Sunday, May 31, 2009

Op-Chart - The Fall of the Mall - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

This New York Times chart shows the depth of drop in sales from the first quarter of 2009.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Report Questions Southridge Mall's Future

KCCI Des Moines article that references the Wall Street Journal article about dead malls. Mentions that their mall, Southridge Mall is considered a "dead mall".

(includes video of the mall)

There was also an article very similar to the Southridge Mall, the Towne Mall in Middletown, Ohio.

Recession Turns Malls Into Ghost Towns

    Malls, those ubiquitous shopping meccas that sprang up in the 1950s, are dwindling in number, with many struggling properties reduced to largely vacant shells.

    Read this very in-depth article that summarizes the mall as it relates to the economic conditions today that are effectively crippling it as a profitable business model.  Although, these days what industry is not hurting from the downward economy?   I worked with reporter Vanessa O'Connell to help her gather information for this article.

    See it here:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124294047987244803.html 

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

"Nothing Sweet about Etobicoke's Honeydale Mall"


Picture © Andrew Pakula

A blogger's pictures and comments about Honeydale Mall in Canada.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Smart Solutions For A Retail Apocalypse

Posted on Monday May 11th by Jebediah Reed from The Infrastructurist at www.infrastructurist.com...

Malls are being mauled. In case you’ve been paying closer attention to Wall Street or the housing market, rest assured that America’s once-bustling shopping meccas are doing just as poorly.

Last month, General Growth Properties, the country’s second largest mall owner, declared bankruptcy. Anchor chains are dropping like flies, from Circuit City to Filene’s Basement. The trend has even reached the level of irony as liquidation resellers are being liquidated. The practical implication of all this is that local malls are going dark all the time across the country, with the carnage being documented at sites like DeadMalls.com.

It’s fair to assume to that these vacant structures are now done forever–at least as old-school malls. But rather than let them become gaping holes in the fabric of our communities, it’s time embrace the national project of finding ways to reimagine them as vital, forward-looking developments. This is exactly what Ellen Dunham Jones and June Williamson have done in their book Retrofitting Suburbia. Recently we spoke with Dunham-Jones, the director of the architecture program at Georgia Tech, about how repairing the legacy of this failed American institution.

Read the findings of Jebedia Reed's interview with book co-author Ellen Dunham-Jones at The Infrastructurist: America Under Construction.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

What happened to Lincoln Mall?

I spoke with reporter Guy Tridgell about Lincoln Mall, and the shift of the mall culture in general, and what leads to the demise of the mall, or the consequence, depending on how you look at it.

Lincoln Mall is sick. The piped music and the shiny floors, the jewelry stores occupying every corner and the kiosks selling watches and cell phones tell you the mall is doing just fine.

The dusty silhouetted names of past tenants on the storefronts, the stores that no one has heard of before, the geese roosting on top of the old Montgomery Ward building tell you something else.

Lincoln Mall is fighting for its life.

http://www.southtownstar.com/news/1555159,050309tridgell.article

Thursday, May 07, 2009

" A mall down and just about out"

picture from us at deadmalls.com

(Photo taken by Brian Florence ©2001)

Albany Times Union article about one of the malls on our site, Latham Circle Mall in Latham, New York.

"It's a dead mall. It's a morgue."