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Pair visits dead, dying malls
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Friday, May 10, 2002 | Teresa F. Lindeman

Posted on 05/10/2002 8:07:23 AM PDT by Willie Green

Edited on 04/13/2004 2:34:38 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

Peter Blackbird has learned you can't argue with a dog. Messing with homeless people isn't such a smart idea either.

Still, braving the unknown is just part of the territory when your hobby is checking out dead and dying shopping centers.


(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: recession; theneweconomy; wierdwebsites
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To: No Truce With Kings, Lazamataz
You have never met my niece. Although I don't think she is interested in dead malls.

Maybe you could introduce her to Lazamataz. He seems to have the same interest.

21 posted on 05/10/2002 8:41:36 AM PDT by Willie Green
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To: Willie Green
So many dead malls, so little time...

Yeah, but the Dolphin Mall's death was a doozy since it happened so quickly. This wasn't one of those malls that take years and years to slowly die. The Dophin Mall opened just a year ago to much fanfare and then promptly dropped dead immediately.

22 posted on 05/10/2002 8:42:27 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: Willie Green
Maybe you could introduce her to Lazamataz. He seems to have the same interest.

Too late for the niece. I'm getting married in 11 days. :o)

23 posted on 05/10/2002 8:42:46 AM PDT by Lazamataz
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To: Clemenza
As a result, all they have are junk stores and an underutilized movie theatre (which makes it good for me as I frequently get near-private showings).

Those are my favorite kind of movie theaters. BTW, why don't you set up shop at the Dolphin Mall? I hear that the owners are so desperate that they will give you free store rental.

24 posted on 05/10/2002 8:45:17 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: SoothingDave
Only a stone's throw from the dying Greengate Mall are new shopping centers on either side of the highway. There is new development all around, even as old buildings sit idle.

Greengate is going to be renovated as a Magport.
(A very financially shrewd proposal!)

25 posted on 05/10/2002 8:45:40 AM PDT by Willie Green
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To: Willie Green
Fort Worth Town Center (formerly named "Seminary South"). A thriving retail complex in the 50s and 60s, its been circling the drain for over 20 years now. It doesn't help that it is in a part of south Fort Worth where the demographic has changed to predominately low-income, high-crime, and African-American, and that the original physical plant was obsolete to begin with.

FWTC was on a downhill swing even back in the 80s, when my brother got jumped and beaten within an inch of his life with no provocation by 15 or 20 gangbangers at a Putt Putt golf course near the mall. (Sidenote: Some friends of mine helped me track down all but 4 of the punks, several of whom have since regained the ability to walk). FWTC has lost most of its anchor stores, and establishments such as nail salons, various permutations of the Dollar Store, and head shops are about all that's left these days.

Sears Roebuck, one of the few remaining "legitimate" retailers in the complex, tried to pull out a few years ago but were essentially blackmailed into staying with threats of discrimination lawsuits and activist pickets at their other stores by political leaders in the area. I recall that Sears finally beat feet just last year, as did Dillards.

No one I know goes there any more - its inconvenient to have to do your shopping with one hand on your pocketbook and the other on a can of pepper spray.

26 posted on 05/10/2002 8:46:24 AM PDT by strela
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To: Clemenza
Simon is one of the upscale mall development companies, so I doubt they would own dumpy/ghetto malls. I used to work for The Rouse Company another big player in mall properties, and now they are trying to make all their mall properties now entirely upscale. After seeing what Rouse charges for rent, unless you have a bad location you would have to be a complete idiot not to make a profit in commercial real estate. Rouse operates Bayside Marketplace in Miami.
27 posted on 05/10/2002 8:48:24 AM PDT by caa26
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To: PJ-Comix
BTW, why don't you set up shop at the Dolphin Mall? I hear that the owners are so desperate that they will give you free store rental.

Yeah, if I weren't moving, me and my friends could get together, take over the empty stores and start the first Scamway Supercenter.

The fact is the market down here is not bid enough for two Sawgrass Mills, even if the Dolphin got respectable tenants like myself.

28 posted on 05/10/2002 8:49:20 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: Clemenza
My favorite "mall" is still the Ft. Lauderdale Swap Shop. Cheap prices, no sales taxes charged, lots and lots of produce, and you can walk 6 or 7 miles in the morning looking at all the vendor spots without really feeling like you are exercising.

Hey, I need to get some Zip memory disks so this Sunday I'll be there and pick them up for just a few bucks each!

29 posted on 05/10/2002 8:49:22 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: PJ-Comix
Dolphin Mall is not even charging tenants a percentage of sales for rent? Usually thats the modus operandi of struggling retail centers.
30 posted on 05/10/2002 8:52:06 AM PDT by caa26
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To: caa26
Rouse operates Bayside Marketplace in Miami.

Ah! One of the best places to watch hot Latin chix in South Florida. Maybe I'll go there this Sunday after the Swap Shop. (Hint: You can ride all you want in South Florida on the Tri-Rail for just $4 on the weekends and take a free Metro Rail transfer over to the Bayside Marketplace.)

31 posted on 05/10/2002 8:52:35 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: general_re
And you forgot the Rainbow Mall in the Falls.The Thruway Mall and the Seneca Mall have been demolished in the past few years. The Apple Tree Mall is no longer retail, and the Main Place mall is hacking up blood.
32 posted on 05/10/2002 8:53:33 AM PDT by Marc Poor
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To: caa26
Simon is one of the upscale mall development companies, so I doubt they would own dumpy/ghetto malls.

Considering that its run by Naz.., er, Germans, I guess you're right. The problem being, that the Company's designs for Dadeland are similar to those of Town Center, where a rationally planned well organized mall was turned into a high ceilinged abomination with paths between stores less linear than they were. Dadeland, however, need renovations as it still looks like 1987 despite remaining popular.

33 posted on 05/10/2002 8:53:41 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: caa26
Dolphin Mall is not even charging tenants a percentage of sales for rent?

All the hot non-Latin chick told me yesterday as we were driving past the Dolphin Mall was that they weren't charging the store owners rent. I don't know the exact details.

34 posted on 05/10/2002 8:54:08 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: Lazamataz
Too late for the niece. I'm getting married in 11 days. :o)

Hey! Congratulations in advance, Laz!

Where's the honeymoon going to be? Mall of America?
Or are you going someplace where you can buy steenking cheap imports direct?

;^)

35 posted on 05/10/2002 8:55:21 AM PDT by Willie Green
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To: PJ-Comix
Ft. Lauderdale Swap Shop

A true South Florida experience, where Indian and Chinese merchants try to hawk grey market foods on unsuspecting retirees, Jamaicans, Central Americans and Canadians. It's capitalism at its purist and reminsicent of the Bazaars of old.

36 posted on 05/10/2002 8:56:51 AM PDT by Clemenza
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To: Lazamataz
I just decided how big our house should be.

Why have a breakfast nook when you can have a FOOD COURT! Congrats on impending nuptuals.

37 posted on 05/10/2002 8:57:07 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Clemenza
I almost forgot. Pompano Square Mall is also rapidly dying. Actually it is near death right now. A couple of years ago I went there and it was thriving. Then a couple of weeks there I stopped by the Pompano Square Mall to buy a book at a bookstore located there and the bookstore was gone along with about 90% of the other stores. What happened to Pompano Square Mall to bring it to near death?
38 posted on 05/10/2002 8:57:17 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
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To: Charles Henrickson
Dearth Mall?

And his son, Luke Mallwalker?

39 posted on 05/10/2002 8:59:07 AM PDT by TrappedInLiberalHell
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To: Clemenza
It's capitalism at its purist and reminsicent of the Bazaars of old.

Yeah, and it's FUN to shop there. Selling there, however, is really horrible. I used to do that once upon a time but the long Thursday early AM "cattle herd line" and lousy sales turned me off to that particular experience. Buying at the Swap Shop is still a hell of a lot more interesting than shopping at the sterile malls.

40 posted on 05/10/2002 9:00:32 AM PDT by PJ-Comix
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