With the announcement that Nordstrom, the Circle Center Mall's anchor store, will soon shut it's doors, rampant speculation has taken place on both why it closed and what will take it's place. Everything from the crime in the area, to the sluggish state of the economy, has been suggested. My friends over at Urban Indy hit it a bit closer to the mark, that Nordstrom is just not attractive to the downtown residents and out-of-town guests that frequent Circle Center, but it's a comment in their comments section that really hits a home run.
The fact is, the shopping mall, as a concept is outdated. Only one enclosed mall has been built in the United States since 2006. The entire concept of malls that have either shut down, or lost their anchor store and will be shut down, has even spawned it's own term, a dead mall, and has an entire website dedicated to it. Add in that rowdy teenagers seem to be a permanent feature at Circle Center, and it makes it less of a destination for the average consumer, especially in the evening hours and summer months.
I think, unless the concept of the mall is revisited, Circle Center is doomed to become a dead mall. Not in the next few, but maybe 10-15.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
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As long as the Gangs are allowed to run rampet in the mall and rurrounding the mall, I will not go there. Mass Ave is starting to get that way now. I work in a bar and see a big paff off, people are tired of the gangs walking around and tha pan handelers.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Nordstrom was not working for alot of shoppers. But I think alot of commenters are missing the point that the city convention office contributed to this through unintentional social engineering by going after religious conventions. These are conventions that stay in cheap motels in the suburbs, not downtown. Also, the cancellation of the Formula 1 race was basically the last nail. That was their biggest weekend of the year for 3 years in a row.
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