How did your mall die? (largest, downtown, equal, park)
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The mall in my town died because the city council denied an out-of-town LA developer to have a two department store mall, so he decided to build a one department store mall with a hotel and it failed. The downtown association sparked on the concern two department stores would hurt downtown business. The original mall was shut down in 1998. It was built in 1986 and lasted 12 short years. The mall was redeveloped into a big box center anchored by one department store and a hotel still.
The developer tried again to build an outdoor mall, which would have succeeded, but the downtown association again said it would kill downtown small local businesses. The plans were re-drawn for the outdoor mall to be a big box center.
The county now only has an outlet mall, and the county over by 30 minutes away has an okay mall.
Ask for the downtown, many small local businesses have been driven out for chain restaurants or chain stores to replace them by increase in rents. The downtown is now like a pseudo mall (just add a department store and it could be a mall), the downtown has 20 something national retailers.
The downtown association tricked people in driving away out of town developers wanting to build a mall and ironically becoming it's own pseudo mall developed by out of town developers.
I don't think you are talking about the Santa Maria Town Center, but man that place is depressing. My friend's little brother got stabbed in the parking garage a few years ago, I remember a few years before that some dude got a meat cleaver to the head while he was working at the Chinese Buffet inside of it. Best thing about it is the Orange Julius (if that is even still there).
Sounds like you are talking about some mall in SLO county.
I don't think you are talking about the Santa Maria Town Center, but man that place is depressing. My friend's little brother got stabbed in the parking garage a few years ago, I remember a few years before that some dude got a meat cleaver to the head while he was working at the Chinese Buffet inside of it. Best thing about it is the Orange Julius (if that is even still there).
Sounds like you are talking about some mall in SLO county.
Central Coast Mall. Had Gottschalk's, Pacific Suites, food court, and had plans originally for a JcPenney's instead of the hotel and a movie theater in the middle.
Movie theater went downtown. Pacific Suites became Embassey Suites. Gottschalk's is now Forever 21 which will soon become something else.
The only original mall store is Crushed Grape and Deli. I really do hope the new changes to the former mall site save that area. And some remodels to some building would be nice. That strip from Dollar Tree to Payless Shoes are just ugly 90s boxy buildings and there r two vacancies totally 10,000 sq. ft. I'd like to see Dollar Tree's building torn out and a couple restaurants put in and another clothing store to go where Le Spa was. I honestly don't know how Mike's Shoes and Merlo's Cutlery make it. Must be dirt cheap rent.
Central Coast Mall. Had Gottschalk's, Pacific Suites, food court, and had plans originally for a JcPenney's instead of the hotel and a movie theater in the middle.
Movie theater went downtown. Pacific Suites became Embassey Suites. Gottschalk's is now Forever 21 which will soon become something else.
The only original mall store is Crushed Grape and Deli. I really do hope the new changes to the former mall site save that area. And some remodels to some building would be nice. That strip from Dollar Tree to Payless Shoes are just ugly 90s boxy buildings and there r two vacancies totally 10,000 sq. ft. I'd like to see Dollar Tree's building torn out and a couple restaurants put in and another clothing store to go where Le Spa was. I honestly don't know how Mike's Shoes and Merlo's Cutlery make it. Must be dirt cheap rent.
Haha, I am preeeeetty sure my brother works in that shopping center.
We had the largest mall in America ever to close about 10 years ago. The neighborhood got bad and a newer bigger mall was built. The site is just an empty lot today as there's not much demand to build anything in that area anymore. Makes a good metaphor for a lot of what's wrong with urban planning in Ameica. The street it's on is even named American Way, which I find pretty funny.
Our mall was old and dated, the shops were lame, the cinema attached to it was so out of touch it didn't even have stadium seating and what seats it did have were all broken and nasty. When the food court closed down two years ago that was pretty much the death knell. We have new owners now and supposedly demolition starts this year with a shiny new mall going up in its place next year. Fingers crossed!
The mall in a neighboring city expanded their floor area by adding a second floor. Then Sears left the 'my' local mall and went to the expanded mall. And the local mall never recovered - that was about 25 years ago.
[of course, other factors may have been involved in the local mall's decline]
isn't 'dead mall' sort of a misnomer? because they look dead even when they were operating at their peak. if it weren't for the supersized storefront signage, they might be mistaken for a prison complex.
anyone watch the walking dead? when the survivors first came upon the prison complex I didn't realize it was a prison until they got closer to it. in the distance it appeared to be an abandoned shopping mall.
isn't 'dead mall' sort of a misnomer? because they look dead even when they were operating at their peak. if it weren't for the supersized storefront signage, they might be mistaken for a prison complex.
anyone watch the walking dead? when the survivors first came upon the prison complex I didn't realize it was a prison until they got closer to it. in the distance it appeared to be an abandoned shopping mall.
Watch Dawn of the Dead. Great zombie movie(sequal to Night of the Living Dead) and a bit of a commentary on mall-culture, which was peaking around the release of the film.
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