The Problem With Dead Malls
Northeast Ohio malls continue to show up in the news, indicative of a fraught retail growth model. The lazy meme for the failure of these shopping behemoths is that internet shopping has usurped brick and mortar retail. The entire retail history of the 20th century gave way to a commercial landscape in which big-box and mall opened across the street from each other, regardless if there was enough capital to support those businesses. Developers and local politicians, golden shovel in hand proudly took ownership of future parking lots and black friday sales. The Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, the Randall Park Mall and Euclid Square Mall on the East side of Cleveland are the most note worthy examples of dead malls trading hands as owner off loaded to new owner - going down the commercial food chain until property speculators bought the malls and were basically absentee parents. In a short amount of time, with long unpaid utility and tax bills or refusal to repair or assist renters, it was clear the new owners were interested in the land only, regardless of the amount of blight brought on by the downfall. Eventually the electric was turned off, plywood went up over windows and security fired; the site to be now tied up in endless litigation and bankruptcy in order to turn the property over back to the city eager to erase the symbol of blight and failure.
http://www.ohio.com/business/lin-fisher/rolling-acres-mall-deal-moves-county-closer-to-end-of-eyesore-1.647932
Now the North Akron, Chapel Hill mall seems to head towards rough waters: http://www.cleveland.com/akron/index.ssf/2016/01/with_macys_gone_will_akrons_ch.html
http://www.ohio.com/editorial/editorials/outside-the-box-at-rolling-acres-1.649090
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news/akron-canton-news/body-found-hanging-from-tree-near-rolling-acres-in-akron
Clearly the issues are far more complex than either internet or bad investments, demographics or shifting retail habits, crime or access. What we should not be is surprised, these forces were set in motion some time ago.
All photographs above ©Brian Ulrich 2008, 2009, 2010
