Time to breathe new life into old malls
In April, when a water main break shut down the Washington Crown Center for three days, owner Michael Kohan didn’t sound terribly enthusiastic about having the once-thriving shopping center in his portfolio.
When contacted by the Observer-Reporter, Kohan mused he’d be “more than glad” to sell the mall if the right buyer came along. It looks like Kohan is casting around for that just-right buyer since the mall is now on the market. A listing says the mall, which opened in 1969 as Franklin Mall and was rechristened Crown Center with great fanfare in 1999, now has just a 43% occupancy rate with 25 tenants. Many of the mall’s anchor stores, such as Sears and Bon-Ton, have long since decamped, and its movie theater closed with the arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 and never reopened.
Crown Center has its woes, but it’s got plenty of company on that front. Enclosed malls that were once a locus of shopping and socializing have been struggling as online retail has gained a foothold and big-box department stores have snatched away some of the money that would have once been spent in malls. Uniontown Mall has also lost its movie theater, anchor stores and many tenants, and Washington Mall has long been moribund. The forecast for malls is generally pretty grim – by the early part of the 2030s, it’s believed there will be as few as 150 malls in America, compared to 2,500 in the 1980s.
Arguably, this is not a development we should feel all that aggrieved about – it’s all part of the “creative destruction” of a market economy. But the downside of that creative destruction is that fading malls that fall into neglectful hands can end up being eyesores that can damage the communities that surround them and drain tax dollars.
For a prime example, look no further than Century III mall in West Mifflin. It is finally being demolished five years after it closed. The fact that the shopping center has at last come under the wrecking ball brought sighs of relief from officials and nearby residents who characterized it as a magnet for vandals and a blemish on the borough. A year ago, the borough condemned the decaying mall and in the fall fined its owners $150,000 for overgrown weeds and unsanitary conditions.
When Century III’s demolition began in May, West Mifflin Mayor Christopher Kelly told Pittsburgh television station WTAE, “I’m just looking forward to it just being off our radar.”
Century III doesn’t have to be a template for all those malls that have seen better days, though. Grocery stores have become part of malls, as have yoga studios, casinos, gyms, libraries and art installations. There’s a lot of available parking and infrastructure in place at malls that can be quickly utilized.
And if a mall doesn’t survive, the owners should properly maintain the structure before it is torn down or repurposed. It shouldn’t be left to rot.
With a little imagination, the malls that once seemed so new and enchanting can find a new life.