Unfortunately this mall is beyond the point of no return. Really a shame. Lots of memories for me, dating back to the old Gold Mine arcade. Time marches on...
I do agree with their assertion of the lack of investment in the mall. There has been VERY little enhancements/remodels over the past 20+ years. Once a mall gets a reputation of being crime-ridden, its often fatal. There are numerous examples of this throughout the country (regardless of the presence of increased retail competition). See
http://www.deadmalls.com for a whole boatload of such malls (amazing Highland is not yet represented. It will soon).
It would take a massive redevelopment effort to turn this around. Given the economy, thats very unlikely at this point.