Posted on 05/23/2009 9:40:21 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Malls, those ubiquitous shopping meccas that sprang up in the 1950s, are dwindling in number, with many struggling properties reduced to largely vacant shells.
On the low-income east side of Charlotte, N.C., the 1.1-million-square-foot Eastland Mall recently lost a slew of key tenants, including a Dillard's and, next month, a Sears. Sales per square foot at the venue fell to $210 in 2008 from $288 in 2001.
The Metcalf South Shopping Center in Overland Park, Kan., is languishing after plans to redevelop it into an open-air shopping district fizzled. The stretch of shops that connects two largest tenants -- a Sears and a Macy's -- stands mostly vacant, patrolled by security guards.
With their maze of walkways and fast-food courts, malls have long been an iconic, if sometimes unsightly, presence in the American retail landscape. A few were made famous by their sheer size, others for the range of shopping and social diversions they provided.
But the long recession is helping to empty out the promenades. Some analysts estimate that the number of so-called "dead malls" -- centers debilitated by anemic sales and high vacancy rates -- will swell to more than 100 by end of this year.
In the 12 months ended March 31, U.S. malls collectively posted a 6.5% decline in tenants' same-store sales, according to Green Street Advisors Inc., real-estate research firm. The recent slump was led by average 7.3% sales drop at Simon Property Group Inc., operator with the largest number of mall locations.
The industry's woes are worsening. Thinning customer traffic, and subsequent hits to tenants' sales and profits, prompted Standard & Poor's Corp. last month to lower the credit ratings of the department-store sector. That knocked Macy's Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. into junk territory and pushed others deeper into junk.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If it wasn’t for Books a million, i would never go to our malls.
The problem at Eastland Mall is crime, not the economy. Malls you can visit without walking into a gang shootout are doing fine around here.
This site has been up for years:
I first ran across a dead mall more than 20 years ago (Jackson Square, Jackson MS
http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/jackson_mall.html
I would have never predicted that indoor malls would face a challenge from strip malls but that is what has happened in much of the country.
The Ross and TJ Max stores are doing great while the mall’s Eddie Bauer and Limited are suffering.
Desolete, empty Obamavilles.
The democrat party continues its relentless, malicious and planned destruction of the US private sector economy.
Even the very first shopping mall, Southdale in Minneapolis is rumored to be closing altogether.
Government is mostly to blame. Housing bust due to Fannie/Freddie, restrictions on oil refining/exploration/no nuclear, excessive federal and state taxations/regulations,
stock market plunge/national debt and fostering unconfidence in the consumer economy. Top it off with bumbling, corrupt elected politicians and complicit MSM scaring the population with their dribble and voila!
Those sites are kind of interesting...who would have thunk it? ;)
I have not been to our local mall in years. It is nothing but an outlet for Hip-Hop trash clothing and sport shoes. I walked through the mall one day and counted 5 shoe stores, eack one blaring krap music.
I’m not sure the recession is the only reason. I used to go to malls a lot—now I almost never go at all. They’re crowded, noisy, the stores are overprices, and they almost never have what I’m looking for. Now I either shop or the Internet or go to specialty stores.
Also, they remind me too much of the 70s.
Oak Park Mall only two miles west has so much more to offer shopers, plus there's the very nice Legends open air mall near Cabela's.
Any of you people ever been to City Place in downtown Silver Spring, MD? You’ve never seen such a collection of cell phone accessory stores ever!
That sites info seems to be pretty dated as far as Randall Park Mall in the Cleveland suburb of North Randall. Sears was the only store open for the last few years. Now,,,,”All power to the mall has been turned off as of May 2009.”
Now it’s just a vast wasteland. A good place to dump a body!
There was a time when I had a coat for every season and all four came from Eddie Bauer. Then they decided all they wanted to do was sell over-priced preppy clothing. Now I never shop at Eddie Bauer and neither does hardly anyone else.
When we moved to Charlotte 20 years ago, my wife took me to Eastland Mall, where she had been shopping a lot. I told her to never go there again, that I'd pay for the gas to drive to safe malls. Back then it was fully occupied with nice stores, but my Spider Sense told me crime in the mall was a problem. (She doesn't tend to notice that sort of thing.) I've now extended that warning to include a Wal-Mart she likes to go to.
In the case of these malls, local governments do share a slice of the blame. The overcapacity of retail space is often because local governments would encourage these malls in their own tax jurisdiction, if only to keep people from shopping, and paying sales taxes, across the street in someone else's tax jurisdiction. In addition they were overbuilt even for the tax base they were in in order to get other people coming into there area, collecting sales taxes from other government's citizens. This is why for twenty years there was a rush to build or remodel to have the latest and greatest mall in the city. They are now a tremendous revenue problem for the local governments.
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