon...... Most of the retail stores that have closed in Macon is because most of these companies are facing Bankruptcy due to a troubled economy and they are closing to store to restructure financially and this is not something thats happening just in Macon, but in cities all cross this country even in Atlanta as well.... Goody's just announced a couple of days of it filed bankruptcy and that they are closing most all of the Georgia stores even the Macon store and the 6-7 six stores in metro Atlanta are closing too......

Good post.......I agree
How many cities the size of Columbus have 5 Walmarts and a Sams Club?
Talk about oversaturation....and they promised to build a 6th one on Victory Drive but once again the city was shammed.
At least Macon has I-75 which allows them to catch some money from interstate travelers etc.
The pro Columbus posters on here walk around with their chests out when they get a store or restaurant that the rest of the state has had for years...it is hilarious!!
Local city employers are also finding out that they can no longer get top shelf employees for cheap and Columbus is losing its best trained workers to out of town companies.

[HephBlythe]

Do you for see the Macon Mall coming back to life like the Augusta Mall did? 3 years ago the Augusta Mall was in the same shape Macon Mall is in today. How can the Macon Mall be as successful as the Augusta Mall?

[yerocal]

Originally Posted by HephBlythe

Do you for see the Macon Mall coming back to life like the Augusta Mall did? 3 years ago the Augusta Mall was in the same shape Macon Mall is in today. How can the Macon Mall be as successful as the Augusta Mall?

Oh yes, thats definitely more than likely what the Macon Mall will do once the ownership and sale is in place...as well as to compete with the new mall and all of the huge new retail developments in Macon. The Macon Mall news article stated that anchor stores will probably change there locations in the mall...What i think will happen is Macy will lease the the Old Dillard's store as a Macy's Clothing Store and turn it current store into a Macy's Home store as they have done at other malls. Hopefully the Movie Tavern theater will still come into the Old Parisian store and maybe Burlington coat factory will move from the old West gate Mall into the Macon Mall and the west gate Mall should be demolished for new development.

[SharkGirl]

The last I knew, the Macon Mall was in foreclosure. Here's one of the articles in The Macon Telegraph: Experts: Mall foreclosure sale could mean no change - Business - Macon

Come to think of it, Eisenhower looks like a foreclosure/bankrupt/massive ghost town in the making.

[yerocal]

Originally Posted by SharkGirl

The last I knew, the Macon Mall was in foreclosure. Here's one of the articles in The Macon Telegraph: Experts: Mall foreclosure sale could mean no change - Business - Macon

Come to think of it, Eisenhower looks like a foreclosure/bankrupt/massive ghost town in the making.

Very Funny.....................