Who has seen shopping malls open and close? (real estate, 2013)

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

I remember when the Mall of Memphis and Hickory Ridge Mall in Memphis, Tennessee opened in the 1980s. The MOM closed in 2003 and was demolished a year or two later. The Hickory Ridge Mall was damaged by a tornado a few years later. A church operates in the remainder of it.

[mhays25]

My region doesn't close malls. We only rebuild parts of them. If it's a big upgrade it's to add other uses and make things a lot denser.

We manage our outward sprawl, and appropriate land is both unavailable and too expensive to add new malls. Therefore we don't make old mall obsolete. Until now perhaps...the redos are sometimes unmalling things even while a lot of retail remains.

[Craziaskowboi]

For a while, the Pittsburgh area was ground zero for dead malls, but has recently reached equilibrium. Allegheny Center Mall gradually transitioned from a dying mall to a successful office complex during the 1990s and 2000s. Greengate Mall closed in 2001 and was redeveloped as a successful "power center" in 2005. The Galleria of Mt. Lebanon was an endangered mall that was renovated in 2003, and has gradually moved upscale with spillover retail from nearby South Hills Village. Eastland Mall closed in 2005, and was bulldozed and returned to nature in 2007. Parkway Center Mall closed in 2013, was bulldozed in 2016, and is now prime real estate with direct Interstate access two miles west of downtown Pittsburgh. Northway Mall was an endangered mall that went through several ownership (and name) changes during the 1990s and 2000s, but was recently redeveloped and reopened in 2017 as The Block Northway, which features a lot of upscale spillover retail from nearby Ross Park Mall, the crown jewel of malls in the Pittsburgh area. This year, Century III Mall finally closed, and I'm venturing that it'll be redeveloped as a "power center" like Greengate Mall was.

This leaves Ross Park Mall, The Block Northway, McCandless Crossing and Pittsburgh Mills to the north of the city; South Hills Village, The Galleria of Mt. Lebanon and The Waterfront to the south; Monroeville Mall to the east, and The Mall at Robinson to the west. Outside of Allegheny County are Westmoreland Mall in Westmoreland County, Washington Mall and Washington Crown Center in Washington County, and Beaver Valley Mall in Beaver County. Not including The Block Northway, McCandless Crossing or The Galleria of Mt. Lebanon, which are basically "supplementary" malls, here's how I'd assess the health of the malls in the Pittsburgh area:


1. Ross Park Mall
2. South Hills Village
3. The Mall at Robinson
4. The Waterfront
5. Monroeville Mall
6. Westmoreland Mall
7. Beaver Valley Mall
8. Washington Crown Center
9. Pittsburgh Mills
10. Washington Mall


Ross Park Mall, South Hills Village, The Mall at Robinson and The Waterfront are all thriving. Monroeville Mall and Westmoreland Mall are steady as they go. Beaver Valley Mall and Washington Crown Center are at a crossroads with multiple anchor closures in recent years, but it helps that there are no other malls within 15 miles of either of them. Pittsburgh Mills should never have been built in the first place. Washington Mall is moribund, and its closure is imminent.