Century III Mall vacancy update

[Geeo]

Not to go down memory lane again, but here I go, anyway. Went to pick up some bar stools at a store (Sears, I think) in Century III in late 1983. On a Friday night. Must have been September or October, so not the Christmas season, yet. Couldn't find a place to park. Finally found a spot somewhere. Inside the mall, crowds everywhere. Food court packed. Lines of people on the escalators. That place was so crowded that it was hard to walk among all the people.

[that412]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

Personally, I don't think shopping malls have to die. What they need is to have more than just the four or five anchor stores opening to the outside, and better use of the land immediately surrounding the mall.

For a while, there was a trend in some smaller towns - and even a few larger ones (the disaster that is Peabody Place in Memphis comes to mind) to build a mall in the middle of a Downtown. In most places where this was attempted, it's turned out awful (I'm thinking of Lawton, OK in particular), but Mason City, Iowa seems to have managed to do a decent job integrating a legitimate mall into the urban fabric of the city without wrecking the historic business district. It's an interesting case study, for sure.

[captainmidnight]

Originally Posted by Geeo

I think we discussed some of the issues of the Century III area on another thread a while back. The biggest thing is the changed economy of southeastern Allegheny County. Don't forget that when Century III was planned and under construction in the 70s, there were still 4,000 jobs at National Tube in McKeesport, another few thousand at US Steel Duquesne, thousands at the Clairton Coke Works and Irvin plants, the Fisher Body plant, Continental Can, and Homestead Works still probably had several thousand workers. Plus all the ancillary jobs like vendors and suppliers to all the industries in that area. Those jobs paid middle class wages and people had disposable income. Those are all gone now, so the economy for which Century III Mall was built no longer exists.

This is true. The major employers and sources of income for the mall and related area business were mostly manufacturing based. GM had a plant in West Mifflin too, near the USS Irvin Plant. Of course, the GM plant is gone too.

USS is down to about 4,000 people employed in the area, including headquarters. I would say 30%-40% of that is the blue collar union manufacturing jobs. Back in the day, 4,000 people would probably be a low number of employees at just one of the plants let alone their entire Pittsburgh region presence. Sure, they still operate three plants but no where even close to staffing levels of even in the 1970s.

The Homestead Works plant employed thousands of middle-class jobs and this is now replaced by the Waterfront and all those low paying retail jobs. Probably most of those Homestead Works workers did not have a college degree while probably a good bit of the Waterfront retail workers do.. That is very scary, IMO.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by bmantz65

. Sure, they still operate three plants but no where even close to staffing levels of even in the 1970s.

The Homestead Works plant employed thousands of middle-class jobs and this is now replaced by the Waterfront and all those low paying retail jobs. Probably most of those Homestead Works workers did not have a college degree while probably a good bit of the Waterfront retail workers do.. That is very scary, IMO.

It was scary when it happened, for sure. Almost apocalyptic with the thousands of Pittsburgh area vamoosing out of the region, especially in the greater Mon Valley. And it wasn't US Steel and GM, LTV, Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh, numerous other firms that relied on the business.

But, it just takes a lot fewer people to make steel than it did back in the day, the production hasn't gone down nearly as much as the employment in the working plants with the new technology.

[Evergrey]

Sears Holdings just announced they will also be closing the K-Mart in Rochester.

Sears Holdings to close Kmart store in Rochester - Pittsburgh Business Times

[MissShona]

Originally Posted by bmantz65

The Homestead Works plant employed thousands of middle-class jobs and this is now replaced by the Waterfront and all those low paying retail jobs. Probably most of those Homestead Works workers did not have a college degree while probably a good bit of the Waterfront retail workers do.. That is very scary, IMO.

I doubt that the majority of the workers in the Waterfront live in Homestead/West Homestead/Munhall proper. Homestead benefits from the business taxes received from the Waterfront. Although, since the place opened in 1999, I really don't see how the cities are utilizing all this extra tax revenue.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by MissShona

I doubt that the majority of the workers in the Waterfront live in Homestead/West Homestead/Munhall proper. Homestead benefits from the business taxes received from the Waterfront. Although, since the place opened in 1999, I really don't see how the cities are utilizing all this extra tax revenue.

The majority of the mill workers who were employed at the Homestead Works didn't live in municipality either.


Even back in the day, before the automobile made travel easier, the bosses of the plant, Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Frick lived over in Homewood.

[Geeo]

The plant managers lived on the hill in company houses (I think they were called "Supervisors' mansions") behind the Carnegie Library in Munhall. Probably most of the workers lived in the towns until after World War II, when new housing was built over the hill in Munhall and West Mifflin. Many who came back from the war got their old jobs back and used the G.I. Bill of Rights to buy newer houses, which made it more affordable for them. It was the start of the post-war middle class prosperity (for a while, anyway).