Crossroads Mall

[grantgeneral78]

pretty soon okc,moore,norman will just be all
fused together like the soutside of okc and moore is now

[ssandedoc]

I went to Crossroads today, pretty depressing stuff. It was around noon, springbreak time and the mall was really dead maybe 50-100 customers inside if that. Walking around several stores were gone or closed, even the convenience store! It's only a matter of time before the hammer falls hard on Crossroads.

[theparkman81]

The last time I been to Crossroads, yeah it looked very depressing, I hate to see a mall like Crossroads close, It was my favorite mall to go to, now I like to go to Quail Springs.

[SoonerDave]

Incredible Pizza=Chuckie Cheese=Gattitown= crappy pizza with a game room

OBJECTION!!!

Of the various incarnations of these game-n-pizza places, I've found Incredible Pizza to be the best of any of them...maybe not world championship caliber, but miles better than the congealed carbohydrates they serve up at CiCi's or chuck-e-sneeze

[grantgeneral78]

I went to Crossroads today, pretty depressing stuff. It was around noon, springbreak time and the mall was really dead maybe 50-100 customers inside if that. Walking around several stores were gone or closed, even the convenience store! It's only a matter of time before the hammer falls hard on Crossroads.

Sheesh that is almost flea marketish.......that just sucks!

[Insider]

I am sure that this is not going to surprise anyone, but Crossroads is on the April 30 Oklahoma County Sheriff's Auction.

Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office -- Sheriff Sales
(4th property down)


With an appraised value of $12,000,000, the auction will start at $8,000,000. They have no past due taxes, so it is a clean auction. It seems like this would be something the city could buy and use for something...

Also, please note that the fifth item down is the AMC theatre located at Crossroads...

Sixth item down is the Steve and Barry's building...

Seventh item down is the Fairfield Inn and Texas Roadhouse buildings...

[Jesseda]

WOW it seems they will pretty much clear that whole area out, i bet the best buy building is going to go as well.. Lots of land for maybe a theme park? new nfl football size stadium?

[bombermwc]

So why are all the pad sites being auctioned off as well? Aren't they owned by individual companies? The dollar theater I thought was still doing ok. You don't go to that theater and the mall.....i mean the two don't attract each other's business. Texas Roadhouse could move and be fine. People go there to eat there, and it doesnt matter where it is...nothing special about that location. But the hotels sort of confuse me. There aren't many hotels in that vacinity (and maybe for good reason), but that also means theres no competition. So why are they doing poorly? And all on the same auction?!??!

[oneforone]

So why are all the pad sites being auctioned off as well? Aren't they owned by individual companies? The dollar theater I thought was still doing ok. You don't go to that theater and the mall.....i mean the two don't attract each other's business. Texas Roadhouse could move and be fine. People go there to eat there, and it doesnt matter where it is...nothing special about that location. But the hotels sort of confuse me. There aren't many hotels in that vacinity (and maybe for good reason), but that also means theres no competition. So why are they doing poorly? And all on the same auction?!??!

The majority of businesses these days own the building but lease the land they occupy. This makes it easier to dispose of the building in the event they want to relocate. Besides from what I understood the hotels, Best Buy and Tires plus were going to have to relocate because they are in the safety zone of new interchange planned for I-240/I-35.

What I love to see is White Water and Frontier City to relocate to this site.

In realty we will probably most likely see a distribution center take over the area. Just simply because of the location and access to I-35 and I-240.

[Pete]

The theater, Texas Roadhouse and Fairfield Inn are all on property owned by the Crossroads ownership group. They are probably ground leases or maybe even "build-to-suits" where the land owner owns the building as well and leases it back to the business. Usually only done with restaurants, however.

Anyway, all these properties must have been foreclosed upon, just like the mall.

And even if the underlying property is sold at auction, the business leases would remain in tact... So it doesn't mean that any of them would close.

[Jesseda]

prime property for amusement park!!!!

[theparkman81]

I think that it would be a perfect spot for a amusement park, or better yet a Soccer style stadium, if we ever get a Major League Soccer team.

[bluedogok]

The theater, Texas Roadhouse and Fairfield Inn are all on property owned by the Crossroads ownership group. They are probably ground leases or maybe even "build-to-suits" where the land owner owns the building as well and leases it back to the business. Usually only done with restaurants, however.

Anyway, all these properties must have been foreclosed upon, just like the mall.

And even if the underlying property is sold at auction, the business leases would remain in tact... So it doesn't mean that any of them would close.

A bunch of stuff is done that way, all the Walgreen's stores that I did in the late 90's were build to suit/long term lease except for the Enid location which was a turnkey arrangement, which meant the developer did a build to suit but Walgreens bought the site/building upon completion.

[kevinpate]

ya know, if Valley Brook PD wrote an extra 12 tickets a day, they could probably buy the place and annex it.

[bombermwc]

LOL.

Well i think in more realistic thinking, we're not going to get anthing other than an empty building. That's one HUGE downside to the place going under. It's just going to sit there vacant for years and years because what do you do with a mall? There is land on 240 that wouldn't require demo work so a distribution center doesn't really work...or any similar large facility. Plus access to the place really isn't that good. That's always been a complaint for customers is how you have to take weird exit paths to get to the mall compared to somewhere like Quail or Penn.

[SuperK]

I have read through all of the posts for this thread and now it is my turn!! I truly believe that I know what will work at this mall. First of all you have a 1.2 million square foot building that is not in bad shape. The upkeep (keep in mind I am not talking cosmetics here) of the general maintenance is great. The mall is in good structural shape. It just needs a facelift. In regards to the open anchors, people are spending their money on two things right now. Food and Entertainment. So we have 4 anchors that are empty and the solution is simple.
1st anchor: Indoor Water Park or Indoor Amusement Park
2nd anchor: Dave & Buster’s/Incredible Pizza/Brunswick X (or something like
it)
3rd anchor: Community Center/Event Center (the Coleman deal was a
success and there are other big name companies coming in
soon to do the same type of sale)
4th anchor: Casino (or to keep it family oriented there could be an indoor
amusement park in the 1st anchor and then an indoor water
park in the 4th.

The stores inside the mall would feed off of the traffic from the entertainment venues. Since there are quite a few empty spaces those could be filled with "outlet" type stores. The project on I40 and Council is currently at a standstill until further notice so this would be the opportunity that Crossroads could capitalize on.

In regards to the sale of the mall, I believe that the owner/owners should be locally based. The ownership needs to have a passion for this place. Not just someone with only dollar signs on the brain. I believe if all of this happened the mall would turn around in no time. I even have a brilliant marketing plan in mind on how to spark interest with the public.

These are just my ideas...I would love to see Crossroads Mall reinvent itself. It is time to bring this diamond in the rough that has been getting dirt thrown all over it the past few years back. It can happen with the right people in the right positions. This is all going to be about timing...

I am curious as to what everyone else thinks about these ideas. I look forward to reading the responses!

[grantgeneral78]

I have read through all of the posts for this thread and now it is my turn!! I truly believe that I know what will work at this mall. First of all you have a 1.2 million square foot building that is not in bad shape. The upkeep (keep in mind I am not talking cosmetics here) of the general maintenance is great. The mall is in good structural shape. It just needs a facelift. In regards to the open anchors, people are spending their money on two things right now. Food and Entertainment. So we have 4 anchors that are empty and the solution is simple.
1st anchor: Indoor Water Park or Indoor Amusement Park
2nd anchor: Dave & Buster’s/Incredible Pizza/Brunswick X (or something like
it)
3rd anchor: Community Center/Event Center (the Coleman deal was a
success and there are other big name companies coming in
soon to do the same type of sale)
4th anchor: Casino (or to keep it family oriented there could be an indoor
amusement park in the 1st anchor and then an indoor water
park in the 4th.

The stores inside the mall would feed off of the traffic from the entertainment venues. Since there are quite a few empty spaces those could be filled with "outlet" type stores. The project on I40 and Council is currently at a standstill until further notice so this would be the opportunity that Crossroads could capitalize on.

In regards to the sale of the mall, I believe that the owner/owners should be locally based. The ownership needs to have a passion for this place. Not just someone with only dollar signs on the brain. I believe if all of this happened the mall would turn around in no time. I even have a brilliant marketing plan in mind on how to spark interest with the public.

These are just my ideas...I would love to see Crossroads Mall reinvent itself. It is time to bring this diamond in the rough that has been getting dirt thrown all over it the past few years back. It can happen with the right people in the right positions. This is all going to be about timing...

I am curious as to what everyone else thinks about these ideas. I look forward to reading the responses!

That is some good ideas, getting someone to buy into it will be another especially in the slow economy. It will take somone with great vision such as they done to bricktown and heavily publisize it not just renovate and be quiet.

[theparkman81]

That is some great ideas superk, I like the idea of a indoor amusement park.

[scootinger]

I think SuperK has some great ideas, and an outlet center would be a perfect use for Crossroads IF someone with a lot of resources would be able to get behind it. Crossroads actually reminds me of the Mills outlet malls that I've been to (the whole "industrial" feel to it, with exposed ceilings, concrete floors, etc.) Sadly, I don't foresee that happening, especially in this economy.

It doesn't really make sense to get rid of Crossroads either, seeing how 1) there is a decent amount of empty land in the area, 2) the piece of land that it sits on isn't particularly valuable (considering the former point), 3) the building is in (apparently) good condition, and 4) demolishing the mall would cost a pretty penny. The most practical re-use would probably be as a mix of offices/non-profit/community organizations/schools/etc. (Similar to what is being done with a number of "dead" malls, such as Eastland Mall in Tulsa.)

I think that demolishing it (at least in the near future) would probably be a last resort within a few years if the future owner ends up letting the property sit empty and decay. Hopefully it doesn't end up in the hands of anyone like Haywood Whichard, who is known for buying "dead" malls and sitting on them until either he gets a decent offer for the property, or the local government takes action against the property owner; he's claimed he'll sit on an empty mall for 10 years if that's how long it takes for him to make money on it.

[oneforone]

I think SuperK has some great ideas, and an outlet center would be a perfect use for Crossroads IF someone with a lot of resources would be able to get behind it. Crossroads actually reminds me of the Mills outlet malls that I've been to (the whole "industrial" feel to it, with exposed ceilings, concrete floors, etc.) Sadly, I don't foresee that happening, especially in this economy.

It doesn't really make sense to get rid of Crossroads either, seeing how 1) there is a decent amount of empty land in the area, 2) the piece of land that it sits on isn't particularly valuable (considering the former point), 3) the building is in (apparently) good condition, and 4) demolishing the mall would cost a pretty penny. The most practical re-use would probably be as a mix of offices/non-profit/community organizations/schools/etc. (Similar to what is being done with a number of "dead" malls, such as Eastland Mall in Tulsa.)

I think that demolishing it (at least in the near future) would probably be a last resort within a few years if the future owner ends up letting the property sit empty and decay. Hopefully it doesn't end up in the hands of anyone like Haywood Whichard, who is known for buying "dead" malls and sitting on them until either he gets a decent offer for the property, or the local government takes action against the property owner; he's claimed he'll sit on an empty mall for 10 years if that's how long it takes for him to make money on it.

The city could easily keep this from happening by introducing strict code enforcement laws for retail properties. This would allow them to force owners like this guy to keep the property up or lose control of it through liens.

[Rescue_Company_One]

Those are some good ideas. HOWEVER, you arent going to pull anyone out of Bricktown, Like Dave and Busters which is rumered to be going there later this year. You also have to look at the most important thing. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. Unless people get off thier butts and pay for more Police since we are dramatically understaffed, that part of town isnt going to get better any time soon.

I would love to see and indoor water park. But It wont happen anytime soon.

[bombermwc]

I hate to come off as pesemistic, but I agree that we're pretty much done with the place. No one is going to put a dime into that place, and it's going to just end up empty. Even office space isn't going to move in there....it's too cheap and much easier to be somewhere else. It would be great to see some of these ideas come through, but I just don't see any of it happening.

[Jesseda]

take the dave and busters rumor with a grain of salt, rumor was they where going to be infront of warren in moore later this year, who knows exactly where it will be , heck it dave and busters might not even come here this year

[David Pollard]

I normally don't chime in on this thread, and my idea may be an old one, but I think the only plausible future for the mall is as a regional tranportation stop on a commuter rail line going from Edmond to Norman. The rails are there, the parking space is there as well. To compliment this a bit of ingenuity could take the bones of the mall and revitalize it into attractive urban housing with other mixed uses. Proximity to the rail station would be the prime selling point.
The first thing that would have to go from the structure itself, as much of a retro relic of the 70's as it is, would be the roof. It would be easy to imagine a bricktown-like canal running through the middle of the buildings with apartments made from the former stores overlooking the canal. The outside would have to be totally re-configured to do away with the horrible anonimity of the buff brick facades. Perhaps more apartment/offices and some retail here as well. Crucial is trees, trees, trees. That parking lot needs to look like a park before it will have any hope of attracting businesses or residence. Crossroads mall should become "Crossroads Hill".

Yes, this will also take a developer with unbelieveable vision, not to mention bottomless pockets, however I sincerely believe that the only possible alternative is to tear the whole thing down and do the same thing from scratch.

[Jesseda]

tear it down dig a big wide hole fill it with water and plant a bunch of trees and call it crossroads lake, put some seafood restaurants around it and ta-da a mini lake hefner