Dead Malls Live Again

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/...new-life-dead-malls/387001/

Abandon mall
Barnes Gromatzky Korsarek Architecture
theatlantic.com 

Hello Everyone:

Sorry to start off with bad news but suburban shopping malls are going the way of the dinosaur.  The once mighty shopping mall, that suburban bastion of retail is meeting its end; demolished, become a ruin suitable for filming movies (see Gone Girl).  Alana Semuels's article for The Atlantic, "A New Life for Dead Malls," looks at how once dead malls are seeing new life.  Before we dive into how malls are being resuscitated, we should take a step back and look at why malls died.

Citing Ellen Dunham-Jones, architect and professor at Georgia Tech, Ms. Semuels writes,

there are about 1,200 enclosed malls in the United States, and about one-third of them are dead or dying.  That's because developers rapidly overbuilt malls in the 20th century,...The U.S. has twice as much square footage in shopping centers per capita than the rest of the world, and six times as much as countries in Europe...The malls died for a reason...We were way over-retailed. 

Mall forecourt
Kirk Tuck Photography
finance.yahoo.com

Over retailed is right because suburban malls often featured three anchor stores such as: JC Penney, Sears, and Macy's.  These store have either closed are being closed as American shopping preferences shift toward online shopping or availing themselves of walkable urban centers.  However, the news is not all grim.  Ms. Semuels writes, "In many areas of the country developers are finding new uses for dead malls."  Prof. Dunham-Jones maintains a database of dead and dying mall retrofit and repurposing projects; reporting there are 211 spaces across the country being retrofitted in one way or another.  Malls are being turned into medical centers, colleges, elementary schools, churches.

Highland Mall west entrance
Austin, Texas
highlandmall.com

One example of a dead mall finding new life is the Highland Mall in Austin, Texas.  In 2009, the mall was named by U.S. News & World Report one of "America's Most Endangered Malls."  The Highland Mall opened in 1971 and covered 81acres and had 1.2 million interior square feet.  It was one of the first suburban malls but by 2010, the stores were nearly empty.  As luck would have it, the administrative offices of Austin Community College were located at the edge of the mall. Richard Rhodes, the president and chief executive officer of ACC, watched with increasing frustration as the anchor stores left the mall; leaving the area economically depressed.

Richard Rhodes told Alana Semuels, What happens when a mall begins to deteriorate and no longer function as a mall?...In the surrounding neighborhoods, you begin to see the crime rate increase, other homes and buildings being vacated-the whole community surrounding it begins to deteriorate.

Interior for the rehabbed Highland Mall
Kirk Tuck Photography
finance.yahoo.com

Austin College decided that something needed to be done.  Their solution was to purchase the Highland Mall with the intention of making the buildings the prominent feature of planned mixed-used community.  The college engaged Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects who re-adapted the former JC Penney store into what Mr. Rhodes grandly calls the galaxy's largest learning emporium, with 604 computer stations, 200,000 square feet of lecture space, a library, and offices.

The architects blew out parts of the roof and installed a big skylight to allow for more natural light to enter the interior.  According to Mr. Rhodes, the mall formerly looked like a World War II bunker.  One good thing to come out of the last round of mid-term elections, voters in Austin approved two bond measures "that will fund $386 million in construction for the college.  Much of that money will go to renovating the mall further create a regional-workforce center, a STEM simulator lag, a digital-media center, and culinary and hospitality center."  Also in the college's plans is opening a restaurant, managed by students so they can gain real-world experience.

Exterior of the new Highland Mall
theatlantic.com

In the summer of 2014, ACC entered into partnership with Rackspace, a San Antonio-based cloud storage management company, to relocate 570 employees into the former Dillard's Department Store space, thus allowing to students to intern at the company. Although construction is still in progress, the changes have already made themselves evident.  Mr. Rhodes told Ms. Semuels, Just since we've started construction, we've seen the surrounding community improve...New businesses opened up and vacant businesses have been purchased.  It's turning around the local neighborhood.

The rehabilitated Highland Mall is one of dozens examples of malls that have been repurposed.  Some abandoned malls have been recycled as churches-temporarily or after undergoing extensive makeovers.  One such mall-cum-church is the Euclid Square Mall in Ohio.  The mall has been featured in many vacant mall photo blogs.  While it is still empty, the mall rents out facilities to 24 different Christian congregations, that cannot afford their own buildings and making for extremely busy Sundays and holidays.

Euclid Square Mall, Ohio
Once a church of retail, now home to 24 Christian churches.
posture.doonks.com

In 2005, the Lexington Mall in Lexington, Kentucky had fallen into disrepair following Dillard's exodus.  Five years later, the Southland Christian Church road into the rescue, purchasing the mall for $8.1 million. The Church hired architects to retrofit the mall to accommodate a 52,000-square-foot auditorium and office, opened in 2013.  Most of the former Dillard's building is now being used as a church nursery, school, classroom and 2,800 seat worship center.  Another mall-turned-church is the Grand Village Mall in Michigan-donated to the Mars Hill Bible Church, which spent $2.3 million renovating the former mall.  A former anchor store serves, dubbed "the shed," is the site of Sunday services.  This may sound like a heavenly solution but mall-churches are not everyone.  Some still prefer the traditional stained-glass window, soothing light church.  Others have complained about the bleakness of the interiors and outdated washrooms.

Vanderbilt Medical Center at the former One Hundred Oaks Mall
Nashville, Tennessee
Vanderbilt University
financelately.com

Churches and colleges are not the only new uses for dead malls.  Alana Semuels reports, "As the healthcare field expands and medical administrators look for large spaces with copious amounts of parking, some mall are being converted into doctor's offices and medical center."  A dying mall in Jackson, Mississippi has been converted into a medical facility that serves low-income residents-the Jackson Medical Mall. Goodness, what an apropos name for a former mall turned medical facility.  The Jackson Medical also houses specialty clinics, a college of public service, restaurant and smoothie bar, and community meeting spaces.  The Medical Mall has also undertaken economic development initiatives in the Jackson area-creating the state's only African-American owned bank.  Another former mall turned medical facility is the One Hundred Oaks Mall, now the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  The venerable Nashville, Tennessee-based university took over the entire second floor of the struggling mall, converting it into a clinic and offices.  The parking is easier for the patients who can wander the still open parts of the mall, with a pager, while waiting for their appointment.

Englewood City Center
Englewood, Colorado
posture.doonks.com

One of the great things about repurposing a mall is there is such an abundance of space, they are often good choices for industries (or museums.  Are you listening Michael Govan?) looking to expand.  When Voorhees, New Jersey city government outgrew its civic center, it moved into the former Echelon Mall, which lost its anchor stores: Sears and JC Penney during the nineties.  The former city hall was taken over by the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which is investing millions to build a mixed residential-commercial space.

Some cities use the land the mall sat on to create new outdoor spaces, incorporating the remains of the mall building.  For example, the city of Forest Lake, Minnesota razed nearly all of the 130,000-square-foot Northland Mall, keeping only a 30,000-square-foot building and put up a new city hall building, police and fire department in December.  Unfortunately, the project faced legal obstacles "...because it was funded by an annual $77 property-tax increase, which homeowners objected to."  The city of Englewood, Colorado repurposed the Cinderella (really) City Mall, formerly the largest mall west of the Mississippi, into "...a new mixed-use downtown."  There is a light-rail serves the area and the rehabilitated mall-CityCenter Englewood-includes residences, a Civic Center, a some retail businesses.

Northgate Mall
Seattle, Washington
bfz.biz

Alana Semuels reports, "...some malls have been turned into public spaces used directly to benefit the surrounding community."  That said, the City Center Mall in Columbus, Ohio, shut down in 2009, was repurposed as a park with a performance space, recreational facilities, gardens and cafes. Currently, there are plans to build an upscale mixed residential-retail development on the boarder of the park.

In Seattle, Washington, developers converted the parking lot of the former Northgate Mall "into a mixed-use, walkable development that included the Thornton Creek Water Quality Channel, which takes storm-water runoff and uses it to create and nourish pools, terraces, and greenery that mimic a natural creek.  The channel filters out pollution that had been feed a creek and damaging salmon."

Perhaps the most ambitious dead mall revival project is currently underway in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 2014, the City Council approved a redevelopment plan that will attempt to build a city over the former Oakridge Center.  The development calls for fourteen tower between  nine and 44 stories high, including retail, residential, and commercial spaces.

Proposed mini-city for the Oakridge Mall
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
theglobeandmail.com

The images of the Oakridge Mall's former website (http://www.oakridgecentre.com) feature traditional glamour shots of models wearing clothes sold at the stores.  However, if one clicks on the the "redevelopment" link, and the visitor is thrown into a "New Urbanist's utopia, with outdoor streets, greenery, and glass." There are similar development plans for high-rises other malls.  The Vancouver plans are predicated on the premise that cities will expand vertically, not horizontally, as land prices climb and people seek out more walkable, transit-oriented developments.  Alana Semuels speculates, "It's not a bad bet.  But if those preference change again in 40 years, there could be a whole new set of retail buildings-and skyscrapers-to retrofit."