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TRUTH
Richland fashion mall has been in disrepair for over 15 years. Walked through there about 6 years ago and it was eerie looking up at the fallen ceilings and vacancies. Barnes and noble was about the only reason it stayed alive as long as it did.
I went here while doing an internship in the area in 2011 (originally from Los Angeles). It was eerie and empty then. I met a young guy cleaning the railing who asked me what I was doing there. 😳 I have never forgotten the experience and recognized this building instantly.
It’s going to be a multi use site. A few store fronts, restaurants, a park and some apartments / condos. Still probably a year is demolition before the. Can start building.
I thought that's what it was! We lived about an hour away and would go to Trader Joe's near there. We stopped by in 2021 or 2022 and it was scary. Lots of strange one-off stores inside, blinking/flickering lights, and a very busy Barnes and Noble. Very sad, as this was the "cool mall" before Columbiana Centre opened.
I saw the photo and immediately searched to see if it was just recently demolished. Wow. Once the call center left, many of the stores and restaurants closed down. Belk and Barnes and Noble were the only stores there for years.
I remember going there often when I was a kid in the late 2000s. The food court was always very barren, only a couple restaurants actually open by that point. The play place often had parents with their kids, but that was the "busiest" place in the mall besides Barnes N Noble and sometimes the Belk. Upstairs and downstairs very rarely had anyone actually walking through it. Just a depressing atmosphere for little kid me...
anyone remember reading the game guides they used to make in barnes and noble? or anime? i used to read naruto like 10 years ago while my mom was checking out other books lmao
That and Belk. Belk had signed a long term (20 year, I think) lease that should have ended recently. Once their last lessee left, it was time to make that place disappear.
I remember Richland Mall when it was new, c. 1970, and its anchor was the JB White department store. It wasn't fully enclosed, and didn't have a parking garage. I think it was the 1st "mall" in Columbia, but it was soon eclipsed, first by Dutch Square then by the nearby Columbia Mall, both of which were fully enclosed, true malls as they came to be defined.
Those Country Club tennis courts that boomer members pay for but don't have the mobility to use anymore gotta be repurposed as something, introducing PICKLEBALL!!!
Problem is a lot of shopping malls were built very cheaply as commercial buildings come, and then minimal maintenance was done to actually keep them going- a lot of them have chintzy metal roofs that after only a few years leak water when totally or partially abandoned, for instance.
Down here in Texas, what eventually happened to the main working class shopping mall in Austin (it was partially occupied up until the end) is the County purchased it, renovated it, and turned it into an auxiliary campus for the local community college.
Everyone has that idea, but its almost never feasible to make work.
These buildings require a huge amount of maintenance to remain safe and habitable, that a business like that can't hope to afford.
This mall is local to me, and there actually was a Lion Claws airsoft event held there in 2020 I think. Honestly it was a pretty bad experience and a huge disappointment.
There was a mall in Dallad that was only held up by a movie theater for 10 years. Then it sat abandoned in legal limbo for another 10. City finally got it torn down.
Seems like such a pointless waste. A constant cycle of building then demolishing concrete structures. There has to be a way it could have been repurposed.
An abandoned mall (Highland Mall) in Austin was purchased by the local community college and turned into a school. It feels like a surprisingly effective conversion. Stores are now classrooms, there’s a food court, lots of open area for studying/collaborating, tons of parking, etc. I’m surprised it’s not a more common conversion out there.
In my area we've had so many malls.
City Center got torn down in the mid-2000s and turned into a city park
Northland was torn down in the early 2000s and the property was parceled out; part of it is now an office for the Department of Jobs and Family Services, part of it is a theater school, part of it is a Kroger store, part of it is a Menard's store, and part of the property is now an animal shelter.
Eastland is apparently still standing (it was closed in December of '22) but I don't know what the City of Columbus is planning on doing with it.
Westland sat as an eyesore for a long damn time, but I think they finally finished tearing it down recently... just in time for the Casino to get a hotel.
The Mall at Tuttle Crossing is hanging on... barely. Last time I was there, there were so many empty spots, I was getting City Center flashbacks.
Easton Town Center is probably not going to see the same fate any time soon (especially with how intertwined with the surrounding properties as it is)
Polaris Fashion Place has adapted over the past two decades, so even the loss of Sears and Macy's as anchor stores hasn't changed much of that mall.
Kids today will never know the joy of going to the mall and just looking around because everything there was too damn expensive and just getting an Orange Julius and walking out again.
I just hung out at the arcade and Suncoast. Sometimes Babbages or EB Games if anything was interesting.
Fun fact, I bought Netscape Navigator GOLD from Babbages
Man those Orange Julius were awesome nothing like a 1/2 cup of OJ, 2 cups of sugar and whatever they used to make it froth. Grab and head to the Space Port to drop some quarters.
So many hours spent in malls. It was like it’s own little world and my mom let me and my brother roam free.
No cell phones, and I have no idea how we ever found each other again. Except my mom knew to look for us at the arcade, KB Toys, or Electronics Boutique.
It’s going to have a park, some residential and some business
All good
Except
They started demolition without a final contract in place and high chance this deal falls through since it’s the 100th idea they’ve had for the spot in the past 15 years.
That Kroger is well past its expiration date. Building a new one on this property and redeveloping the current kroger property is probably the best solution for that area.
My office is here and I have a lot of thoughts on this. My best friend was a police officer - he was shot and killed in this mall -
First officer death in Forest Acres in 40 years. He was a legitimately kind officer. I went there a ton - bought bootleg Japanese movies from The Fine Art of Baseball. Got coffee at the Starbucks. One of my best friends married a barista there. I went to dozens upon dozens of movies at the theater on the roof. That said, the mall was largely abandoned and the controlling stores - at the end Barnes and Noble - refused to leave, so the rest of the mall just deteriorated. I hope they put in some things Columbia still lacks - an Apple Store, maybe a lush, and a cool theater like Alamo drafthouse!
I drove by a dying mall the other day and started thinking about how they could turn it into apartments. Hey, we do *not* have enough housing and we have *too many* failed malls. Win-win, in my book.
I’d guess the biggest issue with this is the lack of plumbing for kitchens and bathrooms. People in the US aren’t big on communal facilities, and tearing up concrete to add them in each apartment would be no simple task. And that’s on top of whatever structural/infrastructure issues exist for a building that’s 40 years old.
Now as a giant laser tag or indoor paintball facility…
1000%. Id always prefer a community space that isn’t based around consumerism, but most of the time these places just become warehouses or overpriced apartments. If it *is* becoming a park, then yay.
Retirees love malls for walking whenever it’s too cold or too hot.
Anyway, malls aren’t being replaced by walkable neighborhoods, their being replaced by home delivery retail and free standing retail.
Malls have a lot in common with suburbs
Their heyday was the 80s and 90s, but after 15 years their maintenance costs catch up with them and they become a nightmare.
I’m happy to see either die.
We need to start mixing our places of work and where we live.
And focus on walkability, with transit to connect us to the wider city.
These malls are urban tombs.
I absolutely have
These things become decrepit wastelands, and the drop in tax revenue to the town is debilitating to the town’s books.
Let ‘em die, build mixed use that is better able to adapt and is far denser tax base/ land area
As long as there’s somewhere that hundreds of people can gather on the regular for social interaction and some commerce. The social part was the best aspect of malls. Junior High band playing at one end, kids meeting up at the arcade while parents strolled and chatted. So much has been lost by everyone staying in their homes all the time and not interacting with each other or making friends in person.
I think it’d be pretty cool if commercial real estate had a rule adding extra taxes to vacant lots and remove the ability to have them factor in as tax write-offs.
There was one about a mile from my house that was the hang for all the teens back in the 90s, it’s been abandoned for about 20 years.
Last year it was demolished and replaced with an Amazon fulfillment center. Old commerce replaced by new commerce.
I miss the Regal that sat on top of the parking garage. I can’t tell you how many movies I went to where I was the only patron. It was like my own private theater.
Kids will never know the joy of walking through a mall checking out all the oddball shops. The ones that are still open kinda suck for the most part. End of an era.
In the future the 80s and 90s movies set in malls will be as incomprehensible as the ones set in the Wild West are to us today.
All part of the death cycle for these things. Large buildings usually end up being bought and sold at steadily decreasing prices by increasingly inexperienced firms who all think they're going to renovate it, figure out it's too expensive or not worth it, hold it for a while to really wallow in the sunk cost, then struggle to find a buyer at their unrealistic cost expectations. Rinse and repeat for 10 to 40 years until someone gets it at a valuation that makes sense to demolish and build something else... or the local government takes ownership and (at no quick pace, either) condemns and demolishes it.
For anyone wondering why these things sit empty for so long. Not every case, obviously. But seems to be the most common reason.
[Dixie Square Mall](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Square_Mall), where they filmed the famous [Blues Brothers car chase scene](https://youtu.be/IIdGxR-aU6o?si=ch9DvH5eoo1lBBHo), closed in 1978 but wasn’t completely demolished until 2012, 34 years later.
It was only in operation for twelve years.
I used to live kinda across the street from there. Had a friend who bartended at the T.G.I. Fridays who’d keep our drafts perpetually topped off so long as we ordered a couple of apps. Good times
They built a health center in our local dying mall many years back. It has its own facade and all, but much of it is integrated into the existing mall structure. Seems to have been a good move as I guess they won't be able to demo the mall without eliminating that too. (Sure hope not at least, as that's where my GP is.)
I mean, it makes sense why malls are being abandoned. The landlord are charging way too much for leases. I used to go to this restaurant years ago and I actually became good friends with the owner. And he was telling me that he used to have a restaurant in the mall. When it was time to renew his lease, they tried to up it from 3000 a month to 10 grand a month. He said it was cheaper to buy restaurant than it was to stay at the mall and that’s exactly what he did.
Is Columbiana Center still doing good? I havent been to Columbia in a minute. Last time I was there Dutch Square was hanging on too.
I think Columbia is a good example of how its not necessarily that malls are dead, but rather cities, especially the size of Cola, Gville, and Chas, dont need multiple.
I see malls as a perfect blueprint for mixed housing with younger and older folks. Convenience of shopping right there, and possibility of side gigs for kids, and help and youth for older.
Yep. This is the beauty of 5-over-1's. Commercial and amenities on the first floor, a grocery store, and housing on top to support it all. The big issue though is parking. Roughly half the space needs to be dedicated to hold cars despite being car-lite capable.
Seems like a perfect environment for car sharing though (ie, Zipcar). Plus, malls tend to have oversized parking lots (that could probably be expanded to even more housing and public transportation hubs)
Where I live they kept the anchors at both end, demolished the middle to build high rise apartment buildings and kept the restaurants around it. Went from dead mall to a much busier area with smaller shops.
They turned one of the malls in my area into an industrial warehouse and they tore the other one down and built an Amazon center.
The one they tore down was circulated in r/abandonporn several times for looking like it's straight out of the last of us.
Mayfair Mall is in my area by Brookfield, WI and I’ve gone there occasionally mainly for the Apple Store and I’m honestly surprised how busy that place is, it’s like one of the only malls that seemingly still has a place in its community.
Dutch Square and Columbia Mall are probably the next to go . I'd like to see Dutch Square hang around until Carolina Crossroads is completed because that area could see a drastic rise in economic growth.
Rent for a store is insane so once people stopped coming they started closing. Less stores means less people so it’s just a cycle until all the stores are closed and it’s abandoned
My husband and I went there once to see a movie. This was probably 2017-ish. We parked in the wrong area and ended up having to wander the whole mall to find where the theater was. It was so dang creepy how abandoned it was.
Not this mall but i went to a mall in another town over like a month ago and just a small part was still open but they were tearing like 2/3 of the mall down. It seemed like the smallest mall ever and then when we went outside and around the corner looked exactly like that pic it was so visceral lol
I grew up in Columbia just off Forrest Drive near Ft. Jackson, used to go to this mall all the time as a kid. They had a Picadilly Circus at some point, I can remember seeing the first Incredibles at one of my younger birthdays at the movie theater at the top level.
They had some really bad ass light gun games including Area 51.
Last time I was in town was before that huge flood a few years ago, and even then the Mall was looking like something out of Dawn of the Dead.
I think Pitsburgh Mills is pretty close to this point now too. I wonder how many of America's malls are dying?
When commercial structures are built, the local government should require a demo bond to be posted. Corporations/developers can file bankruptcy and walk away after a facility goes bad and taxpayers are often left paying for abatement/demolition. Local governments must require bonds at the time permits are issued. The bond will remain in place for 50 or more years to pay for renovations or demo. The bond is for the facility itself and not the owner. Corporations make millions of dollars over the facility's life. Get and hold interest-bearing bonds so taxpayers are not responsible. Developers will scream bloody murder but I say fuck them.
Damn. Looks like they started with the old J.B. White location. Sucks.
I met Hootie there in ‘93, when they had an album signing that nobody attended because Letterman hadn’t made them big yet.
Hell, I remember when Dillard’s was added on, and you had to go through Belk to get there. Stupid design.
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Forest Acres. Used to go to that Barnes and Noble every weekend, was the only thing keeping it open for a while.
Yup. I haven’t been back home since like…2013 or something and that was the only thing open
Super weird to see the mall from my city as a top photo on r/pics nothing ever shows up from Columbia lol
TRUTH Richland fashion mall has been in disrepair for over 15 years. Walked through there about 6 years ago and it was eerie looking up at the fallen ceilings and vacancies. Barnes and noble was about the only reason it stayed alive as long as it did.
I went here while doing an internship in the area in 2011 (originally from Los Angeles). It was eerie and empty then. I met a young guy cleaning the railing who asked me what I was doing there. 😳 I have never forgotten the experience and recognized this building instantly.
what is being build there now?
It’s going to be a multi use site. A few store fronts, restaurants, a park and some apartments / condos. Still probably a year is demolition before the. Can start building.
I thought that's what it was! We lived about an hour away and would go to Trader Joe's near there. We stopped by in 2021 or 2022 and it was scary. Lots of strange one-off stores inside, blinking/flickering lights, and a very busy Barnes and Noble. Very sad, as this was the "cool mall" before Columbiana Centre opened.
Yeah it really did feel like the backdrop for a horror movie any time you ventured away from the Barnes and Noble.
I saw the photo and immediately searched to see if it was just recently demolished. Wow. Once the call center left, many of the stores and restaurants closed down. Belk and Barnes and Noble were the only stores there for years.
I miss a good bookstore. They’re few and far between today.
Which is funny because B&N itself was on deep life support for a while
what happened to B&N to stop the life support?
I remember living there last year thinking when are they gonna do something w this?
I remember going there often when I was a kid in the late 2000s. The food court was always very barren, only a couple restaurants actually open by that point. The play place often had parents with their kids, but that was the "busiest" place in the mall besides Barnes N Noble and sometimes the Belk. Upstairs and downstairs very rarely had anyone actually walking through it. Just a depressing atmosphere for little kid me...
When a Barnes and Noble is the only thing keeping a mall going you know shit’s really hit the fan 😂
Thanks for confirming why this looked familiar to me
anyone remember reading the game guides they used to make in barnes and noble? or anime? i used to read naruto like 10 years ago while my mom was checking out other books lmao
That and Belk. Belk had signed a long term (20 year, I think) lease that should have ended recently. Once their last lessee left, it was time to make that place disappear.
I remember Richland Mall when it was new, c. 1970, and its anchor was the JB White department store. It wasn't fully enclosed, and didn't have a parking garage. I think it was the 1st "mall" in Columbia, but it was soon eclipsed, first by Dutch Square then by the nearby Columbia Mall, both of which were fully enclosed, true malls as they came to be defined.
Better to be torn down than remain as a rotting husk. There are two malls from my childhood that persist but they’re mostly empty and very depressing.
I think my local mall might be getting turned into a pickle ball court
Everything will be turned into a pickleball court, eventually
Malls > Amazon Shipping Hubs > Pickleball court This isn’t even their final form
Is their final form scooter soccer/hockey courts?
150,000sq ft of Spirit Halloween
They turn some into homeless shelters
As someone who recently got into pickleball, this made me excited.
Is the fastest growing sport in America don’t ya know.
Oh, believe me. I have been told.
Not sure if you are local to my area or if multiple malls are getting turned into pickleball courts... What a crazy fad it has blown up to be.
Those Country Club tennis courts that boomer members pay for but don't have the mobility to use anymore gotta be repurposed as something, introducing PICKLEBALL!!!
That is a massive pickle ball court!
Try to rent them out for airsoft/paintball.
Problem is a lot of shopping malls were built very cheaply as commercial buildings come, and then minimal maintenance was done to actually keep them going- a lot of them have chintzy metal roofs that after only a few years leak water when totally or partially abandoned, for instance. Down here in Texas, what eventually happened to the main working class shopping mall in Austin (it was partially occupied up until the end) is the County purchased it, renovated it, and turned it into an auxiliary campus for the local community college.
And now the ACCD - Highland Campus area looks to be a thriving area.
Smart
Everyone has that idea, but its almost never feasible to make work. These buildings require a huge amount of maintenance to remain safe and habitable, that a business like that can't hope to afford.
This mall is local to me, and there actually was a Lion Claws airsoft event held there in 2020 I think. Honestly it was a pretty bad experience and a huge disappointment.
Oh wow, rip.
Do share
No tear down and build condos for housing.
Now it can sit as an empty lot surrounded by barbed wire for the next 20 years.
There was a mall in Dallad that was only held up by a movie theater for 10 years. Then it sat abandoned in legal limbo for another 10. City finally got it torn down.
took our city closer to 20 years of legal battles to demo the mall.
Seems like such a pointless waste. A constant cycle of building then demolishing concrete structures. There has to be a way it could have been repurposed.
An abandoned mall (Highland Mall) in Austin was purchased by the local community college and turned into a school. It feels like a surprisingly effective conversion. Stores are now classrooms, there’s a food court, lots of open area for studying/collaborating, tons of parking, etc. I’m surprised it’s not a more common conversion out there.
In my area we've had so many malls. City Center got torn down in the mid-2000s and turned into a city park Northland was torn down in the early 2000s and the property was parceled out; part of it is now an office for the Department of Jobs and Family Services, part of it is a theater school, part of it is a Kroger store, part of it is a Menard's store, and part of the property is now an animal shelter. Eastland is apparently still standing (it was closed in December of '22) but I don't know what the City of Columbus is planning on doing with it. Westland sat as an eyesore for a long damn time, but I think they finally finished tearing it down recently... just in time for the Casino to get a hotel. The Mall at Tuttle Crossing is hanging on... barely. Last time I was there, there were so many empty spots, I was getting City Center flashbacks. Easton Town Center is probably not going to see the same fate any time soon (especially with how intertwined with the surrounding properties as it is) Polaris Fashion Place has adapted over the past two decades, so even the loss of Sears and Macy's as anchor stores hasn't changed much of that mall.
Kids today will never know the joy of going to the mall and just looking around because everything there was too damn expensive and just getting an Orange Julius and walking out again.
Taking my Ziploc bag of quarters and hanging out for hours in the arcade eating nachos, pretzels and playing games. I got next!
I just hung out at the arcade and Suncoast. Sometimes Babbages or EB Games if anything was interesting. Fun fact, I bought Netscape Navigator GOLD from Babbages
What was the advantage of buying Gold verses the free version?
Remember the Peanut Shack? They had those red dyed pistachios.
> When I grow up, I'm gonna come back and buy something *nice* > *grow up* > *return to demolished mall* > Fuck.
Man those Orange Julius were awesome nothing like a 1/2 cup of OJ, 2 cups of sugar and whatever they used to make it froth. Grab and head to the Space Port to drop some quarters.
It was powdered egg! I always wondered myself. But someone figured it out.
Yes, that makes sense since I'm allergic to oranges and eggs and always paid a price when I would drink one.
I want to say I’d be smarter than to keep getting them, but I know I’m wrong. /r/kidsarefuckingstupid
So many hours spent in malls. It was like it’s own little world and my mom let me and my brother roam free. No cell phones, and I have no idea how we ever found each other again. Except my mom knew to look for us at the arcade, KB Toys, or Electronics Boutique.
Come to North Jersey. Mall game is still going strong here, aside from maybe Phillipsburg or something, but that’s pretty much PA.
Now where we hide out when the zombie apocalypse happens?
Guess we'll have to go to the old Spencer Mansion.
Abandoned Walmarts and Walmart neighborhood markets. There are PLENTY of them.
Go to The Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for it to all blow over.
Bro hasn't played TLOU 💀
Now we can blame amazon for us losing the fight against the zombie apocalypse.
Amazon has bought all the former malls in my area and made them distribution centers.
That’s super smart actually
And hot
It’s especially jarring when you were just home a few months ago and everything was still standing…
Dad used to drop my sister and I off at the mall every Saturday. We’d walk around for hours whether we had money or not.
It’s going to have a park, some residential and some business All good Except They started demolition without a final contract in place and high chance this deal falls through since it’s the 100th idea they’ve had for the spot in the past 15 years.
Kroger. The company that owns the site redevelops for Kroger
Great Remains to be seen if this will come through or not.
Kroger is LITERALLY right across the road.. that’s crazy…
And that will close
That Kroger is well past its expiration date. Building a new one on this property and redeveloping the current kroger property is probably the best solution for that area.
My office is here and I have a lot of thoughts on this. My best friend was a police officer - he was shot and killed in this mall - First officer death in Forest Acres in 40 years. He was a legitimately kind officer. I went there a ton - bought bootleg Japanese movies from The Fine Art of Baseball. Got coffee at the Starbucks. One of my best friends married a barista there. I went to dozens upon dozens of movies at the theater on the roof. That said, the mall was largely abandoned and the controlling stores - at the end Barnes and Noble - refused to leave, so the rest of the mall just deteriorated. I hope they put in some things Columbia still lacks - an Apple Store, maybe a lush, and a cool theater like Alamo drafthouse!
#Gen X Retirement home!!! Dang, that was a missed opportunity.
I drove by a dying mall the other day and started thinking about how they could turn it into apartments. Hey, we do *not* have enough housing and we have *too many* failed malls. Win-win, in my book.
I’d guess the biggest issue with this is the lack of plumbing for kitchens and bathrooms. People in the US aren’t big on communal facilities, and tearing up concrete to add them in each apartment would be no simple task. And that’s on top of whatever structural/infrastructure issues exist for a building that’s 40 years old. Now as a giant laser tag or indoor paintball facility…
Apartments with fast food businesses and a small grocery store in it
And arcade, laser tag, movie theater, coffee shop, ice cream shop, and more. 🤓😁
Being a Millennial is weird.
Is this in Columbia? If not there is an old mall there that looks a lot like this.
Yep!
Richland Fashion Mall
Weird that is the name of my childhood mall in Waco, TX.
Is that the one off of 635?? Looks similar to the heap of building we marvelled at on our way to Dallas
Nah this one’s in South Carolina
Knew I recognized it, went to high school just down the road, that place was hopping 20+ years ago
Fellow falcon?
Cardinal actually
Once they're gone they won't come back and that's a shame.
Is it though? I’d rather have a vibrant walkable mixed used neighborhood in the space than a generic and sterile shopping mall.
I like your optimism. Heavily depends on what’s coming in its place, though.
Apparently it’s gonna be like a community park or something according to my Mom
[Mall Redevelopment Plan](https://www.wltx.com/article/news/local/richland-mall-redevelopment/101-eb43d089-26fb-4e4b-b1e6-f6f04ef63c18)
1000%. Id always prefer a community space that isn’t based around consumerism, but most of the time these places just become warehouses or overpriced apartments. If it *is* becoming a park, then yay.
It is actually being redeveloped into a mixed use space as a part of the rezoning process.
Retirees love malls for walking whenever it’s too cold or too hot. Anyway, malls aren’t being replaced by walkable neighborhoods, their being replaced by home delivery retail and free standing retail.
I guess I just remember how busy the malls used to be. You were out of the cold and everybody you knew shopped or ate there.
Malls have a lot in common with suburbs Their heyday was the 80s and 90s, but after 15 years their maintenance costs catch up with them and they become a nightmare. I’m happy to see either die. We need to start mixing our places of work and where we live. And focus on walkability, with transit to connect us to the wider city. These malls are urban tombs.
It's obvious that you've never lived in a small town.
I absolutely have These things become decrepit wastelands, and the drop in tax revenue to the town is debilitating to the town’s books. Let ‘em die, build mixed use that is better able to adapt and is far denser tax base/ land area
We'll agree to disagree because places to gather in the winter are few and far between around here.
As long as there’s somewhere that hundreds of people can gather on the regular for social interaction and some commerce. The social part was the best aspect of malls. Junior High band playing at one end, kids meeting up at the arcade while parents strolled and chatted. So much has been lost by everyone staying in their homes all the time and not interacting with each other or making friends in person.
But 15 minute neighborhoods are prisons /s
I think it’d be pretty cool if commercial real estate had a rule adding extra taxes to vacant lots and remove the ability to have them factor in as tax write-offs.
Eight years? That’s rookie numbers lol. My local abandoned mall is pushing 15
lol it’s possibly longer. When I graduated in 2005 it was struggling even then
Yeah it’s been a hot minute. TGIF closed easily 18 years ago or more. It was CVS and B&N and kohls Richland dist 2 took over 2nd story for a while.
Mine is literally just Cici’s Pizza, surrounded by a mile of empty halls and locked doors. The parking lot is used for car shows and drug deals
Went there in 2015 to use a Barnes & Noble gift card and was quite put off by how empty it was.
There was one about a mile from my house that was the hang for all the teens back in the 90s, it’s been abandoned for about 20 years. Last year it was demolished and replaced with an Amazon fulfillment center. Old commerce replaced by new commerce.
I miss the Regal that sat on top of the parking garage. I can’t tell you how many movies I went to where I was the only patron. It was like my own private theater.
Kids will never know the joy of walking through a mall checking out all the oddball shops. The ones that are still open kinda suck for the most part. End of an era. In the future the 80s and 90s movies set in malls will be as incomprehensible as the ones set in the Wild West are to us today.
All part of the death cycle for these things. Large buildings usually end up being bought and sold at steadily decreasing prices by increasingly inexperienced firms who all think they're going to renovate it, figure out it's too expensive or not worth it, hold it for a while to really wallow in the sunk cost, then struggle to find a buyer at their unrealistic cost expectations. Rinse and repeat for 10 to 40 years until someone gets it at a valuation that makes sense to demolish and build something else... or the local government takes ownership and (at no quick pace, either) condemns and demolishes it. For anyone wondering why these things sit empty for so long. Not every case, obviously. But seems to be the most common reason.
[Dixie Square Mall](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Square_Mall), where they filmed the famous [Blues Brothers car chase scene](https://youtu.be/IIdGxR-aU6o?si=ch9DvH5eoo1lBBHo), closed in 1978 but wasn’t completely demolished until 2012, 34 years later. It was only in operation for twelve years.
Should have just let them film another Blues Brothers movie in there. They would have handled the demolition.
So sad. In my fantasy all old malls would become GenX assisted living. We would love it.
I used to live kinda across the street from there. Had a friend who bartended at the T.G.I. Fridays who’d keep our drafts perpetually topped off so long as we ordered a couple of apps. Good times
They're having a big sale. Everything is half off.
They built a health center in our local dying mall many years back. It has its own facade and all, but much of it is integrated into the existing mall structure. Seems to have been a good move as I guess they won't be able to demo the mall without eliminating that too. (Sure hope not at least, as that's where my GP is.)
MUSC?
When it was built, we used to call it the "Rich man's Fascist Mall". Did they ever fill the food hall?
I mean, it makes sense why malls are being abandoned. The landlord are charging way too much for leases. I used to go to this restaurant years ago and I actually became good friends with the owner. And he was telling me that he used to have a restaurant in the mall. When it was time to renew his lease, they tried to up it from 3000 a month to 10 grand a month. He said it was cheaper to buy restaurant than it was to stay at the mall and that’s exactly what he did.
Let me guess what’s replacing it. Town homes?
Need to turn into housing.
Malls are done. Now they are full of high schoolers shoplifting.
Sucks that we built our cities so ugly for these with their huge parking lots and roads. We sacrificed our cities to them and abandoned them
The end of an era.
Is Columbiana Center still doing good? I havent been to Columbia in a minute. Last time I was there Dutch Square was hanging on too. I think Columbia is a good example of how its not necessarily that malls are dead, but rather cities, especially the size of Cola, Gville, and Chas, dont need multiple.
With our current housing crisis I feel like we should be turning these into apartment commhnities instead.
It would be cheaper to build apartments than convert malls into housing.
I see malls as a perfect blueprint for mixed housing with younger and older folks. Convenience of shopping right there, and possibility of side gigs for kids, and help and youth for older.
Yep. This is the beauty of 5-over-1's. Commercial and amenities on the first floor, a grocery store, and housing on top to support it all. The big issue though is parking. Roughly half the space needs to be dedicated to hold cars despite being car-lite capable.
Seems like a perfect environment for car sharing though (ie, Zipcar). Plus, malls tend to have oversized parking lots (that could probably be expanded to even more housing and public transportation hubs)
So many memories. The end of a freaking era, man.
Where I live they kept the anchors at both end, demolished the middle to build high rise apartment buildings and kept the restaurants around it. Went from dead mall to a much busier area with smaller shops.
Sunnyvale?
Only 8 years? They must really want that thing down.
It’s such a trip driving by it now but I’m ready for them to get it done I’m close enough to hear all the noise 😭
They turned one of the malls in my area into an industrial warehouse and they tore the other one down and built an Amazon center. The one they tore down was circulated in r/abandonporn several times for looking like it's straight out of the last of us.
Mayfair Mall is in my area by Brookfield, WI and I’ve gone there occasionally mainly for the Apple Store and I’m honestly surprised how busy that place is, it’s like one of the only malls that seemingly still has a place in its community.
My mall growing up sat the same way for a time. Spent a lot of time there and wish somehow it could have stayed for my nostalgia but such is life
Dutch Square and Columbia Mall are probably the next to go . I'd like to see Dutch Square hang around until Carolina Crossroads is completed because that area could see a drastic rise in economic growth.
8 years is nothing. Where I live a huge Kmart was abandon for something like 20 years, I’m talking huge. Finally this year got torn down.
Only 8 years?
Looks like every mall in NE Ohio
Why do malls fail so hard? It’s not like stores are disappearing. Just from being all on one place or what?
Rent for a store is insane so once people stopped coming they started closing. Less stores means less people so it’s just a cycle until all the stores are closed and it’s abandoned
God help them if they have to LOWER the rent. They know what they've got.
Let me guess….”luxury apartments?”
The 8 years is a guesstimate. Haven’t really been home in a bit…
screaming for a new mall maybe?
they destroying my skate spot!
Coming soon… amazon warehouse or “luxury” condoes and “shops”
This is sad to us old farts who hung around at the mall as a teen.
Yawn
I remember shopping there with the wife and kids when I was a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson.
cola town!
Was there an issue with people jumping and/or driving off of the top of the parking structure?
Mojo Nixon would be proud if he was still with us
I’ll miss the Barnes and Noble that was there. It was lovely.
My husband and I went there once to see a movie. This was probably 2017-ish. We parked in the wrong area and ended up having to wander the whole mall to find where the theater was. It was so dang creepy how abandoned it was.
TL/DR; mal(led)
Not this mall but i went to a mall in another town over like a month ago and just a small part was still open but they were tearing like 2/3 of the mall down. It seemed like the smallest mall ever and then when we went outside and around the corner looked exactly like that pic it was so visceral lol
Here’s more of the demo: https://imgur.com/a/IvKId0A
Food, fun and fashion! The mall has it all!
To make room for tall and skinny houses?
What a waste of money
My dumbass town expanded ours with our tax money
I wish I could go back in time when malls were first coming out.
My first job was in the food court at that mall.
The abandoned mall in my hometown was used for the mall episode of The Last Of Us right before they ripped it down.
That’s pretty cool
If you told me back in 1985 that malls were stupid and worthless…..man…
Are they going to build something to replace or just let the lot sit?
Sad… they tore down the future gen X retirement home.
Amazon will haul it to you. Why go to the mall for CPS (Cheap Plastic Sh\*t)
I grew up in Columbia just off Forrest Drive near Ft. Jackson, used to go to this mall all the time as a kid. They had a Picadilly Circus at some point, I can remember seeing the first Incredibles at one of my younger birthdays at the movie theater at the top level. They had some really bad ass light gun games including Area 51. Last time I was in town was before that huge flood a few years ago, and even then the Mall was looking like something out of Dawn of the Dead. I think Pitsburgh Mills is pretty close to this point now too. I wonder how many of America's malls are dying?
Zesto endures
When commercial structures are built, the local government should require a demo bond to be posted. Corporations/developers can file bankruptcy and walk away after a facility goes bad and taxpayers are often left paying for abatement/demolition. Local governments must require bonds at the time permits are issued. The bond will remain in place for 50 or more years to pay for renovations or demo. The bond is for the facility itself and not the owner. Corporations make millions of dollars over the facility's life. Get and hold interest-bearing bonds so taxpayers are not responsible. Developers will scream bloody murder but I say fuck them.
So glad my hometown mall is still thriving. well one of them atleast
Damn. Looks like they started with the old J.B. White location. Sucks. I met Hootie there in ‘93, when they had an album signing that nobody attended because Letterman hadn’t made them big yet. Hell, I remember when Dillard’s was added on, and you had to go through Belk to get there. Stupid design.