As an attempt to revitalize America's withering urban cores, the concept of the enclosed, downtown shopping mall was envisaged. It was thought that the only way to compete with booming suburbs was to adapt the shopping mall to a central city setting.
Years of talks, studies and plans followed. The first downtown shopping mall in the United States opened in April 1962. Rochester, New York's MIDTOWN PLAZA was built when 9 acres of the center city were excavated and reconfigured as a climate-controlled retail complex. It seemed like a good idea at the time and several cities jumped on the "urban renewal mall" bandwagon.
A map showing the City City Centres that will be covered in this segment.
Click on image for a larger view
The eight City Center Centers indicated above are but a small sampling of all that were built. A list of other projects would include the following;
CONSTITUTION PLAZA RETAIL COURT [1964], Hartford, CT
MALL AT NEW ROCHELLE [1968-1995], New Rochelle, NY
LANCASTER SQUARE [1971], Lancaster, PA
DOWNTOWN PLAZA [1972], Sacramento, CA
* CENTRAL CITY MALL [1972], San Bernardino, CA
ROCKVILLE MALL [1972-1995], Rockville, MD
TRENTON COMMONS [1973-2004], Trenton, NJ
WORLD TRADE CENTER CONCOURSE [1973-2001], New York, NY
AMIGOLAND MALL [1974-2001], Brownsville, TX
* PORT PLAZA [1977-2010], Green Bay, WI
PLAZA PASADENA [1981-1999], Pasadena, CA
LONG BEACH PLAZA [1982-2000], Long Beach, CA
CHARLESTON TOWN CENTER [1983], Charleston, WV
5TH AVENUE MALL [1987], Anchorage, AK
COLUMBUS CITY CENTER [1989-2009], Columbus, OH
-Complexes in green have been inducted into the Mall Hall of Fame-
The success of the center city mall was short-lived. By the 1980s, most cities that had invested mega-millions of "revenue sharing" dollars into Urban Renewal projects were wanting to rip down their (now) struggling downtown malls. In a nutshell, the suburban shopping mall had captured the fancy of the American populace and nothing could save the urban centers that had been decimated in the name of "progress."
Unfortunately, even the glory days of the shopping mall were numbered. Builders over-developed and fickle consumers decided that they no longer had the time to invest in "a day at the mall. Then there was the internet and all of the shop-at-home scenarios that it presented.
By the mid-1990s, a "dead mall" syndrome was underway, with "Class B" and "Class C" malls from coast to coast being either demolished entirely or "demalled" into open-air lifestyle or power centers. However, the more high-end, "destination" malls were not adversely affected.
The decline and fall of the "Grade B" and "Grade C" mall is being given additional momentum by a pertinent factor that is rarely -if ever- mentioned. The disposable income of the average American has fallen drastically since the 1970s. "John Q. Public" can no longer afford to shop at a mall, as they may have in the '50s, '60s and early '70s.
Whether or not the middle market shopping mall -either central city or suburban- will survive is anyone's guess. But, enough of all the gloom and doom. Let us return to the economically vibrant mid-20th century and rapid rise of the center city shopping mall.
City Center Centres:
