Largest Shopping Malls in the United States - Page 2

MayDay · #21 Posted **Dec 10, 2003, 7:00 PM**

If I ever needed something to represent the oversaturation of retail in the United States - this map shows the location of the Ohio Valley Mall. The closest major city is Pittsburgh, over an hour away (along with Steubenville and Wheeling). Does this look like an area that needs a 1.7 million sq. ft. mall?

NYatKNIGHT · #22 Posted **Dec 10, 2003, 7:17 PM**

Quote:

8 Meadowlands Mills Carlstadt, NJ 2,100,000 sq ft

This mall does not exist.

Instead they will be building the Meadowlands Xanadu family entertainment center adjacent to Continental Arena in E. Rutherford.

Evergrey · #23 Posted **Dec 10, 2003, 8:58 PM**

whoa, I had no idea Millcreek in Erie was that big!

nyc-28 · #24 Posted **Dec 10, 2003, 9:24 PM**

Quote:

Where is the Houston Galleria? I heard it was like the 5th largest mall in the US after the recently completed expansion. Dallas Galleria larger than Houston's....uhhh sorry but this list just doesn't seem correct to me.

Quote:

Yeah, I was really surprised to not see Houston Galleria's 2.4 million sq. feet of 350 stores. I'm thinking this list may be a little shakey myself.

Notice the source is from 2002 and the expansion opened earlier this year 2003.

Mopacs · #25 Posted **Dec 10, 2003, 9:52 PM**

Yeah the Houston Galleria is conspicuously absent... even before the latest expansion (Nordstrom wing.. March 2003), it would have likely made this list (approx 600-700k sq ft expansion).

According to the Simon Mall website, the Galliera is now the 5th largest mall in the United States:

With the expansion that opened in March 2003, The Galleria became the fifth largest mall in the nation highlighted by nine types of stone, suspended glass balconies, three types of wood, glass skylights, and plush leather seating. With three office towers, two hotels, 2.4 million square feet of retail space, and a variety of restaurants, The Galleria is a city within a city.

http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=805

vjhe · #26 Posted **Dec 10, 2003, 10:49 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mopacs

Yeah the Houston Galleria is conspicuously absent... even before the latest expansion (Nordstrom wing.. March 2003), it would have likely made this list (approx 600-700k sq ft expansion).

According to the Simon Mall website, the Galliera is now the 5th largest mall in the United States:

With the expansion that opened in March 2003, The Galleria became the fifth largest mall in the nation highlighted by nine types of stone, suspended glass balconies, three types of wood, glass skylights, and plush leather seating. With three office towers, two hotels, 2.4 million square feet of retail space, and a variety of restaurants, The Galleria is a city within a city.

http://www.simon.com/mall/default.aspx?ID=805

You beat me to it Mopacs. Even before the expansion, the Houston Galleria was larger than the Dallas Galleria as well as the RiverChase Galleria in Birmingham which made the list ( I named those because I have actually been to those). Even before Houston's Memorial City mall finished it's recent expansion, it was 1.4 million (now 1.9 million). Not to mention Katy Mills which is only a few miles down the road from Memorial City Mall, is 1.3 million. That list is indeed a little shakey, as most are I suppose.

david23 · #27 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 1:06 AM**

Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, north of Springfield,MA has 1.6 million sq. ft. of retail space and I always thought it was one of the smallest malls in the US, well I was wrong. It's half the size of the largest mall in the US, that's pretty good.

deehrler · #28 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 1:29 AM**

I don't even know why I am reading this thread! I haven't bought anything in a mall in years. The same stores in every city you go. Everything is overpriced and over-hyped. The biggest malls have two or three versions of the same thing rather than one. I am no sucker. When in LA, try Santee Alley and buy the same thing at half price.

Before someone tells me to leave, I am outa here!!!

miketoronto · #29 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 1:42 AM**

And the USA wonders why their downtowns are dead.

Way to many large malls.

The only malls I am o.k. with are, the downtown ones that fit into the urban fabric.

Successfull downtown malls are Tower City in Cleveland, Tower Place in Cincinatti, and Circle Centre in Indianapolis.

Plus the malls on Michigan Ave in Chicago.

But the suburban malls are crap.

dimondpark · #30 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 1:48 AM**

Ala Moana Center in Honolulu IS somewhat of a DT Mall.

Wigs · #31 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 2:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by miketoronto

And the USA wonders why their downtowns are dead.

Way to many large malls.

The only malls I am o.k. with are, the downtown ones that fit into the urban fabric.

Successfull downtown malls are Tower City in Cleveland, Tower Place in Cincinatti, and Circle Centre in Indianapolis.

Plus the malls on Michigan Ave in Chicago.

But the suburban malls are crap.

I agree.. I have been to Tower city in Cleveland like 3 times and thought it was good.. I have also been to huge suburban Mall's like Square One in Mississauga (Eastern Canada's largest suburban shopping mall) and thought it sucked.

the pope · #32 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 2:36 AM**

umm....tower city mall is not sucessful......

maybe for like three months once it opened.

But today, its dying off, with stores fleeing like no tomorrow

Wigs · #33 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 3:02 AM**

well i haven't been there in 9? years... my family and i took trips down there (Cleveland) in '92,'93 and '94.

that's unfortunate to hear though.

volguus zildrohar · #34 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 3:30 AM**

I spent a bit of time at Roosevelt Fields when I was Hofstra. That mall is fvcking HUGE!

Note: HTML on the fritz again...

MayDay · #35 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 3:37 AM**

The "success" of Tower City Center is really relative and I think everyone needs to consider the center's context.

When Tower City Center first opened in 1991 (correct me if I'm wrong on the date), the roster of stores was as high-end as it gets. It was easily the most upscale cluster of stores between NYC and Chicago with stores and boutiques like Calvin Klein, Gucci, Fendi, Barneys, etc. Places where a simple T-shirt will run you well over $100USD. Places with flagship stores on Chicago's Michigan Avenue were setting up shop in Cleveland - a smaller market with a citywide poverty rate of around 30%. Tower City Center would NEVER achieve success with that approach unless the Cleveland area suddenly became the next economic "hot spot" and maintained that position for at least a decade.

The problem was that Cleveland has never really had a market for those stores. The region is large enough to have a large enough clientele to support ONE upscale retail area - unfortunately for Tower City, that area was established when Saks opened at Beachwood Place, 10 miles east of downtown. The people in Cleveland with money to blow tend to spend it infrequently, on much higher-end purchases - not dropping some cash for trivial shopping sprees. So to no surprise, all the ultra-pricey stores closed within 6 months of opening and were replaced with more approachable stores.

From what I've heard though - the management of Tower City hasn't adjusted the rental rates accordingly. Also, wherever you have issues of poverty, you have issues of crime and it's no secret to anyone that Tower City's incidents of shoplifting are higher than average. As Tower City also serves as the main downtown transit hub, the foot traffic brings in people of EVERY background and not everyone is comfortable with that. Couple that with some thinly veiled racism and the result is that Suzy SoccerMom from Solon (a far-flung 'burb) doesn't feel comfortable walking by a group of black people waiting for their bus. I say that because it's something I observed when I briefly worked at Tower City, not because it's something I agree with.

Anyways, with the majority of disposable incomes being spent in the 'burbs, everything downtown is suffering. Now, as the economy has been in the crapper - even the more moderate stores are feeling the pinch. In some cases, stores have closed because of issues with their respective parent companies. In others, it was because the Tower City locations were underperforming. For example, the Banana Republic store is scheduled to close at the end of this month - the store at Beachwood sold in ONE DAY what the Tower City store sold in a WEEK.

the pope · #36 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 3:57 AM**

geez mayday, four paragraphs, when i summed it up so well in one sentence?

btw, rumor on the streets:

the banana republic is closing dec 28th (or did i already tell you that saturday?)

Jazzman · #37 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 4:08 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MayDay

If I ever needed something to represent the oversaturation of retail in the United States - this map shows the location of the Ohio Valley Mall. The closest major city is Pittsburgh, over an hour away (along with Steubenville and Wheeling). Does this look like an area that needs a 1.7 million sq. ft. mall?

I was wondering where that mall was, because "Ohio Valley" is a geographical term that covers such a broad area, and I had never heard of whatever that town is where the mall is located.

So wouldn't the Ohio Valley mall be classified as one of those "outlet" malls? Where supposedly the trade-off for visiting a mall that is deliberately inconvenient for a lot of people is that you can get big bargains or whatever? I dunno, I guess it does seem kinda silly to put a big mall up in the mountains like that.

Besides that, isn't there another mall on the list in West Virginia that should be like right up the road from the Ohio Valley mall?

MayDay · #38 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 4:20 AM**

pope, I heard about BR on Dec. 2 - if you heard it from someone named "TowerGuy", let me know

Seriously though - I think Tower City Center as a mid-priced retail center is a good concept for the most part. The center has the foot traffic, a sizable business crowd, and a large enough area population to be able to support mid-level stores. The problem is that the management was insane enough to think Clevelanders would spend thousands daily at a store like a Gucci boutique - and that was BEFORE the dot-com boom. What's worse is that they still haven't caught on.

Jazzman, to the best of my knowledge, Ohio Valley Mall is NOT an outlet mall - the tenants are the basic mid-priced retailers and anchor stores at any middle-class mall.

Wigs · #39 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 7:23 AM**

on the topic of Cleveland, what about The Galleria.. I also went there when I was in Cleveland. Is it doing well or suffering like Tower City?

and does anyone have pics of the University Heights Square shopping mall? I heard there's a 2 storey Target with an escalator that takes you and your shopping cart up and down!

BigBob · #40 Posted **Dec 11, 2003, 7:32 AM**

The 2 story Target hing is fairly common now. The first one they built was at Grossmont Center in La Mesa, CA...a fairly small outdoor mall, but one I used to spend many a saturday afternoon wandering. There was an article way back when (92 or 93) that talked about how they had to design the cart escalator from scratch.

Also, a good example of a succesful downtown mall is Horton Plaza in San Diego. The mall was built at the start of the downtown redevelopment which is still going on today.