TownMall of Westminster - Raw & Real Retail скачать в хорошем качестве

TownMall of Westminster - Raw & Real Retail

This is our walkthrough of the TownMall of Westminster from January 11, 2019. This is a small-ish local mall that holds the distinction as having both the northernmost Belk and is the only mall with both a Belk and a Boscov's. Unfortunately, the retail downturn has struck this mall also, and it is quickly losing tenants and I suspect will be a dead mall in the not too distant future. Check out our ongoing series of dead and dying shopping malls!    • Dead & Dying Malls   Songs used in this video (in order): Pierre-Alain Dahan - Rythmique No. 3 Delle Haensch & Hans Conzelmann - Swift Drift Syd Dale - Latin Belle Steve Gray - Wonder Groove In lieu of a Wikipedia article, here is a writeup from the excellent Skycity2 blog: http://skycity2.blogspot.com/2017/12/... Town Mall of Westminster is a cozy mall nestled on a hillside on the north side of the the city of Westminster. Situated at the southeast corner of the intersection of Routes 27 & 97, the mall sits in the transition zone between the outlying Baltimore suburbs and rural farmland. Opening on March 4, 1987, the 430,000 square ft. mall came along during a time with a ton of transition in the retail industry, and it indeed opened up with a very unusual roster of anchors. Cranberry Mall as it was originally known was a mall that was delayed for many years. Complications involving zoning, roadways, land use, and the original owner being unable to finance construction of the first mall. This delayed the construction of the mall for over 15 years. In fact, had everything fallen into place, this mall would have been built in 1972 instead of 1987. Some of the original tenants that had considered opening at the mall included G.C. Murphy and Giant Food. Perhaps the delay led to a mall that ended up being slightly higher end than the original mall would have been. The unusual anchor mix was something original to the mall. Built by the Shopco Advisory Group, the originally planned anchors were Virginia-based Leggett, Baltimore-based Hutzler's, and New York-based Caldor. Caldor was expanded during that time as part of a legacy of Baltimore-based Stewart's (both were owned by the same company). Hutzler's, however, was going under during the mall's construction meaning that the store was built but never opened and the Hutzler's space was taken instead by Sears. Montgomery Ward later joined the mall in 1990, resulting in one of a few malls around the country with both Sears and Wards as anchors. Although Leggett was mostly found in Virginia, the logic of Leggett opening in the mall was not as strange as it seemed. Leggett was previously located in Westminster Shopping Center and had opened there in 1963 before moving to the mall. Today, Belk occupies the former Leggett space. Since the 1980's, a number of anchor changes have taken place. In fact, the mall does not have a single original anchor. The first to change was Leggett, which was sold to Belk in 1996. Belk largely passed on most of the former Leggett stores in Maryland leaving this as one of only three Belk stores in the state. It is also the northernmost Belk store in the entire chain. While Leggett was affiliated with Belk as part of the Belk family of stores, it was a separate chain operating in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Following the change from Leggett to Belk, the next anchor to change was when discount chain Caldor folded in 1999. From 2003-2009, Steve & Barry's used part of the former Caldor space. Today that store is divided between Dick's Sporting Goods, Gold's Gym and Paradise of Fun. Shortly after Caldor faded into history, Montgomery Ward shut down for good in 2001. However, it did not remain vacant long as Boscov's stepped in to fill the void shortly after. At the time, there was real concern the mall would not survive, so Boscov's was seen as a godsend. The resulting anchor changes meant that this is the only mall where Boscov's and Belk share a store. However, the mall today has many vacancies, and it is questionable how much longer Belk will continue to operate this store so far from their base with the nearest Belk store over 80 miles of that location. Unless Belk expands in the region, this store will remain a very isolated outpost. Cranberry Mall became Town Mall in 2000 when the mall was sold to Strategic Resources. In addition to the new name, the new owners commenced a renovation that was completed in 2002, thus the look was somewhat updated. However, the updates to the malls were not extreme, thus the mall still looks somewhat vintage. In addition, the design itself looks older than its age with design cues that look more early than late 1980's such as ramps, a center court fountain, and recessed skylights giving it a few distinctive vintage elements not present in most other malls of the region.