Unusual mall anchors

Super S
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Re: Unusual mall anchors

Post by Super S »

bryceleinan wrote: February 7th, 2022, 6:08 pm Carson Mall in Carson City, Nevada. Main anchor is Sportsman's Warehouse (former JCPenney and Gottschalks), junior anchors are Carson Home Furnishings, and Carson-Tahoe urgent care/physical therapy (former Safeway and JCPenney). This mall also has a JoAnn fabric (former Sprouse Reitz) location too, and a Dotty's casino. Outparcels have Chipotle/dentist and Dutch Bros Coffee. I remember as a kid when this place had Orange Julius and RadioShack.
Sounds like Sportsman's Warehouse might be looking at malls that are struggling that have empty anchor spaces. As I already mentioned, they took over the former Emporium in Kelso's Three Rivers Mall. Worth noting is that the store's layout is focused on the main exterior entrance, with a couple registers stationed near the mall entrance. It was designed for an easy conversion if the main mall were to shut down, or they just decide to permanently seal the mall entrance.
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Re: Unusual mall anchors

Post by luckysaver »

The closed Carousel Mall in San Bernardino CA at its final year had the studios and offices for a local news-talk radio station (KCAA NBC News Radio) as well as a charter elementary school and a handful of government offices as the final anchors before the mall permanently closed in 2017. The radio station moved into the mall in 2004 and moved out in 2017.

The former Indian Hill Mall in Pomona CA has a high school (ex Zodys) and a swap meet (ex Sears) as the major anchors. The majority of the small store spaces in the middle of the complex are offices for the Pomona Unified School District and their partner organizations.

In the 1990's, a church took over an entire former neighborhood shopping center in West Covina CA (corner of Sunset and Badillo). The main church is in a former supermarket anchor (I think it was built a Food King in the mid 1960's) and the former smaller storefronts became church offices and bible school classrooms.

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Re: Unusual mall anchors

Post by Brian Lutz »

Another example to point out here would be Crossroads in Bellevue WA, which has gone a very different direction from a lot of more traditional malls. Originally opened as a fairly conventional small mall with Rhodes (later Lamonts, then Gottschalks before they went under) as its main anchor, the mall hit the skids in the early 80s and got developed into what was originally termed the "Eastside Public Market", trying to emulate the Pike Place Market to some extent, but ultimately became something that is sort of a mall, sort of a community center, but ultimately the formula has proven surprisingly successful as the center continues to thrive where a lot of traditional malls have floundered. The "anchors" (such as they are) are currently a Jo-Ann Fabrics store, a Michael's store (right next door in fact), a Bed Bath and Beyond, a QFC and a Dick's Sporting Goods (former Sports Authority, detached from the main mall). A former Circuit City store eventually got turned into a rock climbing gym and a health club (Crunch Fitness) and the property also includes an 8 screen Regal theater with recliner seats. Notable smaller stores include a Half Price Books (which has been there for a very long time), World Market (former Barnes and Noble), a small King County Library branch and most recently the addition of a Dick's Drive-In that just opened in what used to be part of a former Petco store which may not sound like much, but for Seattleites is a pretty big deal.

That said, the main attraction of Crossroads, and what seems to keep the crowds coming, is the food court (known as the Public Market) which is populated with 17 different local restaurants covering a large number of cuisines. The area Crossroads is located in has a large Asian-American population so Asian cuisines in particular are well represented with Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Korean and even Laotian restaurants all present, as well as Russian, Mediterranean, Italian, Mexican, Hawaiian and American restaurants. Its close proximity to Microsoft campus ensures a healthy lunch crowd, and on weekends there is live entertainment (typically focused on local bands with an emphasis on jazz, folk and ethnic music) to bring people in as well. It's a formula that works surprisingly well, and one I'm surprised we don't see more of,
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