I went to Madison Square today (willingly). It’s still 100°, and I didn’t get a walk this morning before I went to work, and I need 7500 steps today, and there you go. Melanie was game.
I don’t like malls at all, and I couldn’t tell you the last time I was in that one. It might have been 2005. They’ve remodeled substantially. There used to be an escalator right here:
Now, apparently they just tether you to this thing, located in the same vicinity, and sling you to where you want to be:
The remodel is reasonably pleasant. The floor is brighter, and the furnishings are much more comfortable. And yet, the creeping stench of death is upon Madison Square. I’d guess it’s down to 80% occupied. No sit-down restaurants remain (there were three), though there are three on the perimeter. Oh, and take a look at the noontime photos above. See all those shoppers?
A substantially reconstructed sister property dealt it a good shot of misery, and I think this bazillion-dollar Peoplequarium will probably effectively finish it off when it opens in another several months. It may limp along for another several years as The Mall at the Parkway and University did, but would it be at all surprising if at least one anchor location was vacant as soon as a year from now?
I’d say good riddance, but if they eventually knock it down, who knows what retail monstrosity will grow in its place? You know, if you don’t get the roots…
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Mr. Chili went to that mall when he went to visit his brother (who was in the hospital at the time). He told me memories of his being utterly shocked that, of the 45 or so cars at the mall, nearly ALL were in the fire lane. It was later explained to him that no one was sure who had jurisdiction to ticket these illegally parked cars. Do they still park in the fire lanes?
Follow-up: Mr. Chili called his twin in your town to find out if the illegal parking still happens, and got the same story that you told here; the mall is dying and folks are going to the other mall in the center of town. When asked where Bruder goes to shop, he chuckled. “I don’t GO anywhere – I do all my shopping online.”
Yeah, Bruder’s story is my story. I shop online nearly exclusively. The ease of doing so has contributed to my aversion to malls, I’m sure.
Maybe it will become a medical-mall facility like the one at Governors and the parkway? I LOVE that place. Well, as much as you can love a place with carpeting and x-ray labs. That makes no sense. It is just damn convenient for parking etc when your kid needs an x-ray or you need to go to a lamaze class. Just sayin.
The problem is the hole in that area that it will leave if it does die. They have just managed to rejuvenate the strip mall near it. Renew don’t abandon!
I cannot believe how much I loathe malls now. I’ve come full circle. As a child and young teen, all we had to go to were standalone department stores. There was a Sears downtown and a McRae’s up where I lived. We could walk there. Then the “malls” appeared. As a teen who could drive, loved to go there and hang out. Now? Please, just give me a single department store. I’m fine.
I’m right there with ya, Bo. I loathe going to the mall – don’t dig crowds. I went to that Mall on Saturday and was really creeped out at how many stores are no longer there. To top it off, I heard that Parisian is now going to be Belk. Isn’t there already a Belk at the mall?!
Like you, hubby and I do the majority of our shopping online. If we can’t find it, we don’t need it.
I am really looking forward to Bridge Street opening up. 🙂
RE: The peoplequarium. I wonder how they are going to fill all that “fake” waterway if it doesn’t rain.
PS – but booze at the movie theater does appeal to me and mine.
seester – there’s gonna be booze at the movies. Hmmm…wonder if they’ll serve saintseester slammers or will we have to bring our own. 😉
I’m sure the mall didn’t look this way the week before school started. I remember passing by and thinking that the parking lot looked like it does at Christmas…and that I didn’t want to go there. I don’t really share the love for online shopping, though. I still want to see and touch what I’m buying first. However, I prefer shopping at non-peak times and without my kids “helping”.
What are the saintseester slammers called at Grille 29? I’m talking it up for my next GNO…
Espresso martinis, girl. You’ll love them!
I used to walk in Madison Square almost every day from 1988 until late 2006. The mall has never felt right since they implemented the “under 18 is banned” on Friday and Saturday night policy at the end of September 2006. The younger customers are the ones who liked the mall and are the ones who grow up to replace the older ones who stop going. Now we have two years worth of young people (or more, since the security people sometimes bother people in their young 20s) who think the mall is a lame place and have no desire to go. If the age had been 16 instead of 18, it might have been a good idea.
Madison Square lost an anchor in the change of Parisian to Belk. The old Pizitz/McRaes/Belk store is vacant and evidentally, no large department store chain is interested in moving in. Just recently, the mall lost the Disney Store, and this morning, I read that the Starbucks in the mall is closing. Steve and Barry’s is filing for chapter 11 and might close soon. They’re in the old Yielding “junior anchor” spot, which became the Castner Knott Men’s Store and later the Dillards Men’s Store, before Dillards downsized a few years ago leaving the spot vacant. Steve and Barry’s being there in that slot is better than nothing.
I hate to see this mall go downhill, since I have so many memories of the place over the past 20 years. It’s very nice to have a climate-controlled mall to visit when the weather is hot or cold, or when it’s raining. Bridge Street is nice, but there is no protection from the elements there, and there is little oriented toward the middle class male species. Barnes and Noble opening there helps a little.