Crossroads Mall

[bluedogok]

I remember going out there right after it opened, that was a "long trip" out there from West OKC. Shepherd was always the close mall for us. I remember the bumper cars and Farrell's, at that age that was all that mattered. I still preferred the toy dept. at AMC or TG&Y over the mall.

My sister worked at Gingiss in Crossroads in the mid-90's when she was going to OU. So she spent some time there.

[Soonerman]

Was El Fenix over there right by Montgomery Ward? I see an empty Mexican restaurant I don't recall the name of it every time I come out of Steve & Barrys

[yukong]

I remember going out there right after it opened, that was a "long trip" out there from West OKC. Shepherd was always the close mall for us. I remember the bumper cars and Farrell's, at that age that was all that mattered. I still preferred the toy dept. at AMC or TG&Y over the mall.

My sister worked at Gingiss in Crossroads in the mid-90's when she was going to OU. So she spent some time there.

I too remember that just a day or two after it opened I went with my friends and their folks to check out the new Crossroads. We drove from NW 24th and Villa area (right across the street from Shepherd Mall where I grew up) all the way down to I-35 and Crossroads (seemed like a very very long trip). Wow what a beautiful place. It was so huge and full of stores. We never thought we would see something so great again. Really sad to think about how far down it has gone.

And on the same subject...I have a case I am handling in Enid, and I am up there quite a bit, and the other day I had some time to kill before my hearing and so I went and checked out Oakwood Mall. I had never been there before. I did not realize it was such a large mall. But it was about half empty also. Again really sad. It has a JC Penney at one end and a Dillards at the other, with not too much in between. Lots and lots of dark empty spaces.

[Thunder]

Found it! I'm surprised no one remember this store. Pete posted past tenants didn't include it either.

KB Toys

They're still in business!

KB Toys.com - Toys, Video Games, Collectibles, Software and More

[Soonerman]

Found it! I'm surprised no one remember this store. Pete posted past tenants didn't include it either.

KB Toys

They're still in business!

KB Toys.com - Toys, Video Games, Collectibles, Software and More

Not for long though.

[yukong]

Another one bites the dust. They have filed for bankruptcy and have shut down all their mall stores across the US and are doing going out of business in the outlet stores.

[Pete]

This is certainly no surprise:

********************


Oklahoma City mall is at a crossroads
In foreclosure, anchorless shopping hub may go up for bids as soon as spring
BY JENNIFER PALMER
Published: January 23, 2009


Crossroads Mall is in foreclosure, and could be put up for bid as early as this spring.

The mall at Interstate 240 and Interstate 35, which lost its remaining two anchor stores this month, is being managed by Price Edwards & Co. while the bank forecloses on the property. Foreclosure will be complete in about 60 days and then the property can be put up for sale, said Jim Parrack, senior vice president for Price Edwards.
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Economic conditions, which have forced many retailers into bankruptcy, may make it difficult to sell Crossroads Mall.

"With the economy the way it is, it will be more difficult to market than normal,” Parrack said. Ideally, the buyer would be someone who wants to keep the property as a mall and rejuvenate it, he said.

A new owner could change the purpose of the property after honoring the leases of remaining tenants. Louis Almaraz, a retail specialist with Grubb & Ellis-Levy Beffort, said it is unlikely the property will remain a retail mall.

"I think the future as a traditional mall — it’s going to be very challenging for them,” he said.

A government agency, a school or a medical organization all could potentially utilize the property, he said.

Rick Lahodny, owner of Bonnie’s Popcorn in the mall, said many of the mall’s current tenants have opted not to renew their leases, and instead are leasing month-to-month as they wait to see what happens.

"The way it is now, nobody knows help is coming,” he said.

The mall was left without anchor stores when Dillard’s and Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear left at the beginning of the year. Women’s clothing retailer Christopher & Banks also closed recently.

Each store that leaves hurts business at the remaining stores, Lahodny said. He said if he starts losing money, he’ll probably leave the mall.

‘Business as usual’
For now at least, the mall will remain open.

"As far as mall operations go, it will be business as usual,” he said.

Lahodny, who brought Bonnie’s Popcorn to Crossroads Mall about three years ago, said he’d love to stay there, but said drastic changes are needed to attract new business.

"Everyone I’ve talked to would hate to see the mall go,” Lahodny said.

"Crossroads needs a shot in the arm.”

[Thunder]

It would take a very brave buyer with plenty reserved cash and/or great history with impressionable plans to obtain a large loan to seriously upgrade the inside to rival Penn Square. Complete redesign of the massive parking spaces including repaved surfaces, more landscapings filled with trees, bushes, and flowers. Maybe neon lighting all around the top of the building with multiple spotlights in the centers shooting skyward in motion.

All of that should definately attract retailers back to Crossroads. Some body have to seriously spend so much money in order to see amazing results.

The Oklahoma City market is fairly strong compared to other locations across the nation.

All the anchored retailers left because they're not making enough money. If we can attract those retailers back by working out an agreement to start out the lease at a lower cost, these retailers will be able to manage. While all of this process, more and more people will start coming back and pump more money into businesses. Then, the leases can increase as long the entire mall is maintained, people will keep shopping there.

I do got to say that the mall isn't fully at fault. We got to look at the people, their action, they are a huge part in the failure of Crossroads as well. These people would travel further just because Penn Square and Quail Springs have nicer interiors for things they can equally pay for at Crossroads.

The people banded together and fought to save the Gold Dome, but where is that action for Crossroads? People need to seriously think this through.

Now it has gotten to a point that Crossroads need a buyer that will put heart and soul into this mall. As stated, get the entire property attractive to rival the two other major malls. With that, the people will need to start shopping. May be a few stores, but start shopping to attract more retailers to come back and even new retailers and businesses.

There is still hope for Crossroads. It takes the right buyer and the dedication of the people saving the mall. This can be a blessing in disguise with the empty anchors causing some ends of the mall to be vacant. That should be fairly easy to start the reconstruction. While that time, work out a plan with the remaining retailers and businesses to relocate into the newly reconstructed areas so the remaining areas can start reconstruction.

I would like to see the center play area removed. All that space is needed for massive food court and a water fountain. A mall got to have a water fountain! The mall will need to lease a space for daycare play area for parents to drop off their children. Something simple like matching wristbands with numbers to ensure the children leaves with the right family.

As for the 4 anchors. There must be an agreement that those anchors keep their store maintained and upscale. It doesn't take much to look upscale (neon lights in Target).

Really, the two factors to save Crossroads:

Dedicated Buyer and the rest of us.

I know Crossroads is in OKC. Valley Brooks is right next to it. I think that OKC can afford to sell the entire land from Valley Brooks to I-35 and I-240. Valley Brooks definately need the money thru sales tax and that money can definately be used to fix up the town, including the old strip clubs. It would even help Crossroads, I think, on property tax.

[NE Oasis]

Retail won't work! The cycle is now strip centers instead of malls, and nobody should go against the tide in today's economy. Croosroads can easily be converted to light manufacturing. All of the entrepeneurs outgrowing garages across the metro can have accesss to loading/unloading docks, spaces easily modified to meet thier needs, and close access to the highway.

[oneforone]

I just wonder what will happen to the mall.

Tearing it down will not be cheap. Demolition, debris removal, environmental clean up and earthwork so that new structures can safely be built on the site will probably cost a couple of million.

Retail is not going to stay without major anchors returning. The chances of that happening are slim because most retailers want their own building in a thriving shopping area.

My best bet is either a mix use facility, community college, a senior living community or maybe somebody like INTEGRIS will convert it to a medical facility.

[danielf1935]

I personally think the mall will be closed before summer. One of it's major downfalls is it's limited access, compared to other malls (Quail, Penn Square, Sooner), it's not very easy to get to, especially from I-240, the exit at Pole Road can be dangereous.

[megax11]

I had a dream a couple of weeks ago... It was that this mall was renovated and looked very nice. I hope that dream comes true finally.

If they turn this into another factory or something, then what else does this city have? One nice plaza on southside, with one store closing. No bookstore, no Gamestop, no Chic-Fil-A, no big name clothing stores like American Eagle, Pennys, Dillards (which we already lost.)

I'm tired of the metro becoming nothing but carlots and factories, while the good stuff moves to places like Moore, and NW Expressway, which are 10-15 minute drives.

I hope the guy who represents the mall is telling the truth, and a buyer would want to buy to renovate. Simon malls probably has tons of money to pour into this mall.

Anything to keep it alive.

Here's hoping my dream comes true. A mall with light forest green marble and white marble flooring, as well as marble walls, and lots of stores I never seen before.

[Pete]

I hate to say this -- especially since I have lots of fond memories for having worked there all through college -- but I'm extremely pessimistic.

1) No mall can come close to surviving without anchors and all the big stores are contracting, not epanding; and 2) now that the mall is officially in financial trouble the remaining tenants will start leaving in droves.

I suspect the place will go the route of Shepherd Mall and be converted into some sort of other use.

[oneforone]

I hate to say this -- especially since I have lots of fond memories for having worked there all through college -- but I'm extremely pessimistic.

1) No mall can come close to surviving without anchors and all the big stores are contracting, not epanding; and 2) now that the mall is officially in financial trouble the remaining tenants will start leaving in droves.

I suspect the place will go the route of Shepherd Mall and be converted into some sort of other use.

I agree... I cannot see someone like Simon buying the mall with no anchors. Not to mention many of the small store chains are leaving or at least planning to leave if sales or foot traffic drop below a certain number.

Maybe we might get lucky and the Mills people might buy for a cheap price and renovate it. Honestly, If I had the money of billionaire I would buy it, close it, renovate border to border top to bottom and bring better anchors to the mall. My first project would be a ten twenty foot natural barrier to the east.

[bluedogok]

My best bet is either a mix use facility, community college, a senior living community or maybe somebody like INTEGRIS will convert it to a medical facility.

Here is an article that I posted up a link for last month in this thread, seems appropriate to bring it back up now. It even mentions the "Town Center" concept and The Domain here in Austin, which is where my office is located.

HousingWire.com - Malls, the Future of Housing?
By LISA SELIN DAVIS
December 29, 2008

The mall as we know it today is a mistake.

The lonely box of concrete plopped in the suburban diaspora, outdated and, in many cases, dying, isn’t quite what Victor Gruen, the Austrian-born Holocaust survivor largely credited with inventing it, envisioned. Instead, the regional enclosed shopping mall was supposed to be a community center—a little bit of downtown and a car-free haven that would include day care facilities, offices, and, perhaps most importantly, residential living components a stone’s throw from the building; the mall was always supposed to have housing nearby.

Perhaps today Gruen would finally be satisfied, because in its newest incarnation, the mall has finally become not just a place to shop, but to live. The mortgage meltdown, shifting demographics and a growing antipathy toward suburban sprawl have caused developers to see malls not as retail dinosaurs but as giant land banks, where going vertical can appease environmentalists, potential buyers and stockholders alike.

It’s happening slowly, but it’s happening all over America, and industry experts expect the trend to grow. If inner cities are starting to see condo projects go rental or remain unsold, and some new suburban subdivisions are settling into modern ghost towns as the foreclosure crisis deepens, the one bright spot in the housing market might just be here: at the mall.

“This is not just a fad,” says Anita Kramer, senior director for retail development at the Urban Land Institute. “This is the wave of the future.”

More than 2, 000 malls currently stand in America. Back in 2001, when PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Congress for the New Urbanism conducted a nationwide survey of shopping malls, 19 percent of them could be classified as “greyfields”—so called for acres of undeveloped parking lots and piles of underutilized concrete— or vulnerable to becoming them; some of us know these spaces as dead malls.

Despite the obsessive chronicling of such structures on Web sites like Dead Malls (deadmalls DOT com), we still don’t know their exact number, but we do know this: some of those greyfields are potential goldmines, and the industry knows it. “There are more renovation/expansions than new malls being built now,” says Malachy Kavanagh, vice president of communications for the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade group for mall makers.

Starting with a destination
Somewhere in the last two decades, enclosed shopping malls started falling out of favor. Department stores were consolidating, making anchor tenants scarcer, and suburban sprawl was becoming the scourge of the environmental world, blamed for traffic, pollution and a kind of suburban malaise. Malls needed to be more than just places to shop, if they were going to survive. They needed to become destinations, dressed up for a new century, with all the architectural and commercial diversity of real towns.

We saw such creations in places like Canada’s West Edmonton Mall, which opened in 1982 and includes an ice-skating rink and an indoor bungee jump. Minnesota’s The Mall of America includes three roller coasters and a hotel. But those malls were intended to be centers of tourism, not models for your standard regional mall.

So a new style of mall has made its way to the market in the last decade or so, known as the “lifestyle center,” a smaller, more upscale grouping of stores hovering around what looks like an actual city street, with sit-down restaurants and theaters, maybe even park benches and streetlights—very much like old-fashioned downtowns, and built near residential areas. Since 2005, only three enclosed shopping malls have been built, and only one, in East Rutherford, New Jersey, is on the docket for 2009. Yet thirty open-air lifestyle centers have risen. Many of these are redeveloped properties—old, enclosed malls either torn down or added to, both for financial and environmental reasons. After all, there just aren’t that many 100,000-plus acres of virgin land in good locations to go around anymore.

But adding housing to an enclosed mall—as well as to these re-imagined, mixed-use facilities—is still a relatively novel concept, because malls were originally built far from residential areas, near highway interchanges. There, they’d be accessible from many different suburban communities, in their own commercial-only zones.

“Many of the shopping centers built in last 25 years were built on low cost land at the fringe,” says the Urban Land Institute’s Michael Beyard, senior fellow for retail and entertainment development. “Now, land is quite expensive, and many of these malls are no longer at the fringe.”

Thanks to encroaching residential and commercial development, many of those malls are even now in prime locations, near major roads, housing subdivisions and sometimes even public transit. Suddenly, location, location, location applies to the mall as much as it traditionally has to residential real estate.

Deconstructing the mall, literally
The most common way for a mall to take advantage of its newly desirable locale and become residential is to “de-mall,” in the language of the industry: raze the existing structure and start anew as a mixed-use mall.

That’s what happened at Belmar, in Lakewood, Colorado, in 2003. On the site of an ailing 1.4 million square-foot mall known as Villa Italia on the outskirts of Denver, developers created a 106-acre lifestyle center with various kinds of housing attached. There are 1,300 rental apartments, 200 condos and single-family home units, and 760,000 square feet of office space hovering around them. Currently they have around 60 condominiums in active listings (they have been continually adding housing since units were first placed on the market), ranging from the mid-$200,000s to over $1 million.

According to an article earlier this year in The Atlantic, Belmar’s housing “commands a 60 percent premium per square foot over the single-family homes in the neighborhoods around it.”

“There’s a strong desire for this type of project,” says Belmar’s director of marketing, Stephanie Jackson. “It’s urban, but it feels like the country. There’s a real sense of synergy here.”

The project has been lauded by industry groups and held up as a model for how to turn old malls into vibrant, complete neighborhoods. This doesn’t mean Belmar is immune, however, from the unraveling of the economy by any means. Jackson says sales have been healthy, but like just about everywhere else in the American housing market, they’re starting to feel the pinch. “They’re doing okay,” she says. “There’s been some slow down in traffic.”

General Growth, the second largest mall owner, with over 200 holdings, has undertaken similar projects lately, re-evaluating the health and potential of some of their older, ailing properties and deciding that ascribing many of the principles of New Urbanism—walkability, a mix of uses, a variety of housing types—can bring them back to life. In Holladay, Utah, for instance, the old Cottonwood Mall had fallen on hard times, largely edged out by competition from a newer, flashier mall named Fashion Place in nearby Salt Lake City.

“[Cottonwood] really is the community center of that town, but it was dated and not as popular in recent years,” says Aaron Bartels, senior director of development for another General Growth project. Earlier this year, they razed every inch of Cottonwood but the Macy’s to create “an inviting residential community within a convenient neighborhood setting. The 57-acre plan aligns the streets and a central square with the vistas of the mountains to the east, creating symmetry with the natural beauty of Mount Olympus and the Wasatch Front,” reads a project description.

In addition to a new mall, the project includes condos, townhouses, cottages and single-family homes, each of them above or adjacent to the shopping component. The project is expected to reopen in 2011.

Rethinking community
If razing and rebuilding seems a little less that environmentally friendly, there’s another model of life at the mall. At General Growth’s suburban Boston property, Natick Mall, they chose to create what the Congress for New Urbanism calls Mall-plus: an adaptive reuse project that takes a traditional enclosed shopping center and adds new components right inside it.

Natick Mall, in an area known as MetroWest, was built in 1966, and got a massive overhaul in 1994. But that makeover occurred while enclosed malls were still in favor, and didn’t bring it up to 21st century standards. So last year, after acquiring an adjacent parcel of land once occupied by a Wonder Bread factory, General Growth decided to give the mall a $370 million makeover. Along with the addition of anchor stores like Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom that helped reinvent the mall as a luxury destination called the Natick Collection, they grafted 12 stories of condominiums onto the side of the building, created a 1.2-acre park with wandering, leafy paths on the mall’s roof, and added a private club with features like a piano lounge and screening room.

“We’ve made it more of a community asset than a retail asset,” says Bartels. The condominiums, called Nouvelle at Natick, have their own private entrances into the mall, and they’ve attracted empty nesters and young couples, mall lovers and mall-neutral buyers alike.

Sales of the 215 condos, ranging from $425,000 to $1.7 million and 800 square-feet to more than 2,000 square-feet, began in Sept. 2007. So far, says Bartels, 40 have closed, which may not seem like a home run compared to the speed with which some city condo projects sold during the height of the building boom, but Bartels seems pleased. They’re confident about the project due to its location and price point.

“We’re priced 50 percent below a comparable product in Boston, about $600 a square foot,” says Bartels. “In MetroWest, we’re probably 50 percent above a comparable property, and there’s nothing else around here with that level of amenities.”

Nouvelle at Natick is unique in many ways, and not just because it’s the first case of an enclosed shopping mall getting condos directly inside it. Most such condominium projects, offering goodies like swimming pools and wine rooms, are found in the inner city, but this project sits in an older, inner ring suburb (as opposed to new mixed-use mall properties like Time Warner Center, in New York City, where people have long been used to residing above retail). This is urban life for folks who prefer the suburbs, which, according to the U.S. Census, is the majority of us: some 47 percent live in suburbs, and 40 million of the 58 million housing units there are detached.

Some call this debut creature the new suburbia or “metroburbia,” a vertical suburbia that can appease the desire for the best parts of both urban and suburban life. “For the last hundred years that kind of lifestyle”—walkable, dense—“was only available in dense urban environments,” says Bartels. “A lot of people are hoping to get out of the cul-de-sac and get into more integrated lifestyle.”

The mall, says urbanist Joel Kotkin, presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University, “is the logical place to do this. You build a town center where there wasn’t one.”

‘You’d almost never know you’re in the mall’
Such a new town center model can be seen at Coconut Point, in Estero, Florida, where the old residential-above-retain model so common in older urban centers is laid out in their newfangled “city streets.” Rows of condos stand above stores like Bebe and the Apple store, with freestanding models surrounding them.

“It’s almost like living in the city, where you’re above a storefront,” says Diane Ivey, director of mall marketing. “You’d almost never know that you’re in the mall.” Yet the homes hover both above and around 1.2 million square feet of retail space and 32,000 square feet of office condominiums. Some 200 out of 270 units have been sold since they went on the market in 2005. Clearly, though, not all who buy at Coconut Point crave the fully urban experience. As Ivey points out, “The first homes that were bought were not on the main street.”

Coconut Point is the offspring of Simon Property Group, the world’s largest owner of malls, with 323 holdings. They’ve been slow to add residential to the mix, as hopeful as they are for the model; only about six of their new open-air centers have residential, and none of their enclosed shopping centers have tried General Growth’s tack, adding condominiums to the mix.

In addition to Coconut Point, Simon’s life-at-the-mall properties include Firewheel Town Center, outside Dallas; South Park, in Charlotte, N.C., and The Domain in Austin, Texas, with 390 rental units ranging from $1,025 to $2,300, stacked above retail. It has a wine bar, a couple of steakhouses, a spa and a fancy chocolate shop, among many other stores, with more to come as they finish the next phase. Open for less than two years, the property is 95 percent rented.

Though they would not release demographic information about the residents, they did point out this: The Domain is less than 10 miles from the University of Texas, Austin; chances are, it’s reaching a very different market than the Natick Collection or Coconut Point. This actually bodes well for the future of the model. Even the luxury real estate sector has been taking a hit as of late. To reinvent the mall as a series of domiciles, many styles, sizes and price points of housing must be available there.

Changing perceptions of home
We know that adding residential is the logical next step for the mall, and that there’s a desire for it on the market. A study by Jonathan Levine of the University of Michigan and Lawrence Frank of the University of British Columbia of suburban Atlanta and Boston residents revealed that at least a third of them would rather have mixed-use and walkable neighborhoods than big houses on large lots—as long as they were affordable—and another third were at least open to such a shift in lifestyle. Many want to live like they’re in a city—emotionally, if not geographically.

We have only a few data to go by about the fiscal health of these projects. At Reston Town Center, for instance, a D.C.-suburb lifestyle center that opened in 1990, Reston’s products—apartments, condominiums, and office and retail spaces—commanded as much as 50 percent more rent than nearby condos, malls or office parks, according to a 2006 study by the Brookings Institution. “The anecdotal information is that they are very successful, they are able to get higher rents on all sides, there’s a premium for living and doing business in these establishments,” says Urban Land Institute’s Kramer. And mixed use is clearly a smarter direction for developers now; if one sector takes a serious hit, chances are, the health of the others will help a mixed-use development rebound; it’s time to spread the risk around.

Whether it will revive ailing malls and help realize the vision Victor Gruen presented some 50 years ago remains to be seen. Malls have seen their vacancies rise perilously in the last few months. The sample of residential experiments is just too small to know if the trend will prove profitable in the long run, and help insulate the mall from the growing financial crisis. Clearly, though, suburbia is going to need some kind of injection to keep it relevant and repair the mortgage meltdown trauma. Many suburban areas have suffered more than their urban counterparts in recent months. Cleveland, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., for example, saw higher rates of foreclosure in suburbs versus the inner city.

Mall makers are moving in this direction, but very slowly, and slower now that our economy is shaky. Mall makers don’t blame it on the malls themselves—it’s the economy. “That’s not a reflection on the product type,” says General Growth’s Bartels. “That’s a reflection on the mortgage market.”

Editor’s note: Lisa Selin Davis writes for a variety of publications about real estate—though she doesn’t own any yet—and is managing editor of Brownstoner.com. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

[megax11]

Well I just emailed Simon malls giving them a suggestion that they should buy the mall and renovate it where lazy people wouldn't.

Simon + 1.4 million square feet = one heck of a fancy mall.

That or the owners of Quail Springs...

I can't fathom everyone mentioning living quarters, or medical or school buildings, as then this city will go straight down the crapper with its lack of stores.

This city would probably next lose Best Buy and the nearest ones to those of us in the metro would be 10 minutes in each direction. Make that 10-20 in any given direction. No bookstore for at least 10-20 minutes in each direction, coupled with the fact the best movie theatres are the same distance, and what does this city have? Some fast food joints, tons of car lots, factories, and a couple of clothing stores not worth shopping at (I'm a Buckle, Hollister, AE, A&F, Dillards kind of guy.)

I would be driving to areas outside the city where money would flow and help those areas flourish while this city goes to waste with nothing that matters.

Ever wonder why Moore is up and coming? They got great schools, good housing additions, and now the best stores flocking there.

This city deserves better then to drool over a new highway, that will only help people drive through our city more convienantly getting from west to east coast and vise versa.

I'm to passionate about this city and what it loses, to think that we need more medical buildings, and community colleges, where people make their life and then move to better pastures where they have the convienance of good shopping everywhere near them...

This city cannot afford to lose places like Best Buy, all the while not having places like Borders or Barnes and Noble, or even a NICE movie theatre.

Makes me want to move to Moore or northside, or off of Memorial where life is flourishing.

Man I want this city to rise from the ashes and stop losing more then it's receiving.

[Lauri101]

How about a facility for government agencies at state, federal and local level?

All of the agencies where regular people have to conduct business could be in one location.

IRS, Oklahoma Tax Commission, Social Security, Oklahoma Det of Public Safety (driver's license testing, etc), Some county courthouse services - marriage licenses, records search (satellite office), State Corporation Commission - there are many more that aren't coming to mind I'm sure.

The space would be easier to secure because line of sight is good. Limit the access to the public and have them go through security scanners as they enter. Government vehicles could be stored in the ample parking lots and the public as well as workers would not have to pay for parking. More bus routes could be added as the needs were identified.

Add services and fast food courts - have a dry cleaners, Walgreen's, C-store, "sit-down" restaurants with fast service, Kinkos-Fed-Ex, USPS branch, book store/newsstand.

The rent paid by government agencies would likely be less than downtown rates to come, plus the safety and security for public and workers could be easier to manage with fewer stories and the large open areas around the mall.

Win-win?

[danielf1935]

The idea of having all service agencies utilized by the public in one central location makes sense in several way's, being that it makes sense, it will never happren.

[gen70]

I agree with the state service facility, But like Danielf1935 said,it makes sense and probably won't happen. Why does OKC continually shoot itself in the foot?

[jbrown84]

Is 20/20 still there?

Huh?

[Jesseda]

use one of the anchor store fora large indoor kids area downstairs have bumper cars, go-carts, bowling alley, upstairs lazer tag, arcade, restaurant. one of the anchor stores will do nicely... somethng year round.. the only problem is that it needs to be secure and rules set in place, not like the arcade that was inside crossroads, it turned into a place where drugs where exchanged and sold.

[SoonerDave]

You know, given the economic climate right now, chances are somewhere between slim and none that they'll find a buyer with the pockets necessary to satisfy whatever debt is outstanding. It'll be a matter of taking whatever offers, if any, come up.

That said, it seems to me whoever "holds the note" to Crossroads might well be amenable to some "out of the box" ideas to reinvigorate the mall as something useful and practical that might have a longshot at becoming profitable and generating revenue. That is, if there's a theoretical $10 million due (not intended to represent the actual number), but no buyer is gonna give them more than $10K at a fire sale, doing something that brings in anything might be worth that longshot chance.. At that point, someone with an idea that is remotely cogent might get the ear of a banker who is willing to take a chance.

The kinds of updates and fixups discussed earlier in this thread are the kinds of things the owners of the mall needed to do probably two or three times *over* during the life of the mall, but never did...arguably once, I suppose, but it was hardly an overwhelming facelift. (They had a water fountain from day 1, but it was taken out about two years ago because it was leaking under the foundation and becoming a horrendous maintenance headache. Tearing it out was the cheapest solution, sadly).

Some sort of indoor amusement park might be an interesting idea, lasertag (as someone mentioned) or rockwall climbing...who knows.

I'm mostly frustrated and sad...just a great piece of growing up in OKC is just dying a lousy death it didn't really deserve.

[scootinger]

You know, given the economic climate right now, chances are somewhere between slim and none that they'll find a buyer with the pockets necessary to satisfy whatever debt is outstanding. It'll be a matter of taking whatever offers, if any, come up.

That said, it seems to me whoever "holds the note" to Crossroads might well be amenable to some "out of the box" ideas to reinvigorate the mall as something useful and practical that might have a longshot at becoming profitable and generating revenue. That is, if there's a theoretical $10 million due (not intended to represent the actual number), but no buyer is gonna give them more than $10K at a fire sale, doing something that brings in anything might be worth that longshot chance.. At that point, someone with an idea that is remotely cogent might get the ear of a banker who is willing to take a chance.

The kinds of updates and fixups discussed earlier in this thread are the kinds of things the owners of the mall needed to do probably two or three times *over* during the life of the mall, but never did...arguably once, I suppose, but it was hardly an overwhelming facelift. (They had a water fountain from day 1, but it was taken out about two years ago because it was leaking under the foundation and becoming a horrendous maintenance headache. Tearing it out was the cheapest solution, sadly).

Some sort of indoor amusement park might be an interesting idea, lasertag (as someone mentioned) or rockwall climbing...who knows.

I'm mostly frustrated and sad...just a great piece of growing up in OKC is just dying a lousy death it didn't really deserve.

Midwest Mall Properties (most recent owner) paid over $60 million for the mall. I don't know much about how commercial real estate loans (especially for a property like Crossroads) work but I am going to guess that the lender will lose quite a substantial amount of money on the property, seeing as they'll be lucky to get a fraction of what was paid for it a few years back before all of the tenants left. They supposedly bought a couple of other malls as well...I wonder what will happen to those?

I really hope they can find a buyer that will be able to find a way to use the existing mall structure in some way or another. I know that Crossroads isn't the most architecturally valuable building, but it would be a shame to see such a building that probably has quite a bit of life left in it get torn down. They're certainly long past the point of using it for retail uses, but I think that there are plenty of other potential uses for the mall. One would be the idea of using the building for government/public uses, which would be great if they can get past all the red tape. I think a more realistic model would be to use it for mixed uses...including offices, government/public uses, service businesses, and maybe a little bit of retail. This is pretty much what the owner of Eastland Mall in Tulsa is doing, and I think that Crossroads would be even better suited for such a use considering it has an advantage in its location compared to Eastland. See Eastgate Metroplex - Reinventing a Tulsa Icon

There's no doubt that with an uncertain future, tenants will start leaving the mall fast unless something happens very soon (unlikely). Methinks that unless someone buys Crossroads and ends up putting together a plan for it, the mall could very easily end up shutting down entirely before the end of 2009: they'll end up losing money just to keep it open...you have to consider utility costs + maintenance + staff/management + etc.

I wonder if the local management at Crossroads ("...but we still have over 100 stores!") knew this was coming all along?

[Luke]

They should build a canal in it. It worked for Bricktown.

[Thunder]

I think the remaining tenants should tough it out and stay there. They'll benefit more traffic if Social Security Administration moves into that building among other federal agencies.