
Mall Owners Rush to Get Out of the Mall Business - panabee
http://www.wsj.com/articles/mall-owners-rush-to-get-out-of-the-mall-business-1485262801
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chrissnell
Can we stop linking WSJ articles now? I love the Journal but the paywall is no
longer bypass-able. Even Googling the article doesn't get me past it anymore.

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jupiter90000
Same thing for me, I used to be able to get around it and not anymore.

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Johnny555
Me too... I thought it was a cookie thing and the WSJ didn't want me to have
any more "free" views, but linking through Google News doesn't even work from
an incognito window.

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georgecmu
It's a Dow Jones article, so there's no reason to link through WSJ. For a non-
paywalled version, follow this link: [http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-
jones/us-markets/2017012...](http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-jones/us-
markets/201701247334/mall-owners-rush-to-get-out-of-the-mall-business.aspx)

For the most recent example of a failed mall, see Pittsburgh Mills:
[http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/21/pittsburgh-area-mall-sells-
fo...](http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/21/pittsburgh-area-mall-sells-for-100-at-a-
foreclosure-auction.html)

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throwaway40483
A $100 winning bid for the Pittsburgh Mills at the foreclosure auction. Not
bad (and quite sad)

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georgecmu
It's a bid from the bank that holds the mortgage -- mostly symbolic. In effect
it's a transaction to write off the loan and take possession of the property.
There were no real bidders, as the bank could raise the bid all the way to the
amount they're owed without any real effect on their bottomline.

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kchoudhu
We don't necessarily go shopping at malls, but on oppressively warm days,
we'll take the tykes down to the local mall and use their indoor playspaces.
And while we're hanging about for a couple of hours, we'll make impulse
purchases and maybe take in a meal in the food court.

We're not alone -- everyone I know does this. I'm not at all sure this is a
sustainable customer base for asset-heavy businesses like mall holding
companies.

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wcummings
I've never been in a mall with an "indoor playspace".

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kchoudhu
They're fairly common in California. Anything to get more foot traffic, I
guess.

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supernintendo
Shopping malls were once quite popular in the U.S. The idea was to provide
city-like commerce options to people in small town America. Obviously the
Internet (especially Amazon) has made this model obsolete in virtually every
way possible. It's inevitable that we'll see more malls closing down over
time. I'd love to see some initiative to purchase these malls and appropriate
them for other purposes (office spaces, manufacturing, etc). However, it's
probably not worth it in the end due to maintenance costs.

As an aside, if you haven't seen Dan Bell's Dead Mall Series you should check
it out. The Rolling Acres Mall is probably the most infamous of the dead malls
he has filmed and worth a watch if you're interested in urban exploration and
urban decay [1].

[1]
[https://youtu.be/Zov7PEXdVZk?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx7dwc...](https://youtu.be/Zov7PEXdVZk?list=PLNz4Un92pGNxQ9vNgmnCx7dwchPJGJ3IQ)

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caidh
There's definitely been (at least in my anecdotal experience) a split between
the larger malls and the small/medium size ones. The larger malls are still
enough of a draw (with lots of shopping, dining, and entertainment options) to
bring people there.

The smaller malls are losing business to the larger ones, since people going
to the malls are often looking for 'something to do' instead of just looking
to buy a widget. Once a large anchor store or two closes at the small/medium
malls (as has happened with department store chains like Macy's or JC Penney),
the death spiral of the mall begins.

Some malls have recovered but only with major revitalization, renovation, and
often repositioning (adding more upscale stores if the area has the business
for such). An example of this in NY is the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County.
That mall started failing more due to the nearby Palisades Center that was
built in the 90s as a mega-mall. The Nanuet mall closed (completely I believe)
before being demolished and recreated.

Sadly, I can't add any comments based on the specific WSJ article, as it is
behind a paywall.

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nunez
Well another example of a mall that picked up on this and saved themselves was
Bergen Mall in Hackensack, NJ. That mall was straight up frozen in the 90s up
until the late 2000s despite being quite large. Few people went there,
especially since Garden State Plaza was so close by and offered so much more.

Their owners COMPLETELY rebuilt the mall to complete with it in 2009 or so and
turned it into a mid-upscale property. Completely turned it around.

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pravda
To all those with teenageish children: do kids nowadays still hang out at the
mall?

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erklik
I'm not sure in other countries but in Australia, I have never seen children /
teenagers ever actually "hanging out" at the mall.

I don't personally have any of my own but I haven't seen any of my friends
children there either. Most likely are either the skate park ( where teenagers
who don't skate seem to hang out as well) or the youth centre which is
basically a glorified arcade with councillors etc and the library which is
less of a library and more of a sitting place with games, movies etc.

Again, this is simple anecdote and in Australia so may not apply to the rest
of the world.

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fratlas
I'm from rural australia and I definitely remember kids hanging out at local
shopping centers. I visited home recently and they still do, especially in
summer (40+ degrees, who can blame them).

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cconcepts
About time.

Although I avoid them like the plague the subjective "feeling" of malls has
always seemed to me like a succession of gimicks to get people to buy more
stuff they dont need. Often, and this is really being presumptive, these
gimicks seem most effective on those least able to afford them.

Less malls means less in-your-face marketing for the suceptible
masses....unless of course someone built a massive online search engine that
was equally effective at pumping ads in people's faces....

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GregBuchholz
The suit is b... Err, does anyone know how old the "malls are dying" meme is?
I seem to recall hearing this for about the last 20 years or so.

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seanmcdirmid
Malls are no longer what they were. Lots of malls are dying, those that are
thriving have become something else.

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neaanopri
I, for one, will mourn the loss of malls. It's nice to have things physically
laid out in a physical space.

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JeffDClark
When the arcades left the malls I stopped going. Then again I also got old and
the world changed.

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CamelCaseName
Does anyone know where these mall closures are happening? I feel the article
barely skims the surface of why these malls are closing.

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jejones3141
I can only tell you what I see near me. Here in greater Des Moines, several
malls and shopping centers are shadows of their former selves, especially
Southridge. In OKC, Crossroads Mall was barely surviving last I looked. Not
much data, to be sure.

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ashark
The Kansas City area's gone from... 8? 9? fairly large malls to one, that I'm
aware of.

We _have_ gained an outdoor version that has the bonus creepiness of trying to
look like a nice, organic downtown of a quaint small european city while being
full of f*cking cars and feeling fake as hell. Several of those around now.
All of them would be 100x better if they'd shut down the roads to car traffic
and make everyone park on the edges and walk (including and especially the
somewhat older local prototype for the model, "The Plaza"). They're like malls
but you get rained on and it takes way longer to walk anywhere, and you might
get run over. They're really popular for some reason.

[EDIT] I can think of four really big versions of the above around here now,
and a couple smaller ones, and I'm sure there are more. Similar model to a
mall, usually developed and owned by one entity, which tightly controls who
can and can't be there (local KC example: MeMa's getting kicked out of The
Legends because they didn't have enough other locations). They're exactly like
malls but worse. I do not understand.

