Century 3 and the Declining South Hills

[neurodistortion]

Hazeleyes, unless your store is locally owned, you can always transfer to another mall. I haven't been to C3 in months but I talk to a number of people who work there and they tell me that it just gets worse by the day. Even during my last visit, I was shocked at the amount of vacancies in the mall, especially in the lower level corridor by Sears and the former Macy's Furniture Gallery. There must be 5 stores left in that section, everything else is gone. The food court still has a good number of tenants but there weren't many people sitting around eating. To add to the problem, the section near JCPenney is now starting to empty out, Dollar Tree is supposed to close by the end of the month and the Hallmark store across from it has been asked to move towards the center of the mall, which will leave that area with practically no stores.

[ditchdigger]

Originally Posted by bbrian12

the is a sonic going in on browns hill road, across the homestead high level bridge

There's an IHOP going in there. I haven't heard anything about a Sonic...

[PeterRabbit]

Pittsburgh Mills isn't doing much better than Century III. I go walking there and inside counted 160 stores with 45 covered up/vacant. The only mall demises I'm familiar with was East Hills Shopping Center, which I think was ruined by crime, and Eastland in North Versailles. I don't know why that one went under. Miracle Mile in Monroeville has looked shaky at times.

I agree with what others have said. Malls require too much of your time.

[neurodistortion]

I think Pittsburgh Mills will pick up someday... the fact that the economy is sour right now isn't helping and had contributed to the last dozen to fifteen stores to close up shop at the mall. When you count all the stores in the mall and the adjacent plaza, that puts the Mills at roughly an 80% occupancy rate, which isn't good but isn't bad either. Next to the mall at the Village retail shops, it is booming, so that's a sign that the mall still has a chance.

Century III is in a similar situation to the Mills but unlike the latter, C3 is in a declining shopping district. Route 51 is in dire need of rehabilitation.

[Hopes]

The Mills does have the advantage of being the only game in town. There's nowhere else to shop out that way. That area of Indiana Township and West Deer Township is just waiting to be developed for residential someday. That area could really expand. It's just interesting that a mall was built before hand; however, the mall's very existence might encourage growth in the area.

[neurodistortion]

Hopes, I should mention that when Rouse's Greengate Mall was in its development stages in the mid-1960s, it would take into account the potential growth of Hempfield Township decades into the future. What it didn't take into account though was that a competing mall would be built to the east of town just 10 years later. I believe the Mills and Zamias officials also had done research in the area and saw the potential of West Deer, Frazer and Indiana Townships before they went ahead and built the mall. Zamias had proposed building a two-level mall on that site since the early 1980s, which would've been comparable in size to Ross Park Mall. It didn't have the financing to build such a project though until the Mills stepped in years later.

[By~Tor]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

Pittsburgh Mills isn't doing much better than Century III. I go walking there and inside counted 160 stores with 45 covered up/vacant. The only mall demises I'm familiar with was East Hills Shopping Center, which I think was ruined by crime, and Eastland in North Versailles. I don't know why that one went under. Miracle Mile in Monroeville has looked shaky at times.

I agree with what others have said. Malls require too much of your time.

Pittsburgh Mills just recently took their housekeeping and security back "In-House", because they're cutting back.... just sayin'....