Today's HOLLYWOOD HILLS PLAZA. With South Florida's flat-as-a-
board topography, one wonders why this "Hills" reference was included
in the name of the new power center.
Photo from www.weingarten.com (Weingarten Realty Investors)
HOLLYWOOD MALL
Hollywood Boulevard and North Park Road
Hollywood, Florida
South Florida's second fully-enclosed mall opened in 1964. Occupying a 40 acre parcel 1.5 miles west of downtown Hollywood, HOLLYWOOD MALL was built by Chicago-based Homart Development (a Sears subsidiary). The complex was centered around a 1-level (103,500 square foot) Sears, its sole anchor department store.
The single-level shopping center incorporated approximately 302,500 leasable square feet. Charter tenants included Gray Drug, Cheryl's Cards and Gifts, Posture Form Children's Shoes, Lani Kay ladies' apparel, Mister Donut, Clipper Kings Barber Shop and Thom McAn Shoes. The Hollywood Mall Beauty Salon was the place in town for the latest Fedora hairstyle.
A Publix supermarket connected with the north end of the mall but was not accessed from its interior. Across North Park Road, west of the mall proper, was the Wometco Florida Twin, which opened in 1965. The venue was made into a 4-plex before its mid-1990s demise.
The second enclosed retail center in So-Flo -LAUDERHILL MALL- was located 9.1 miles northwest of HOLLYWOOD MALL, in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Lauderhill. It was completed in 1966. This was followed by HOLLYWOOD FASHION CENTER, built 1.7 miles west of HOLLYWOOD MALL, dedicated in 1972.
In 1981, six year-old Adam Walsh was abducted at HOLLYWOOD MALL. His kidnapping and murder received national media attention. The negative publicity resulted in a loss of business for the shopping center. Some even say that it led to the eventual demise of the mall.
However, others contend that HOLLYWOOD MALL was done in by all of the glitzy, super-sized shopping centers that sprang up in the region during the 1980s and '90s.
These included GALLERIA FORT LAUDERDALE (1980) [March 2008 archive] {9.3 miles northeast}, AVENTURA MALL (1983) {3.9 miles southeast}, in north Dade County, SAWGRASS MILLS (1990) {12.9 miles northwest}, in Sunrise, and PEMBROKE LAKES MALL (1992) {7.9 miles west}, in Pembroke Pines.
HOLLYWOOD MALL, in a state of decline for some time, was bought by the Coconut Grove, Florida-based Michael Swerdlow Company in the late 1990s. They invested 12 million dollars into a renovation of the complex.
The southern quarter of the mall proper was knocked down, Publix was razed and replaced by a larger store and much of the remaining interior mallway became leasable space.
Rechristened HOLLYWOOD HILLS PLAZA, the new power center venue was completed in 2000. It was anchored by a 1-level (119,400 square foot) Target (built on space previously occupied by Sears). Tenants in the new complex were a mixture of standard retail and offices.
The 372,000 square foot center was sold to Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors in April 2003.
Sources:
www.hollywood.org
www.swerdlowgroup.com
www.weingarten.com
www.bizjournals.com
Broward County Florida Tax Assessor website
Comment post by "Mean Little Devil"
6 comments:
Growing up in Hollywood and spending many of my burgeoning fanshionista years at the Hollywood Mall, I believe it to be unfair to coin the "demise" of this building on the Adam Walsh incident. I was born in 1979 to set of overprotective Mid-Western Catholic parents who clung to my tiny pink wrists whenever we were in pubic among the likes of Adam-Walsh-Child-Abductor types...let alone through the halls of the "Sears Mall". It was the 80’s. Florida was developing fast and Hollywood was a popular median suburb between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Although both of those cities had malls, it was very inconvenient to travel out of our comfort zone to Aventura, 163rd Street or the Broward Mall. It was this way for most of the highly residential town of Hollywood. Miami was the “big city” and the lack of 5-95 made it difficult to travel West.
I remember a lot about this mall in the mid 80s and I recall it always having a steady flow of shoppers. My mother used to take me to the German restaurant for their soups and tuna sandwiches that were sprinkled with paprika and dill. Many of times I remember having to wait for a seat around lunch hour. My ears were pierced at the “Keys ‘n’ Things” when I was in the first grade and we would rummage through the Claire’s sidewalk sales for bright pink Debbie Gibson press on nails. We have years of photos commemorating Hollywood Mall’s visit from Santa or the Easter Bunny where I stood in line behind many other children whose parents were not deterred by Adams Walsh’s experience holidays former. The years that this may have really “mattered” to a generation of parents who watched police and media swarm their venue did not kill this mall.
After reading some further literature on Hollywood’s shopping chronology (I’m in a bit of a “zone” right now!) I agree to the theory that the factors of time are that which caused the death of Hollywood’s two malls. Hollywood was really not looking as great coming into the late 80s and early 90s. The 1960’s style Florida houses were worse for wear and the younger more prominent families were headed West. The Pembroke Lakes Mall drew crowds in the gap between Miami and Fort Lauderdale and had mid-income shopping like Macy’s and JC Penny’s. Aventura Mall progressed by building more high-end stores to compliment their current anchors. Around Hollywood, strip malls took form offering discount stores like Ross and Marshalls. All of these overshadowed Hollywood's Malls' one good selling point of “convenience”.
And that is my side of the story…or at least my excuse to exhume a few moments of nostalgia!
MLD,
Thanks so much for the beautifully-written Hollywood Mall Memoirs! I think you may be correct in dismissing the Adam Walsh kidnapping as the sole reason for the demise of this mall.
All of the negative publicity couldn't have helped business at the center. However, it was, after all, over 17 years old by then, and the life expectancy of a shopping center had eroded down to only about 20 years.
It's also probable that the renovation of the old SUNRISE KEY CENTER, into the super-glitzy FTL GALLERIA (in 1979-1980) could have drawn shoppers away from HOLLYWOOD MALL over the passing years.
Then...as you mention, along came another glitzy mall (this time, way up in northeast Dade), namely, AVENTURA (1983).
This one killed Florida's first mall, 163RD STREET SHOPPING CENTER (1956), dead as a doornail. It could have also had some impact on HOLLYWOOD MALL.
If the dreadful Adam Walsh deal had never happened, HOLLYWOOD MALL would still have gone under. It was inevitable......
Most of these smaller, community-size, 1960s-era centers had taken a nose-dive by the 1990s. Only the large, glitzy, "destination malls" (from that era) seemed to whether the "mall-o-caust"....and some of THESE didn't even survive intact (they've been demalled into "lifestyle centers" or "power centers"...or whatever other trendy "format du jour" the marketing people have dreamed up).
So...thanks for shopping. Do call again.
Seriously..thanks for perusing and posting.
Cheers,
The Curator
I grew up in North Miami Beach right near the 163rd St shopping center and used to go there as a young child in the 70s when that center was still open-air and had kiddy rides and stuff.
There was never a Sears at 163rd St. So whenever my mom wanted Sears we went to Hollywood Mall. I never really would have called Hollywood Mall a destination shopping center per se although when Sears was calling away we went. We would go to Sears and go home.
That was across the street from a 2-screen movie theater I think I remember was called Florida theater. I saw Back to the Future there. Good times.
Richie,
Thanks much for posting.
I lived in Miami for two years and never went to this mall at all. I recall being at the HOLLYWOOD FASHION MAL and PINELLAS PARK MALL a couple times....and went to SAWGRASS several times.
Wow, some of the mall hallway was kept? Wonder what it looks like inside now.
Jonah,
Go to
http://www.pbase.com/image/113332822
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