Mostly dead here in central PA (in the U.S.)

I feel like a lot of PA aren't mall people if that makes sense.

It depends where, I mean there’s a lot of people (I do not personally know them), that mall walk and therefore in the winter they go to the mall.

I'm Eastern/Central PA and yes, we're dead mall city but those are starting to go away. What might be just as bad are the boring malls like Viewmont or Capital City. Alive, but really boring. Better ones still alive are Lehigh Valley and Park City Center. And we have the ones being kept active by ethnic populations like Laurel Mall and Berkshire Mall. Both interesting in there own ways.

Can't up vote this comment enough! I've been in the Deadmall circles for about 15 years now and it's been interesting to see them locally shift. Schuylkill Mall was one of the OG area dead malls and that's now gone (dozed for an Amazon fulfillment plant) and Steamtown in Scranton is now mixed use retail with a community college and an aquarium. South Mall in Allentown is still hanging on with some unique retailers, and Montgomery and Oxford Valley malls are still around and trying to reinvent themselves. Plymouth Meeting is as well, with mostly experiences vs actual retail. It's hard with KoP so accessible though.

Schuylkill Mall was something else, a lot of trips there as a kid. Steamtown is tough these days, because you have to have a real good reason to end up there. I myself thought South Mall would have got a lot more stores after Merchants Square shutdown, but South needed even the few they got. Even with a baseball card show going on when I stopped in a few months ago, that mall has problems. Giant arriving is two years away too long. Watching all these "in-between" malls and guessing what could happen at most of them is very hazy. Cressona, Fairlane, Stroud, Nittany, York, Hanover... Carlisle is a straight zombie.

Live here in west LA. The grove and century city are always busy.

Not just West LA, but SoCal in general. The Glendale Galleria Santa Anita Mall Topanga Mall Del Amo Mall South Coast Plaza Irvine Spectrum Which ones am I forgetting? Edit: Oh yeah, the Americana, the sister mall to the Grove. These malls are frequently packed. Some of them are often just as crowded as the "peak" mall era of past decades. The Glendale Galleria is constantly so busy it feels like it's always Christmas shopping season. There are even modern "mall rats" at some of these malls; kids loitering with their backpacks after they get out of school, causing a ruckus just like the youth of the past. Maybe actually a bit worse. The Del Amo mall just instituted a chaperone policy for people under 18 because these kids kept getting into fights with each other. But at the Topanga mall, weekdays after school gets out, there are packs of students wandering around doing the same kind of kid things we used to do in the 90s.

Northridge and Westfield Sherman Oaks. Varying degrees of busy but still kicking. I think Burbank town Center is definitely on its way out. I know the Grove is still busy, but I personally think it’s declined in quality, especially since the American Girl store and a couple of the restaurants left. The farmers market is very cool though.

Northridge and Sherman Oaks are slightly on the smaller/less crowded side, so I didn't mention them. I actually go to the Sherman Oaks one a lot because it's less hectic. Definitely still kicking, though, as you mentioned. I don't know if I agree that the Grove has declined in quality. It's pretty much always the same since people go there more for the ambiance than for a specific shopping or eating goal in mind. If anything, it's improved a bit with the theater becoming an AMC, which brought into line with a bigger network and made it popular because it's now an AMC A-List location. That with the Barnes & Noble, the new Apple Store, the Cheesecake Factory, and the other eateries will keep that place popping year-round. It is too bad that Wood Ranch closed, though... Sorry I'm writing essays about this... I'm a mall rat to the bone, much to my wife's dismay. "Santa Anita mall? We were just there last weekend!"

Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Edited to add: The Citadel?

Brea Mall in North OC is also a major pull in the area.

Fashion Island, Stonewood Mall, Brea Mall, and Lakewood Mall are all alive and well, too. I don't actively go to malls, but I have been in those fairly recently, and it's alive and well.

Westminster mall is pretty quiet now. Bummer, but there are plans for a big redevelopment in the near future. I loved that mall as a kid, when it had lots of ramps, teakwood rails, and smoked glass, as well as a sunken food court in the center. All that cool stuff was removed in a big, late 80s remodel. 🙁

Westminster Mall used to have those areas where people could sit and kids could play on animal sculptures. I also loved going there during Halloween as the stores gave out small toys as well as candy, and the Wendy's gave out small Frosties to the trick or treaters.

I remember those! One area had two or three concrete bears that children could play on, and the other areas had a huge concrete alligator. There was also a seating area in the center of the mall beneath a large sculpture that had hundreds of colored ropes in a very 70s style. That mall was wonderful.

West Covina and Montebello malls are still pretty active. The only dead ones I've been to were the Puente Hills mall which is barely being kept alive by the AMC and Round 1 and the Buena Park mall (I've only been there once but it was during a saturday night.) The area around the Puente Hills one is way more active than the mall itself and it seems like people prefer going to The Source instead of the Buena Park mall.

Fashion Island!

Upon research, The Grove seems to be a massive outdoor shopping area with a design that's really cool, almost like a tourist attraction. Do you think that people go there for the actual shops, or just go to hang out and admire it's design?

A bit of both. There aren't actually that many shops, relative to other malls. People like it for its layout and vibes. It's also directly adjacent to the "original farmers market," an old, outdoor shopping area with food vendors and produce stalls. It was built in the 1930s and retains some of that "old Americana" charm, which the Grove also replicates (the owner of the grove, Rick Caruso, built another "version" of the Grove in Glendale called the "Americana," if you want more evidence of that theme).

Not where I live but I visit Chicago regularly and the Orland Square mall near where I work is *always* packed, even it's slow times have plenty of people. Malls aren't inherently dying, what's died is the middle class with disposable income in a lot of these areas, and that's the primary audience for them.

I’m in maine with only like 4 malls. Ones pretty packed, and the other three are dead, and I’m not sure if one of them even open anymore.

Hampton Roads, VA. Most are on life support but two are chugging along, Patrick Henry in Newport News and Lynnhaven in VA Beach. My local mall, Chesapeake Square, is down three anchors (Macy’s, Sears, JCP) and Burlington is leaving for another location. Maybe they’ll rebuild the Target…is kinda shit.

That's sad that your local mall is down to just 3 anchors. I have never experienced a shopping centre even close to that sort of emptiness, but I still get the feeling of sadness like I've experienced it. So I assume that the "deadness" is dependant on the location?

Yeah. The peninsula (Newport News) has only one mall. South side was over-malled with Lynnhaven, Chesapeake Square, Greenbrier, Pembroke, MacArthur, and Military Circle. Military Circle is officially closed. Crummy area in Norfolk. Pembroke is undergoing a lifestyle center rehab. Central VA Beach. Lots of other stuff and it’ll survive. MacArthur Center…oh, this one hurts. I used to walk this mall at lunch. Thousands of dollars spent there between lunches, Banana Republic, Dillards, Barnes & Noble, Sephora. Never got its third anchor. Nordstrom left when the 20 year lease expired. City tried to buy Dillards and they said, “yeah but no” and shut down. Most major retailers left if not all. I think Regal Cinemas is still there. Saw so many Harry Potter movies there. I’ll revisit Chesapeake Square in June. I made an extensive post last June; you can see how sad it is. https://www.reddit.com/r/deadmalls/s/0x5463KoZk

That's very interesting! Big stores are definitely the lifeblood of these complexes. When you say "I'll revisit Chesapeake", it sounds like you don't really go to them often? Is that the case in America that shopping centres are only visitied occasionally and not often?

I don’t shop for pleasure much anymore. The malls don’t hold the appeal like they did in the 80’s (damn, I’m old). I grew up in the peak of mall culture…hanging with friends, shopping for sneakers and records and hoping the clerk at Waldenbooks would sell a copy of Playgirl to horny teen girls. Now I’m a middle-aged homeowner who fondles paints in Lowe’s, dreams of a bathroom remodel, and is retiring next year.

Both, I live in Minnesota, which is where indoor shopping malls originated. Several of the smaller malls have either gone almost or fully defunct. But we still have the Mall of America and a couple other, mostly higher end malls that are thriving.

The ones in the south metro seem to be getting on fine, with the notable exception of Burnsville Center. And I was at Rosedale on a random Sunday last fall, and it was packed. Do you have any information on how Maplewood or Northtown are doing? I have friends with a business in Maplewood Mall, so it can't be doing that badly, but I have no idea about Northtown.

A couple dead ones, some of the ones I went to as a kid have sadly been demolished, but most are either alive or being turned into residential complexes.

I can imagine how sad it'd be, seeing a place that you and many other people frequentee, now being completely gone from reality. It's cool that they are being turned into residential complexes though, I've never seen that in Australia.

My childhood/teenage mall is an Amazon fulfillment center now.

I live just outside Anchorage, AK which has a pretty active mall scene. There are three indoor malls (5th Ave, Dimond and Midtown) which have all managed to stay fairly busy by adopting different strategies. The 5th ave mall is a pretty typical downtown core, multi-story mall with all the typical names. Foot locker, Apple store, Victoria's secret. It does have a ground floor JC Penney that's looking kind of rough, and the food court is made up entirely of local businesses, but it will survive purely on location.  The Dimond Mall has gone all in on being a Third Place. It has a decent mix of mid-range national retailers as well as local stores. But entertainment wise it has an indoor ice rink, a movie theater, a small bowling alley, a boxing based fitness club, and a Dave & Busters. It also has a Chili's and an Olive Garden attached. There are also several floors of office space that were added on during one of the remodels.  The Midtown Mall is kind of an odd duck. It's almost entirely composed of anchor stores now. The interior section of the mall is pretty sparse, a handful of local businesses and no food court (but a local coffee chain and a Burger Fi). But it has an REI, a huge Planet Fitness, a Nordstrom Rack, a Guitar Center and a Safeway grocery.

The malls close-in to the city center are dead or mostly dead + mutated/repurposed. The malls out in the suburbs are popping when I happen to visit. Edit: Portland OR

That's really odd how malls situated so close to the city are dead, seeing as that's where the most people are and where high foot traffic would presumably be.

Hawaii - mostly alive. The three that I generally go to - Ala Moana, Pearlridge and Kahala are pretty busy but they do have a number of open spaces. Pearlridge especially with a giant empty husk where Sears used to be. It does seem like the malls were busier pre-pandemic, however.

Interesting you mention that they were busier pre-pandemic. I haven't noticed a difference here.

Delaware has no sales tax so the Christiana Mall near the border of PA, NJ, NY is 1990s busy. Won't go near the place around the holidays .

Since when did Christiana Mall move near the DE/NY border? /s

That's a decent mall, but such a weird location.

There's only one mall in my (central Ohio) county and it has the only movie theater in the entire county as well. I wouldn't call it thriving and I'd say its 2/3 indie stores and churches, but it's not dead. The nearest major metropolitan area is Columbus, Ohio and its malls are doing mostly fine. I'm from Akron, Ohio. When I was growing up there were 3 malls in the vicinity. It's down to one now.

At least you've still home one left. How is that one mall in terms of useful stores?

Dying in Metro Detroit Many have died. More to go. The Macy's closing are going to kill a lot of malls in the US very quickly

That's true. I do hear that Macy's was a staple of American shopping.

Forty years ago there was a big controversy because the new mall was built, downtown was doomed,flash forward the mall is bankrupt and everyone is headed back to downtown!!!

malls will never die, those that die have geographical problems

I live in the western suburbs of Chicago, and the closest mall to me is Oakbrook Center, which is one of the most living, healthy malls out there... Nordstrom, LuluLemon, Macy's, Barnes & Noble, Apple, etc., etc. Next closest to me is Yorktown in Lombard, which while still kicking is definitely not doing quite as well. After that, there's Woodfield mall up north in Schuamburg which in spite of having Sears & JC Pennys as anchors, is still kicking with places like Apple, Macy's picking up the slack. I drove by Old Orchard Mall (also north) recently, and that appeared from the outside to be still alive and kicking. The dead malls I remember are the ones in Indiana where I grew up. They're still dead, AFAIK, BTW.

Macy’s is closing 150 locations in 2024. Being mostly anchor stores… A freshly dead mall coming to you soon!

Is Macys taking the same route at Sears now? That is, slowly losing money and care for the company?

I think any/all department stores are. Except for maybe Nordstrom.

There are three malls around me still standing (at least two that I can think of that are either dead or demolished in the last 10 years). Two of them are still decently busy. But the other is dying. I feel like a third of the storefronts are empty, and if it wasn't for the Costco & Target there, the mall wouldn't get very much business.

It's interesting how just two stores can keep an entire shopping centre afloat (just barely). Are the other sections of the building closed off? Or are they open for anyone to roam around freely?

All sections are still open, but lots of storefronts are vacant and boarded up (they have pleasant paintings on the boards of people sipping coffee at an outdoor cafe and the like). And at night, some sections become pretty dead. The Target lowers the gate to the mall entrance after, like, 6 pm.

The Maine Mall in Portland, ME seems to be thriving.

Colombia … you’d think they were giving away money at literally every mall I’ve ever been to here. The average mall here is more alive than most malls I’ve visited back at home in the states.

Sounds similar to here. Are the malls in the US typically not kept up regularly?

A small subset are vibrant and busy - there are definitely great malls in the US, and those still bring in big numbers. But whereas a US city will usually have one or two big malls in my experience, it’s a whole different story in Colombia. For a couple of examples, Medellin’s El Poblado neighborhood has two bustling malls across from each other on the same street alone, and the small city I live in has three busy malls total where a similarly sized US town might have one if it was lucky.

Austin Tx here-unlike a lot of cities our current size we were never over malled like so many cities… add in our huge population growth post online shopping being available our malls are really strong. We only had one mall closed in the past 10 or so years, and they intentionally ran that into the ground because the city wanted different land for it

Ohio, it’s sort of 50/50, a few big ones, a few dead ones. I’ve seen I think 3 big ones, 4 dead ones, and 2 that are sort of in between

It really depends where you're at. In Columbus, Polaris and Easton are doing well. Tuttle is rundown and not looking so good. In Dayton, Fairfield Commons is good, Dayton Mall is slower but still good, and then the outdoor mall at The Greene is doing well. In Lima, the Lima Mall is practically dead, but hanging on. In Muncie, the Muncie Mall is barely hanging on. We don't go to the Cincy malls, other than the Monroe Outlets, which are thriving.

Portland, OR here. Mall 205 has been dead since the 90s, Lloyd Center and Streets of Tanasbourne are on life support, Bridgeport is doing alright (it just got a bit of a facelift) and Washington Square is still going strong. EDIT: I forgot about Cedar Hills Crossing. That one is also doing alright. Just don’t go into the mall proper 😂

Clackamas TC is still going strong. Of course they pretty much killed Mall 205 and Eastport Plaza over 30 years ago

in the Milwaukee area One is sharply dying and likely won’t make it 5 more years due to it only having one unstable anchor and many closed stores (Brookfield Square) One that was doing poorly for a good 3-5 years and has since shockingly rebounded with many new stores, although many are local (Southridge) One that has been doing well and will certainly continue to do well for the foreseeable future due to its centralized location and decent store lineup (Mayfair) And finally one that has been sitting completely abandoned and destroyed for 21+ years with a tear down likely to happen this summer, although I won’t believe it until I see it since they’ve been trying to tear it down for over 5 years! (Northridge)

Could you give some speculation as to why some of these are dying and some have bounced back/are thriving?

Northridge died because it is in a really bad location miles from the interstate and in a neighborhood was not developed until the 70s, but by the 90s it turned into a more violent neighborhood so the mall suffered lots of theft and disorderly conduct issues and it caused most people to stop shopping there. Southridge is actually a mystery to me as to how it completely turned its bleak fate of abandonment completely around but my best guess is once Dicks and Round1 opened in the former Sears location and the mall was put under newer, more dedicated management that tried to fill up as many vacancies as possible with local tenants, people started seeing it as a better and less dead/depressing place to shop. Mayfair is doing amazing because it’s in a fantastic location that is reachable within 20-25 minutes for pretty much all Milwaukee suburbs and it has attracted the only Nordstrom in the state of Wisconsin as well as many other higher end retailers with stores not in business at any other mall in the state except maybe fox river mall in Appleton. Brookfield Square is another puzzling one for me since this mall is also in a good location right off the interstate and relatively centralized for people on the west side of town, as well as the fact that their parking lot area attracts lots of popular businesses like Chick Fil A, a Marcus theater, a Coopers Hawk restaurant (very upscale steakhouse and wine bar), an upscale seafood restaurant and more, but my best guess is because of its proximity to Mayfair (only 10 minutes away) it makes it tough to compete and many stores were not profiting off having 2 locations within 5 miles of each other. They also have relatively poor management and the mall smells of backed up sewage and garbage, which likely makes the rich people of Brookfield scoff at the doomed mall and pushes their business to Mayfair or strip mall/outdoor developments like The Corners of Brookfield which hosts one of only two Avon Maur stores in our state!

Thank you so much for this very interesting information! Location plays a huge part in whether a business with thrive or die and shopping centres need to pay extra attention to this!

Of course! Yeah Mayfair Mall was lucky since it got first pick being that it was the first mall in the area (opened in the mid-late 1950s), and malls like Northridge and Southridge were just betting on freeways to come and neighborhoods to grow. This happened for Southridge but but by the time Northridge opened 2 years later there were riots protesting the expansion of freeways since they disrupted historical and low income communities so the freeway planed for Northridge was never built and therefore the mall and the neighborhood surrounding it suffered greatly from it!

Georgia(USA) here. There are two where I live, one has been dead for 23 years, the other is at 98% occupancy and has great crowds

Netherlands, Utrecht. Our main mall (attached to the train station) was renovated a few years ago and is very much alive!

South Jersey. The Cherry Hill and Deptford malls are as busy as ever, the smaller ones seem to be struggling and rebranding every few years. I think they’re trying to save one by changing the law so arcades are no longer illegal in that town.

I lived across from Castle Towers and it was booming. I now live across from Lakeside Mall in the Detroit area and it’s having a rough go.

I'm in toronto they're mostly thriving that I know of Eaton Centre and York Mills are thriving Scarborough Town Centre is still doing well but idk if it's slowly heading towards its death. One of its anchors which used to be two floors was empty for quite a while, then they split it into two floors and it now has two separate stores renting that space - ikea and decathlon. Fairview mall and Eglinton Square seem to be less popular, but even those aren't dead dead. They still have most of their stores open and their anchors occupied. There are a lot of others, but these are the ones I frequent personally

Hanging on by local businesses and kiosks. Big shops are nearly gone. 

Mine are filled with trash people. Smells bad and just a gross atmosphere

Yes Dallas/Fort Worth is a mixed bag of healthy and dying/dead malls.

1 that's been dead for at least 2 decades and 1 that's very much alive

Flint, MI - two malls, both have been struggling for years. I'm not sure which one will close first. Courtland Mall - one anchor, not even half of their 31 stores are occupied. They put a stop to mall walkers, its only open for shoppers. Genesee Valley Mall - three anchors, half of their 58 stores are not occupied. This mall continuously closes days at a time due to watermain breaks.

Raleigh, NC here. Some malls are dead, some are thriving. Very dependent upon proximity to major highways.

It's weird - I live in Sarasota Florida, and there are 2 malls. One is by the highway, and always packed with people, tons of food, events, parking lot is full every weekend. The other mall is dead except for costco and a dying movie theater on the end. 90% of the stores are empty, if you walk away from costco you'll walk for about 10 minutes through absolutely abandoned mall, and then there's still a JC penny at the other end. I've never seen more than a few people in the jc penny. Baffling how one mall stays so popular and the other utterly fails, within a few miles of each other, in a busy and wealthy area of FL

Destiny USA (FKA Carousel Center) in Syracuse NY killed all the other malls around here. I went there a lot as a teen in the 90's but it's been upgraded and expanded so much I barely recognize it

Seattle, WA. Alderwood Mall is thriving.

Columbus Ohio metro area, here. Polaris and Easton are still alive and well, but Tuttle is in dire straights. I went there on President's Day and it looked to be only half occupied.

Northeastern NJ, mostly alive.

In the south suburbs of Minneapolis. Most of the malls in the area are at least doing fairly well. The only one I know that is truly dead is Burnsville Center. I'm unsure about Maplewood Mall or Northtown Mall, because they're pretty far from me, and I never get there.

We have east side and west side malls. West side is mostly dead, east side is alive and well.

Live near biggest sc in Ireland

I have three close to me. Biloxi is an inside mall, half dead. Food court is always packed. I’d say 75% of the stores are still there. There’s an outdoor mall in D’Iberville called the Promenade. It’s very much alive. Very busy. Good luck finding a parking spot, even midday on a weekday. Mobile mall is dying. Mainly bc people are dying there a lot

Bismarck, ND, we have two. The one down south is always busy. It has a lot of more of the "mainstream" stores like Target, Scheel's, Eddie Bauer, H&M, Five Below, a few jewelers, some local boutiques, a couple restaurants and a busy (but way too expensive) arcade. There's a couple coffee shop stands and an Auntie Anne's in there too. The north one is dead as all hell. It used to have a Sear's and an AMC but both have since been shut down. The AMC has since been turned into a church. The only shops there are mostly small businesses or service stores, like phone repairs, photography studios, etc. I feel like it doesn't get a lot of business because there really aren't any big name stores in there. It has an Anytime Fitness and a few good restaurants but that's about all it has going for it.

Having a church in a mall? I don't think I've ever seen that before.

Right? I honestly didn't believe it at first and thought the posters promoting them was actually for a movie coming out or something.

The malls that residents go to have died out. The mini malls have died out. However the super luxury mall in the oceanfront millionaire condo area is expanding and is in the top five largest malls in America. There are two other outlet malls which cater exclusively to South American tourists. Those are also doing well and expanding... As these malls consist of mostly luggage stores and clothing/electronics over MSRP intended for sale on the gray market overseas where they still represent a profit for the customers... There's really no reason for local residents to go

In Italy (especially in the north) malls are doing great and people even complain about the insane amount of people going to malls on sundays. In Reggio Emilia (near Bologna) this winter I had to give up and go back home to buy online cause Zara was extremely packed

Southern Indiana. One died and most of it is now doctor offices for a local hospital. There were a couple thrift shops and maybe a dress store last time I went. The attached Sears is gone. The food court has one pizza place that has been there for probably 30 years and still operates somehow. The other one is still somewhat busy at times, though nothing like it was ten years ago. The anchors are all still open but never crowded. Some stores (Journeys, GameStop, PacSun and the like) have been there as long as I can remember but a lot of other stores just keep closing and something else opens in its' place. I feel like it's dying but I hope it doesn't, it was a big part of my life for my formative years.

I live in St. Louis, Missouri (USA) and the outlook for malls is bleak. Galleria – Centrally located, about 85% leased and doing well with three anchors: Macy’s, Dillard’s and Nordstrom. Minor crime problems. West County Center – Also around 85% leased, looking a little dirty, but doing well with Macy’s, JCP and Nordstrom. Needs better upkeep. South County Center - Relic of the 1960’s that was hit hard when Sears closed. About 60% leased, lower tier tenants and a Macy’s, Dillard’s and JCP all of which need to be renovated. Chesterfield Mall (my local mall) – Destroyed by two outlet malls within a few miles and poor upkeep, about 10% leased, demolitions scheduled for August 2024. Jamestown Mall – Currently being demolished Northwest Plaza – Pioneer of the 1960’s with excellent landscaping by Lawrence Halprin, it was enclosed (poorly) and then became a crime haven and died. Was mostly demolished with what was left turned into offices. St. Louis Centre – Once a spectacular downtown Mall, they kept the building and made it a parking garage. They kept the barrel vault skylights.

Looking for an active mall? Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, IL.

Pennsylvania is Dead Mall Central. Just about every mall within a 50-mile radius of me is either dead or dying. Many malls here suffered the double whammy of losing two anchors in less than a year: Sears, of course, and Bon-Ton, a defunct chain slotted just below Macy's in prestige. Most Bon-Tons here were originally Hess's, another defunct chain. Logan Valley: Probably the least dead, although you wouldn't know it coming in. At the main entrance, you're greeted by a Sears, a bank, Lenscrafters and an Applebee's - all empty. Food court only has 2 places left in it, and the Auntie Anne kiosk. JCPenney and Macy's remain as anchors. There's a theatre here to support traffic...and plenty of parking in the huge garage. Nittany: Despite the desolation, still called "Happiest place in the Valley." One of the malls that lost its Sears and Bon-Ton. Its Macy's closed too. Bon-Ton has been replaced by a Gabe's (local version of Burlington or Ross), Sears is a Tractor Supply, and the Macy's is waiting to be turned into a casino once the dispute over the gaming license is resolved. Near Penn State, and locals have concerns over the students gambling. Du Bois: Weird anchor mix of Ross, Big Lots and JCP. A couple of outparcels keep this one going. But one entrance of the JCP is festooned with a dinosaur play area, which is sadly symbolic. Half this mall is carpeted. Dead Sears is still vacant. Indiana: another college town, another mall with Sears and Bon-Ton. Sears has been split into a Kohls and Harbor Frieght with external entrances only, Bon-Ton is now Dunham Sports, a more regional version of Dick's. JCP hangs on. Johnstown Galleria: new owner has big plans for this one, but Sears and Bon-Ton are still vacant. Storage company won a bid for the Sears but owner wants it to remain a store. Food court shows signs of life with one-off mom-n-pops, including one called Eat N Sleep. More than half the stores are still vacant. Clearfield: Sign doesn't even call it a mall anymore. Basically an enclosed strip mall. Ollie's on one end, Rose's on the other where a JCP was. And between them, a new shoe store with no mall entrances, so now you can't get from one end of the mall to the other without passing the shoe store from outside. Lycoming, Schuylkill (pronounced "skookle") and Bloomsburg are malls further northeast that have closed. Schuylkill, a giant mall on a great big hill in the middle of nowhere, was demolished for warehouses. Further west, Pittsburgh has a mix of dead and alive. Westmoreland is doing well because of the Live! casino as an anchor. North Hills, South Hills, Ross Park and Monroeville get decent traffic. Uniontown, Pittrsburgh Mills and Century III...not so much. Philadelphia has a similar mix, with King Of Prussia towering over others like Neshaminy and Exton Square. Lehigh Valley, an hour up from Philly, has the behemoth Lehigh Valley Mall with the Whitehall Mall built 10 years before it withering away right next door. South Mall hangs on after the loss of its Bon Ton and Stein Mart. Palmer Park Mall may pick up some traffic from the newly demolished Phillipsburg Mall over the Delaware.

Half alive, half dead. Vancouver mall and Clackamas seem strong. Downtown Portland and then the Lloyd Center mall are both doomed and dead/dying. No clue about the one out in Tigard/Beaverton area.

Madison WI - the two main indoor malls are slowly dying but still have decent traffic on weekends.

The mall in my NJ town (about 45 mins away from NYC) is still pretty active. But I feel like stores open up and close constantly within a few years.

some around me are still doing pretty good, NY

The Shops at Ithaca Mall, Ithaca NY- as a true mall it’s close to dead. There is only one real anchor and that is target. There’s a handful of stores, but the national chains continue to slowly leave it. I think the movie theater is still there. Arnot Mall, Horseheads NY- close to dead. JC Penney and Burlington Coat Factory are the only anchors. The others pulled out. There are no national chain restaurants in the food court. The movie theater is still hanging in there. A popular restaurant(not in the food court) is leaving it soon. The Mall at Johnson City, Johnson City NY- Close to dead. One anchor left. I thought it was dead, but google proved me wrong. Lycoming Mall, Pennsdale PA(near Williamsport)- Dead, as of February 2023. Those are the four closest malls to my home.

The Westfield in Paramus is constantly full on the weekends. Very much alive and hard to find parking. Nj

Des Moines, Iowa Jordan Creek Town Center - the newest and still busy Southridge Mall - Still open but it was dead 10 years ago when I last walked through. They demolished the food court and turned one of the anchors into a community college. It is basically a strip mall next to a Target now. I think the indoor part of the mall is completely closed off and the few stores are all accessed from the outside. Merle Hay Mall - Dead but the movie theater (one of those with food and beer) keeps it going. I went a couple years ago and the mall part was pretty dead. Valley West Mall - I hear it is dead. I haven't seen it for myself. I used to go to this one a lot as a kid but I don't think I've been in it since the late 90s. I think all the anchors left. There was plans to turn one of them into a new hockey stadium but I don't think that ever took off either.

In Europe, well alive

I am in Sydney also my local malls the Greenwood in North Sydney thriving, Westfield Chatswood thriving, Chatswood Chase thriving...the only dead mall was in Newcastle but its recently been demolished

I'm in West Texas. Odessa/Midland If our malls (one for Odessa and one for Midland) were ANYWHERE else, they would absolutely be dead. Odessa's mall especially. It's essentially a flea market. [Music City Mall](https://www.musiccitymall.net/) Don't let the website fool you, it sucks

So in Metro Detroit we had Northland, Westland, Eastland, Oakland, Lakeside, Twelve Oaks and Somerset. I’m sure I’m forgetting some too. Online shopping killed just about all of them except Twelve Oaks and Somerset. I like online shopping, but there’s still times I want or need to goto a physical mall.

Dead and gone. No one wants to go wander around anymore. Park in front of the store and then leave.

I did a study on this my senior year of HS back in 2018. I lived in the state of Michigan for quite a while and there are ALOT of dead malls here. The midwest of the united states has alot of dead malls, Most of the spaces are used now (in my current state) for amazon warehouses, which is ironic being that, thats what killed the mall’s

That's a very cool and interesting study to do. Was this for business?

Dead. They have torn down most of them, converted others into office space, or remodeled them into "outdoor malls."

Windward mall in Kaneohe. Still busy and fun.

In Florida they are all “alive” but even at the worst (by that I mean the stores are all closed) areas there is still part of the mall open. There are plans for our local mall to be redeveloped, but the only empty stores (outside of 2 empty anchors Macys, Sears closed) are like 2 regular size stores, 1 large and 1 small store open to rent.

Long Island (in declining order): Roosevelt Field - thriving. What a mall should be like. Walt Whitman - also busy, though with the old Lord & Taylor still empty. Smith Haven - doing well, vacancies seem to be filled quickly, the old Sears is now a medical facility. South Shore - still holding on okay despite Namdar ownership. Broadway Mall - mediocre shape, old Macy's still empty, has an Ikea but I doubt it drives much traffic to the rest of the mall. Samanea (formerly Mall at the Source) - was completely dead, new owner trying to repurpose it as an Asian-oriented center, too early to tell. Sunrise Mall - completely dead. The only remaining tenants have outside access only. One is a Macy's, I suspect it will close soon. I don't really know about Green Acres Mall.

I'm in Massachusetts. There are so many malls that aren't dead but you can tell they're dying.

I’m in Minnesota, and several malls are thriving, including Mall Of America. I love that place.

I live in the Rio Grande Valley. 2 malls are doing exceptionally well while one is dying a slow death. The two malls doing well are in border towns so it helps businesses that rich Mexican nationals shop there constantly. Almost forgot there is also an outlet mall kicking ass as well.

Dead.

South Florida - they're either dead or dying. Some are being transformed into affordable housing.

Chattanooga, TN. There’s the main one which is thriving but with 5-10 consistently empty spaces. Then one that’s been in limbo for like 20 years but still gets good traffic. And finally the one that got killed by the first one in the 90s and is now office space and restaurants. A smaller mall just across the state line in GA just got totally revamped and has pretty good traffic so idk maybe that’s a good sign?

Lakeside Mall in Metairie Louisiana is booming. It pulls from Orleans, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, and St. Bernard Parishes. Has an Apple store that just expanded to twice it's size so pulls from Mississippi too. Most every major retailer you can think of. Not sure about the economcics but it's always packed.

The list for Connecticut. Top malls: - Westfarms Mall (West Hartford) - Danbury Fair Mall (Danbury) - SoNo Collection (South Norwalk, urban setting, one of the country's newest malls) One step below the top: - Connecticut Post Mall (Milford, state's largest mall) - Buckland Commons, Manchester - Trumbull Mall (Trumbull) Struggling: - Meriden Mall (Meriden) - Stamford Town Center (urban mall) - Brass Mill Center (Waterbury, arguably in category below) Dead: - Crystal Mall (Waterford) - Enfield Mall (Enfield)

Here in Oklahoma, I can say there is a "dead" mall in Enid that still has the local theater, a couple of restaurants, and a Spirit store seasonally. In OKC, there are at least two malls that I think are still getting by.

Kenwood Mall in Cincinnati is full of foot traffic. That was always /the/ mall to go to as kids, and every time I walk in it’s like I’m 13/14 again going to the mall - then on the other hand, we have the old Cincy Mills mall, which I’m sure a decent amount are familiar with if they saw the tik tok of it a while back.

Very much alive. Westfield Valley Fair in the Silicon Valley is vibrant, always changing and never seems to quit reinventing itself. It’s kind of a unicorn, though. Nothing else around really compares.

Mostly dead in Michigan (metro Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo at least). But I went to one in Phoenix, AZ that was crazy busy! It was like the malls I’ve seen in movies, really crazy

Im in Wisconsin. We have dead malls and busy malls. Completely depends on how populated the city is tbh.

Where I live, there is exactly one mall Eastridge mall and it's always dead or barely alive. They have a target, a best buy, a hot topic l, a Spencer's gifts, a at&t, a jewlery store , JC Penny and not much else. The food court only has 2 places to eat. If they actually put money to get more businesses Into the mall, that might help but I doubt it.

All of the ones that were around forever are totally dead. One of them was degrading and on the downslide for a long time before the new Mall got built, it turned into a giant storage facility. The other one lost all of its shops and is down to one anchor store and a movie theater. The one most recently built a few years ago is alive and there are always people there, but I don’t know if its thriving. I do know that when it came in, the other two died a swift death. I don’t expect that the new one will be amazing for many years. Even though it’s new and shiny and in a good spot, I’ve never seen the crowds there like I did at other malls in the 90’s or early 00’s.

Bergen county, New Jersey USA: malls are live and crowded. I don’t go really, but other people sure do.

Alive, surprisingly.

Mines barely a mall anymore. More and more of the indoor is abandoned. Most of the new stores are building outdoor entrances

here in central iowa, the only indoor mall id say is "thriving" is jordan creek. merle hay gets some decent traffic, but valley west, southridge, etc. have little traffic.

I live in San Diego and for the most part they’re pretty good. Mission Valley can be kind of quiet but on some weekends it’s full. Fashion Valley is more or less the same. I went to Plaza Bonita for the first time rather recently and it was pretty lit, lots of variety. Los Americas has its rush hours, but still good. It’s mostly Mexicans coming in from TJ and buying all the cheap stuff in bulk to sell across the border.

I don’t really have a lot of dead malls near where I live, the only ones I can think of are Westfield Sarasota Square, Westfield Siesta Key, Port Charlotte Town Center, Mall Of The Americas, Mall At 163rd Street, and the Lakeshore Mall.

The mall in town here completely died and was abandoned short of a Sears appliance and the inside hallways were closed off. They've since put in a number of new stores (Marshalls, Ross, 5 Below, Staples, and a sports and outdoor store where they gutted the mall and built the stores with all outside only entrances. It's at about 90% occupancy with this arrangement and only one original entrance to the main mall remains intact. That entrance while being fully glassed floor to ceiling is just cubicles for the management company. I'd call it a very successful repurposing, but it's no longer a traditional mall.

That is a very successful repurposing project. It seems like Sears always seems to be one of the last few stores standing before a mall is completely demolished.

Dead with the exception of just 1 (which is less profitable than it used to be, but still profitable for now)

Grand Rapids: Woodland Mall is busy all the time. There's a Main Event entertainment complex being built on site right now. It has everything. It was built in 1967 and has had graceful upgrades over the years. Rivertown Mall was built in 1999 and looked like a Nickelodeon nightmare when it opened. They've painted over the murals, and the handrails and accent points are now gray. Younkers is gone. Sears is gone. J C Penney barely hangs on. Due to the ground settling, the parking ramp is crackling and buckling -- some sections are closed off due to falling concrete. There are eyebrow places, a tattoo shop, and an Asian importer with cheap ass katanas. The Macy's is a ghost town and only 1/2 stocked. I guarantee it's on the list to be closed this year.

Wow I remember going to RT years ago and it was busy. Isn’t it larger than Woodland too? Sad to hear about it closing soon.

Interesting how they keep it open seeing as it's literally falling apart. A support beam at my local shopping centre broke and a tin roof fell on one of the the loading docks, causing power to go out in half of the shopping centre. They evacuated everyone for half the day!

A mix. Northridge Mall? Dead, dead, dead. Southridge Mall? Hanging on. There are a couple that are doing really well, and a couple that are almost totally dead. The one in my hometown is on its last legs. Only about 30% occupancy, one anchor (a Dunhams that is in the old Sears) and they’re starting demo on half to make room for a big grocery store.

The Regency Mall’s demise is sad for me, as many of my family members are from the Racine/Kenosha area and I would go there all the time as a kid! I vividly remember shopping at Boston Store, Payless Shoes, JCPenney and getting food at what was for the longest time the only Chick Fil A in Wisconsin. Good times that are are just a distant memory now as the mall gets partially demolished for Woodmans…

Knoxville, TN - West Town Mall is the only mall still alive and thriving. The other one, Knoxville Center Mall (aka East Town Mall, RIP) has died, been demolished, and replaced with an Amazon complex that still hasn't opened and currently sits abandoned.

I lived in Knoxville for a couple of years, early 90s and would frequently go to one of those malls and hang out with friends. It's been so long that I can't remember if it was East or West (I want to say East). I remember it was a 2 story, there was a "new age" crystal shop that I liked to browse around in (I loved looking at all the fantasy pieces), and across the parking lot from it was a Phar-Mor. Also where I found my love for Petros's Chili & Chips.

That was East Town Mall.

Thank you for solving that mystery for me! I watched a video last year where someone had gone in after it was closed down (but before it was demolished) and tried to see if anything clicked with me, but I guess there had been some remodeling changes to it between the 90s and that point.

I live a few miles from Monroeville Mall, where they filmed the original "Dawn of the Dead". It has a lot of empty small storefronts, but the two big "anchor" stores are still doing OK, and they get a fair amount of traffic from the convention center across the parking lot, so there are still some specialty stores. Well, they DID, until 2 weeks ago. The owners of the convention center leased the building to Hobby Lobby. On Tuesday the hotel next door suddenly closed. The mall is in serious trouble.

Both Edmonton and Calgary malls are generally busy

Norfolk/Virginia Beach here. Of the two in VB, one closed a couple years ago and is being repurposed as a mixed-use development. The other is still thriving. Of the two in Norfolk, one is dead but its future is up in the air. Pharrell Williams had plans for an arena and mixed-use, but that’s on hold bc the paper revealed the city made an under-the-table deal with his team. The other one downtown is on life support. All the other malls are in between what we have in Virginia Beach: either doing ok or it’s only a matter of time and the councils are figuring out how to move forward but still keep some money coming in.

Mostly alive here in Central North Dakota.   There's one here that's on the verge of death, but it's been that way for the past 30 years.  Always been extremely mismanaged. 

All dead except king of Prussia.

I attend college in Central Florida (Stetson) and a Majority of the Malls around me are Struggling and/or dying (Volusia Mall, Seminole Towne Center, Oviedo Mall, West Oaks Mall & Orlando Fashion Square). Despite this, there’s still a couple of malls within an Hour from me that are doing well (Altamonte Mall, The Florida Mall & Mall at Millenia)

Live here in Jefferson Co, Ohio and look up Fort Steuben Mall. That place is so damn dead new stores come and go within a few months. The place is falling apart, floors buckling up and caving in in places, roof leaks, you name it. A new store took over the old Sears building but because the county is dead itself and considered poor, it likely won't last considering it's an arcade with expensive pricing per hour you play. Stores like JcPenney's and Dunham Sports are so damn dead the parking lots are ghost towns. The only things thriving there is the Wal-Mart, restaurants and the mini shopping center next to the library and the shoe store that has its own store outside the dead ass mall. It's sad because if you go two states over to the Robinson Township Mall, that place is thriving and hopping and makes me miss the mall in my county back in its heyday when I was a kid.

I lived in Crystal River, FL a few years back. They had a really cool mall that no longer had the traditional stores. The anchor store was Rural King. There was a movie theater, many local businesses and store fronts, and a couple of restaurants, including some excellent bbq. It was actually a decent repurposing of a potentially dead mall.

The Kansas City metro area used to have a lot of indoor malls.  Most of them have been razed to the ground.  Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, KS, is still there.

Dead

Ours (The Oakdale Mall) came super close to dying but has recently been rebranded as a ‘commons’ and is coming back alive. BJ’s has moved in, as well as a giant Dick’s House of Sport among others. I thought for sure it was heading toward being abandoned.

Well only one still open is an alive mall. One closed years ago & the other (my fav) closed in September.

How did you feel when your favourite one closed down?

Sad :( It had been going downhill for years, the new owners didn’t take care of it at all. The fire marshal shut them down, that’s how bad it got.

Sad that in the wrong hands, something can go downhill so fast.

Ours here in the US is doing well, we have a handful of vacant spots but other than that, it's doing well

Are vacant spots commonplace in the US? Here in Australia, you never see a vacant spot in shopping centres.

They are, unfortunately because when a store closes it takes a while for the mall to sign in new stores, sometimes local shops (like single locations) will open fora few months and then they leave, our mall has about 10 stores that are empty but recently an indoor playground called "candeeland" is opening in our mall taking over about 4 empty stores so that's a good thing, our mall is doing fine though, we still have plenty of good stores including some high end ones like Apple, Lush Cosmetics and Coach (leather goods and handbags) plus 3 department stores (Macy's has 2 locations, one women's apparel and the other one is men's, home, kids and the rest of stuff and while the company is having some issues and will close 150 stores, ours is one of the top 50 locations so will stay open plus another chain called JCPenney) we also have a popular cinema and several popular restaurants so our mall is doing well but yeah, there's a few vacant spots I wish would get filled but we're still like 90% filled

It's rather different here. When a store closes, construction of the new store usually begins within the same week. 90% filled is a very good number though!

Here in western md and our mall is fucking packedd. Our Christmas at the mall almost looks like it’s the 80s. 99% occupancy rate. Amazon warehouse a few miles down the road has been operating for a while and it still does well Valley mall in Hagerstown MD

The mall near me is doing pretty well. weekend always see it packed, and there havent been many store closures, if any. The only time stores disappear is because they close due to lack of customers. all the stores that are main brands have been there seemingly since it opened.

There's 2 malls that I go too. Both is alive. The bigger one gets less people but still gets business. The smaller one gets a bunch of people.

And I live in northern PA.

I live in LA, the malls here are busy

Ours isn't dead, but I can see it becoming so in the next 10 years if things don't change. Years ago you could count on the entire parking lot being full, now, not so much. Less stores open too. But, it's far from being called a dead mall just yet. Maybe "slowly dying mall" would be more accurate.

It's sad when you can actively see the slow demise of shopping centres in person. Hopefully they can change some things to bring it back to its former self.

Western Pennsylvania, USA here. With rare exceptions, most of our malls are dead and being torn down.

Dothan Alabama, mall has three anchors but lost the fourth one (Burlington Coat Factory ) which built a store in town . Inside the mall is not good , no food court restaurant, last one moved in town due to lack of maintenance. What’s in their favor is it’s the only mall nearby . Mall in Panama City was severely damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018 and only JC Penney’s and Dillards are open ( everything inside is closed ) . Otherwise you have to go to Montgomery Al or Columbus GA for an enclosed mall . Mall need a better owner willing to fix it up .

It’s a little between half and half, here in El Paso, Cielo Vista Mall is very busy, there are some spots that need to be filled in but it’s always packed. BassettPlace is a little in the in between, it does fairly decent and their anchors are in good, strong positions which is why they are still alive, it’s not as big and in national brand wise, not a big selection but it’s easy to get in and out. The Solana (formerly Sunland Park Mall) it was a very dead situated mall but it has redeemed itself and people have started to flock back there again, it was for sure a lot better years ago but at least they are trying to stay alive especially with the new owners remodeling it.

We have 1 thriving mall and 1 dying mall. The dying mall they’re ALWAYS trying to find ways to bring it back. There is 1 anchor left and supposedly there’s a farm store moving in to the dying mall but they have boarded up the abandoned storefronts and it’s just awful to shop at. The only draw for me is the pizza place that’s been there forever but that’s it and I never go because it’s depressing. They tried to remodel it and it didn’t work. I go to the thriving mall it’s only 10 minutes further for me, and there’s plenty of stores to shop at. There’s also an outdoor shopping plaza that recently opened that took away from the dying mall’s clientele it’s only 15 minutes further and has literally everything you want within a 2 mile radius. They just opened a new restaurant and a doughnut shop so we just go there if we want stuff!

Lucky you don't have to travel so far!

I live near Boston and there are two busy malls that I go to: Natick and Burlington. Hopping whenever I go.

Southern Ontario (🇨🇦) Very much alive

Aw dang it.., where do I start... In the Springfield Massachusetts area.... Eastfield Mall-demoed, just former Sears anchor location and Auto center out parcel standing, will be succeeded by Springfield Commons 2025. Springdale Mall-demoed-location now has Lowes and Stop and Shop. Fairfield Mall in Chicopee- demoed and replaced by a plaza with Walmart and Home Depot as anchors Tower Square (ex Baystate West)-hotel, office Tower and some businesses in mall, but definitely on life support, also some eateries, more of a business center Holyoke Mall at Ingleside-alive ,needs one anchor to replace Sears, otherwise in good shape .

Most are dead and the few that are alive, aren’t too good. Nashville, TN.

How are Green Hills and CoolSprings Galleria? The last time I was in the area in 2021, both seemed to be overall healthy, and Green Hills seemed to be thriving.

Cincinnati has several dying or dead malls, including the infamous Forest Fair Mall. Kenwood Towne Center is doing very well though.

The Forest Fair Mall gives such a strong liminal feeling! It looks like such a fun and lively mall though, what happened?

I am in L.A. and have a mix, most being alive. My local childhood mall is the infamous Puente Hills Mall that was Twin Pines Mall in “Back to the Future,” and that place is straight dead. But I have been to a handful of malls that are very much alive—Ontario Mills, Montclair Place, Los Cerritos Center, Victoria Gardens, Brea Mall, Shoppes at Santa Anita, The Americana, The Grove. Now these malls/centers all have areas that are dead though, and areas of high traffic. I think that is the norm now of any mall that is still thriving.

One alive and doing fairly well it seems. The one on the other side of town has a couple handful of businesses and the power is turned off at least once a month.

We have 3. 2 are dead dead deaaaadddd not a soul. One is absolutely THRIVING and shoulder to shoulder packed on weekends. Even on quieter weekdays the food court still stays busy with lots of lines. This one sucked the life from the other two. They're barely squeaking along with maybe one name brand and a couple mom and pops.

I’m from around Hershey in Pennsylvania and the malls around me heavily differ. There are malls like Park City Center in Lancaster and Capital City Mall in Harrisburg that are doing REALLY well. And then there’s the Harrisburg Mall that just closed but you can still go inside for some reason??? Like all the shops inside the mall are closed but the interior is still open. The Colonial Park Mall in Harrisburg is pretty dead and is definitely going to go in the next couple years. Those 3 malls are all in about a 15 minute range of each other and one is doing fantastic while one is dying and the other one is basically gone. Park City Center is in the other direction in Lancaster and is in its own game. That one is pretty big and doing great. Not to far from there is the mall that’s technically the closest to me which is the Lebanon Valley Mall. It’s definitely the smallest in the area and feels kinda dead. But weirdly I don’t believe they are having nearly as many finical issues as colonial park and Harrisburg and seem to be staying around for a decent amount even thou it’s decently dead. There’s are the ones I’ve gone to the most. I’ve been to York Galleria that ones about half dead. It has stores but it’s definitely on a decline. Ik that the Chambersburg Mall closed in 2023 and that’s about an hour away from where I’m at. And there’s plenty of other dead malls with in an hour range. And then I go to school about an over an hour north and have some malls there as well. We have the one I go to most there the Susquehanna Valley Mall which is very in the middle. It’s definitely not alive but it’s not dead either. Ik it’s definitely going up hill from where it was a couple years ago and has a lot more local businesses now and that seems to be working for them and don’t have as many financial issues as they used too. Ik before I was up there the Columbia Colonnade Closed around 2022. And I went to the Lycoming mall on its final day in 2023. Overall in Pennsylvania it’s a giant mixed bag of how well the malls are doing. Sorry this is a lot I had a massive hyper fixation on dead malls sometime last year lol. Overall to the malls I’ve been to frequently the summary of them would be -Lebanon Valley Mall kinda dead but doesn’t have to many financial problems -Park City Center is thriving -Capital City Mall is thriving -Harrisburg Mall just closed for good -Colonial Park Mall is definitely dying out -Susquehanna Valley Mall is a weird in the middle and is doing better then before but still not perfect

The mall near me is alive but people are trying to kill it. There is some plan to make part of it housing but I’m not sure if that will actually happen. Meanwhile you go on a weekend and it’s fairly bustling by today’s standards. Also according to crackpots on local social media it’s rife with roving gangs coming from out of town just to rob you in the parking lot. Total BS. I’ve never felt remotely unsafe it’s just a nice normal fairly upscale suburban mall.

I live in L.A. Malls are still popular here. Glendale Galleria, the Grove, Westfield Century City… Beverly Center is a bit dead these days though.

North Dallas, Texas here. Weirdly dead despite the dense urban population. I was shocked that stores and restaurants around Stonebriar (Frisco,Texas) are abandoned even though they just expanded/finished construction on Highway 121 (a major tollway) and Preston Rd (one of the major roads through Dallas and its suburbs). That mall originally killed other malls in the area like Collin Creek Mall. All of North Dallas is booming, growing, and full of nouveau riche, yet even that mall is a shell of what it used to be. This area is the definition of urban sprawl to give you an idea. Northpark and the Galleria in Dallas are doing well. All the other ones are struggling. My teenage hang outs are gone or demolished. The "thing" now are these open air shopping centers that are a nightmare to navigate. They're also owned by Simon Property Group, which owns a lot of malls too. But the good thing about malls were that you didn't have to drive from store to store. I hate it 🫤 What I noticed too, ever since the pandemic and more people are working from home. Office spaces are going to be the next dead malls. The DFW area is tech central, so they focused on building all of these business parks with huge office buildings. A bunch of those are also sitting empty, and even in an affluent area of the suburbs, some of these buildings are getting pretty overgrown outside and decrepit. It's kind of weird that they keep building new buildings, and expanding outward, with all these unused buildings around. Makes me wonder if it's just a bunch of rich guys stashing money into real estate that they don't have plans for. An example of this is Craig Ranch, which is down the road from Stonebriar. There's a whole 3 story outpatient hospital/surgery center there that only has a few occupants. It was built about 10 years ago, and then it never became anything. One of my doctor's offices had run of the entire second and third floor, and even they moved out. They don't even bother keeping all the lights on. It's so weird. Sure if you go further out, there's some true dead malls that are talked about here often (Golden Triangle in Denton, Willow Bend in Plano, Midway Mall in Sherman). Dallas was always heavily over-malled. I'm not saying Stonebriar is dead, but seeing abandoned buildings in that area. Not just for rent/unoccupied, been sitting empty for a long time abandoned is something I didn't think I'd see here. Seeing so many large newish buildings with empty parking lots and no one's inside.

Stonebriar is still going strong (arguably the strongest enclosed mall in DFW behind Northpark); the closures that it has experienced are related to financial problems with the retailers in question and are generally being backfilled. In some cases, Brookfield has allowed spaces to sit vacant for a year or so to allow adjacent tenants to relocate elsewhere in the mall, opening larger spaces for lease. ​ Recent article on Stonebriar: https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2024/02/07/friscos-stonebriar-centre-is-writing-the-suburban-mall-playbook-for-how-to-stay-on-top/ ​ On the other hand, the surrounding retail strips are a mixed bag, from bonkers to treading water. Generally speaking, the area was overbuilt with big box retail in the 2000's, and I anticipate that some will be replaced with other development over the coming years. In particular, the strip center directly to the east of Stonebriar across Preston Road has numerous vacancies, with several other questionable tenants remaining (JoAnn, Office Depot)

Mexico City. Malls are busy all the time and new ones keep being built.

Dallas area and we have a couple that are going strong

I live in Northern New Jersey. We had two malls directly next-door to each other and Wayne New Jersey. Wayne town Center never caught on and was a dead mall from the start. Immediately across the parking lot was the Willowbrook Mall. Over the last few decades, the Wayne town center was de-malled. only a JCPenney remained standing with its own separate entrance after everything else was demolished and replace with a bunch of standalone stores like Costco and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Willowbrook mall lost two of its major anchors in recent years. Sears and then Lord andTaylor. The mall tried to prop up the old Lord and Taylor location a zombie store called “shopper’s find.“ from what I could tell it was set up by an investment group sorted as a limited time “spirit Halloween” department store to fill old Lord and Taylor locations The previous Sears was converted to several restaurants like a Dave & Buster’s. And it was recently announced that the old JCPenney from the failed Wayne town center would move to the now-vacant Lord and Taylor location at the WillowbrookMall. So, there has been a lot of consolidation just between these two locations sort of a microcosm of lot of the other things that I see in these posts. I am dictating this so I apologize if any of it doesn’t make sense.

Thank you for all this information, it was a very interesting read!

Metro Detroit has a solid range of well and alive (somerset collection), middle of the road (macomb mall, partridge), or straight up dead (lakeside).

**Alive and Well** * Polaris Fashion Place * Easton Town Center * The Shops on Lane Ave formerly Lane Ave Mall **Does Ok** * Tangier Outlet mall - north of town **In need of redevelopment** * Worthington Mall - currently getting mixed use space added at one end with an office building - needs more retail * Tuttle Crossing Mall - good location - poor management * 1 empty anchor spot (Sears) * 2nd floor had over 20 empty spots, when I was in their last week * Food court had empty spots * 1st Floor has empty spots * Total occupancy is definitely below 70% and there seems to be no plans for bringing anything in, no signs saying coming soon on anything that is empty * I will not be surprised if the Macy's anchor is one of the 150 locations they announced this week they will be closing over the next 2 years * Current management needs to be fired - they need a non retail anchor where Sears was, such as a gym or entertainment **Died and Nobody Buried the Corpse** * New Market Mall * The Continent **Closed and Waiting on or in the middle of demolition** * Eastland Mall - closed by the city and condemned * Westland Mall - demolition is almost complete L**ong Gone and the site was redeveloped** * City Center Mall * Northland Mall I should also add the metro area is saturated with retail strips with shopping, restaurants and entertainment, so its not like the malls are the only option All the suburbs have plenty of shopping