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I don't live in Charleston but something seems odd to me. The rest of the area seemed to have improved while the mall has gone downhill. You have the improvements to the river front, the addition of stores downtown, even the proximity of the Clay Center and Power Park. You would, or I would have thought all of this would have been a draw to the mall also.
Was it all corruption? A general different mindset from the heydays of the malls. (The Charleston Mall is hardly the only one struggling).
The common complaint I see is the amount of crime at the mall is a deterrent. Too many drug dealers, too many thugs, & too many homeless people begging for money. I’ve been going to the mall since day 1 & I’ve never had any negative interactions with anyone. I live in downtown Charleston so maybe my perspective is different from someone who lives outside the city. I work with people who have no idea where anything is in downtown Charleston because they refuse to go there. To them, there’s a comfort in being out at Southridge as opposed to being in the city. They come to Charleston to work but that’s it. They also feel the Clay Center is a waste and the library is unnecessary. I don’t think their attitude is uncommon.
I don’t want to make light of the crime concerns. Maybe it is an issue. I just don’t see Charleston as this disaster that it’s described to be. I always feel safe. Seems like a lot of descisions are being out of fear.
Growing up in the 70’s & 80’s, there was a feeling that Charleston was moving in a positive direction. Nothing could be further right now.
I'm not going to say that Charleston doesn't have a crime issue but I'm not sure it's as bad as many claim. For a city its size, perhaps the crime is high but when I worked in downtown Charleston, which was up until a few months ago, I never felt unsafe walking downtown. I'd walk to get lunch a few days a week with no issues and even after work I was more worried about walking to my car in the rain and getting wet.
I even remember riding the shuttle between Huntington and Charleston several years ago and felt safe waiting at the transit mall.
Regarding the CTC, sure I saw some homeless and 'shady' people walking around inside during my visits. Perhaps they were causing trouble I didn't see but if that's the case perhaps CTC should've been more proactive in having either real security patrol and remove. A senior citizen rent-a-cop can only do so much, which was not very much.
Is it too much to ask to just tear down the whole complex and try something new? Or we could have the first ever Walmart Super World! Includes residential units so patrons can live and shop there. A whole section can be a Mountain Dew themed tasting area. Think of the types of conventions that would bring across the street. People would drive from all hollers and hills to see our attraction.
Clearly kidding
Would be the highest per capita usage of rascals/electric scooters in the world.
The common complaint I see is the amount of crime at the mall is a deterrent. Too many drug dealers, too many thugs, & too many homeless people begging for money. I’ve been going to the mall since day 1 & I’ve never had any negative interactions with anyone. I live in downtown Charleston so maybe my perspective is different from someone who lives outside the city. I work with people who have no idea where anything is in downtown Charleston because they refuse to go there. To them, there’s a comfort in being out at Southridge as opposed to being in the city. They come to Charleston to work but that’s it. They also feel the Clay Center is a waste and the library is unnecessary. I don’t think their attitude is uncommon.
I don’t want to make light of the crime concerns. Maybe it is an issue. I just don’t see Charleston as this disaster that it’s described to be. I always feel safe. Seems like a lot of descisions are being out of fear.
Growing up in the 70’s & 80’s, there was a feeling that Charleston was moving in a positive direction. Nothing could be further right now.
I'm not in Charleston a lot so maybe I'm not a big of enough of a sample but I've not experienced any of that when I am. I love that the Clay Center is there. I go a few times to Power Park (I now prefer it to the high costs of MLB). I've wandered around downtown a time or two. My wife and daughter will be stopped at the mall today. I have no concerns.
The only time I noticed it being sketchy was in the evenings. Daytime at the mall during the week and on weekends seemed to be fine.
This is more of a failure whose blame rides with the mayor, the city and the owners.
Had the mall been kept fresh and modern with retailers that were attractive then it would not be in this mess. I travel all over the the Midwest and the southeast. The death of malls has been greatly over- exaggerated by the media just like everything else in this day and age.
The malls that I do see closing are in areas much more run down and much much more dangerous than Charleston.
This mess has very little to do with Amazon or crime.
And sadly just to add to this I know a lot of people that just plain refuse to shop there because of the user fee. Seriously. That made a lot of people that I know who live outside of town but who work here that we’re made that angry by that. I’m not going to debate the merits but just wanted to add that to it.
I think for me (a millennial) my problem with the malls is that they don't have many stores I'm interested in (do we really need 20 teen clothing stores in every mall) and I absolutely hate being in run down malls (looking at you Morgantown Mall). If they had stores relevant to me and are kept up nicely (like the south hills mall and Ross Park mall in Pittsburgh) I'd much rather go to them than drive from store to store (even though I love the outdoor city style shopping centers like the St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville, FL). Morgantown Mall is down to just JCPennys now as an anchor and I wish they would just demolish the mall and use the flat land for something more useful since construction for retail and office space is booming all around the dying mall. But supposedly Kohls and Burlington Coat Factory are coming to the mall and if that turns out to be true, I'll be frequenting the mall more often since I like Kohls.
All of that is to say, mall owners need to invest in their properties (make them look nice and modern, not rundown, dingy and stuck in the 90's), offer more relevant and exciting stores (for all age groups) and think out side of the box some. Interestingly, I've seen some malls start to install amazon package lockers where people can pick up their orders and drop off returns. It is a pretty smart way to drive some extra traffic into a mall since if you are already there picking up a package you are more likely to do a little shopping since you made the effort to get there in the first place.
If I were in charge of CTC, my first order of business would be to lock down that hotel and make sure a nice one is built (both visually and brand wise, nothing to fancy but a good solid branded one). Then I'd work on a redevelopment plan and try to court a REI, LLBean, Eddie Bauer, Cheese Cake Factory, an Alamo Drafthouse Movie Theatre or a concept similar to them, a Duluth Trading, maybe an LA Fitness, an H&M (if already there, make sure to keep them) and a couple other store brands. I'd also look into a working micro distillery and craft beer brewery that served their spirits, served food and offered tours and classes (could be a tourist draw and would help with the civic center giving people more things to do while at the civic center).
I think for me (a millennial) my problem with the malls is that they don't have many stores I'm interested in (do we really need 20 teen clothing stores in every mall) and I absolutely hate being in run down malls (looking at you Morgantown Mall). If they had stores relevant to me and are kept up nicely (like the south hills mall and Ross Park mall in Pittsburgh) I'd much rather go to them than drive from store to store (even though I love the outdoor city style shopping centers like the St. Johns Town Center in Jacksonville, FL). Morgantown Mall is down to just JCPennys now as an anchor and I wish they would just demolish the mall and use the flat land for something more useful since construction for retail and office space is booming all around the dying mall. But supposedly Kohls and Burlington Coat Factory are coming to the mall and if that turns out to be true, I'll be frequenting the mall more often since I like Kohls.
All of that is to say, mall owners need to invest in their properties (make them look nice and modern, not rundown, dingy and stuck in the 90's), offer more relevant and exciting stores (for all age groups) and think out side of the box some. Interestingly, I've seen some malls start to install amazon package lockers where people can pick up their orders and drop off returns. It is a pretty smart way to drive some extra traffic into a mall since if you are already there picking up a package you are more likely to do a little shopping since you made the effort to get there in the first place.
If I were in charge of CTC, my first order of business would be to lock down that hotel and make sure a nice one is built (both visually and brand wise, nothing to fancy but a good solid branded one). Then I'd work on a redevelopment plan and try to court a REI, LLBean, Eddie Bauer, Cheese Cake Factory, an Alamo Drafthouse Movie Theatre or a concept similar to them, a Duluth Trading, maybe an LA Fitness, an H&M (if already there, make sure to keep them) and a couple other store brands. I'd also look into a working micro distillery and craft beer brewery that served their spirits, served food and offered tours and classes (could be a tourist draw and would help with the civic center giving people more things to do while at the civic center).
Really surprised they closed the Belk in the Morganton Mall. The Belk at Grand Central Mall does really well all things considered. I really don't see how Charleston Town Center is going to survive this. It's sad, because the mall used to be so vibrant and busy, as good as any mall in any big city. The food court was packed on weekends with restaurants all the way around. There was Bennigans, which was always busy. Then there was the three story fountain. It seems like when they took that out it started going slowly downhill.
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