Heritage Park Mall officially closing

[Thunder]

Even the plants is dying. :-(

[oneforone]

I think if Sears moved, you would see some real progress for that area. I think it would make a nice area for a third high school for Mid-Del Schools, an office park, new housing or even new city park.

[decepticobra]

Retail or a theater is not going to want to be that far from the highway.

...but, retail and a theatre (2 theatres for that matter) was doing quite well in that spot during the mid 80s up to the mid 90s. roughly 10 years when both theatres coexisted.

so what really attributed to the death of heritage park, and subsequently crossroads? was it a decline in the overall national economy? the impact of general motors closing (this is what i primarily view as the cause), or some other factors?

oh well...looks like we can soon add heritage park and crossroads to the long register of dead malls at deadmalls DOT com

[smooth]

...but, retail and a theatre (2 theatres for that matter) was doing quite well in that spot during the mid 80s up to the mid 90s. roughly 10 years when both theatres coexisted.

so what really attributed to the death of heritage park, and subsequently crossroads? was it a decline in the overall national economy? the impact of general motors closing (this is what i primarily view as the cause), or some other factors?

oh well...looks like we can soon add heritage park and crossroads to the long register of dead malls at deadmalls DOT com

Crossroads was dying well before GM closed. As many of us, me included, have said and tried to drill into the people wearing blinders, the biggest reasons are lack of updating and gang activity. Most people do not want to be near known gang areas. Plus, some freeway construction near Crossroads (widening of I-35) killed traffic. Heritage Park? Probably similar reasons. Plus that area (also Crossroads) are now for the most part, dumps.

[kevinpate]

Crossroads was dying well before GM closed. As many of us, me included, have said and tried to drill into the people wearing blinders, the biggest reasons are lack of updating and gang activity. Most people do not want to be near known gang areas. Plus, some freeway construction near Crossroads (widening of I-35) killed traffic. Heritage Park? Probably similar reasons. Plus that area (also Crossroads) are now for the most part, dumps.

Might be wrong, but if memory serves well, I believe if one pulled news stories involving guns, assaults, robberies, attempted or completed car jackings at metro malls over the last 5 years, Neither Crossroads nor Heritage would be at the top of the list.

Both do have viability issues, but the malls which offer many, many more targets see more criminal activity. Imagine that.

[smooth]

Might be wrong, but if memory serves well, I believe if one pulled news stories involving guns, assaults, robberies, attempted or completed car jackings at metro malls over the last 5 years, Neither Crossroads nor Heritage would be at the top of the list.

Both do have viability issues, but the malls which offer many, many more targets see more criminal activity. Imagine that.

Like I said... Blinders. Wake up!

[Redskin 70]

regardless of the perceived cause of demise..............30 year old infrastructure, constantly changing ownership, changing demographics, and shopping styles are the result of both malls falling to the wayside......

[db411]

...but, retail and a theatre (2 theatres for that matter) was doing quite well in that spot during the mid 80s up to the mid 90s. roughly 10 years when both theatres coexisted.

so what really attributed to the death of heritage park, and subsequently crossroads? was it a decline in the overall national economy? the impact of general motors closing (this is what i primarily view as the cause), or some other factors?

I think the biggest factor in the failure of Heritage Park and Crossroads was the major shift in how people shop. While most “big box” and “category killer” retailers had their origin in or before the 1980s, there proliferation in the 1990s is what doomed most department stores such as Wards and Service Merchandise. As people became more and more “discount” oriented, higher end stores suffered. Not only did malls face the loss of their anchor stores, but the low volume in-line specialty stores faced stiff competition from their high volume stand-alone competitors. This was hardly a local phenomenon, but a national trend.

I did a bit of research into this over a year ago. The chart below shows the number of malls that were opened (in green) verses the number that were closed (red) over the past five decades in the major cities of North TX, OK, KS, and CO.

Several of the malls that were closed were destroyed and redeveloped into open-air lifestyle or power centers like MWC’s Town Center. I believe there were three that were partially redeveloped as office complexes and at least one that was torn down and replaced with an office park.

I wanted to dig a little deeper and compared the location of big box/category killer stores with the relative success or failure of the malls. Now, I could not go and visit all of the malls to get an accurate occupancy rate so I had to rely on a somewhat unscientific method that used internet sites such as deadmalls.com, labelscar.com, newspapers, and the mall websites (which were not as up-to-date as I would have liked). I ended up with three broad classifications, malls that were approximately 70-100% occupied (28), malls that were approximately 30-70% occupied (17), and those that were approximately 0-30% occupied (9). The mall sites that were already redeveloped were excluded. I looked at the area within .75 miles of mall and calculated the average number of big box/category killer stores within that zone for each of the three occupancy classifications. For the 70-100% malls there were 8.3 big box/category killer stores, for the 30-70% malls there were 4.5 big box/category killer stores, and for the 0-30% malls there were 0.3 big box/category killer stores within .75 miles. So it seems that having some of the competition nearby can help a mall survive, just look at the malls in OKC for an example - all the big box retail stores by Penn Square and Quail Springs vs Crossroads (Best Buy and Toys R Us) and Heritage Park (Office Depot and a closed Circuit City).

Of course, there are also several other factors that have hurt Heritage Park and Crossroads. Demographics, specifically those that relate to income, have a lot to do with where retail stores locate. (GM closing does play a small role in this too – lower incomes and fewer workers.) Eastern OKC as a whole and especially the area around Crossroads are not the high income areas of the city. (Duh!) You can blame both Dillards (both malls) and Macy’s (Crossroads) departures almost entirely on this factor not to mention many other smaller high-end inline stores (did either mall ever even have a Sharper Image?). Another big problem for Heritage Park has been the succession of absentee land lords as others have said.

You also need to consider the nearby competing retail (lifestyle/power) centers especially with thinking about potential redevelopment. Heritage Park was a very local mall, drawing its customers from primarily from Mid-Del and partly from Spencer and Choctaw-NP-Harrah. Back in the 80s and 90s Reno was the major focus of retail but now it is the I-40 corridor, Town Center and whatever else develops in Del City. The mall site is going to be a hard sell to most national retailers as long as there is room on the highway. Unlike Heritage Park, Crossroads had a much larger market area. The eastern part of their market has been taken over by Town Center (after Best Buy and Penny’s opened) and the southern portion was lost to the new developments in Moore (with another Best Buy and Penny’s) on I-35 and SW 19. If Crossroads had attracted some of the developments on 240 and the Target and or Sears on 44th, it might have had a shot at surviving as a more locally oriented retail center. But now having to compete with those stores for the western and NW part of their market area (basically leaving the mall with Valley Brook as its market area) there is little hope left. The big holdup as far as redevelopment options go is the size of the mall, as it is one of the largest in the entire region.

By the way, deadmalls.com is an interesting site but I have found labelscar.com to offer a bit more in the way of in-depth discussion and analysis. Here are their write-ups on Heritage Park and Crossroads.

[bombermwc]

That is the reason right there....the move of shopping OUT of malls. Heritage did have a number of management groups that sucked the life out of the place, but it's not like it's ever been a huge draw anyway. The anchors are small compared to other malls so they didn't have the selection, and the main stores didn't stay up to date with the trends. You can't survive with lotion, shoes, and bad books.

Those of you that think the area around Heritage is a "dump", you obviously haven't driven in the area and don't know what you're talking about. You can't be a dump if you have several new neighborhoods built 1/2 mile away. There's only 1 empty building anywhere near the mall (Pep Boys).

How does that qualify as a dump?

[MonkeesFan]

Db411-You need a new digital camera! Thanks for the pictures, I was suppose to go but a major snowstorm prevented me from going to the mall one last time It is a shame it is gone, I had good memories of that mall! At least right now we still have Penn, Sooner, and Quail Springs that are doing good, I also was shocked when you said that it has mold growing and some water damage, it is sad, if they would repair it, maybe the mall would still be open

[mmonroe]

IMAX! Lets put in an IMAX we'd HAVE THE ONLY ONE! Thats enough for someone to travel to MWC!

[bluedogok]

Hopefully it (and Crossroads) won't end up like Dixie Square Mall....most famous for the location where The Blues Brothers mall chase scene was shot, it is still upright and has been abandoned for over 30 years.

Here is an article about malls, citing Dixie Square as an example and why the development business is driven by the financiers doing the same thing over and over precipitating the decline of one kind of developing since you can't get the money.
Fast Company - How Much Longer Can Shopping Malls Survive?

[DATDANGGADUDE]

Right now, Towne Square is the hotspot, and that's fine(maybe not for AAFES)...but, the area around Heritage Mall is good real estate. There has been new places to replace old places, but the effects are not the same. The owner of Heritage caused its demise (by constantly raising the the rental fees). The strip mall scenario is better in terms of revenue-to-square-footage. Now, if you head east on Reno-other than the old Crest, the rest is a ghost town. Target moved;Wal-Mart moved ; Albertson closed; now, Hollywood Video is closing(Blockbuster will soon). Everything happens in cycles, and as time past, things will come around to make these areas 'hot' again.

[bombermwc]

Well yet again, I'll have to remind you that TARGET IS OWNED BY THE HOSPITAL! For umpteen billionth time, that's why Target and Westlake were vacated from their buiding. It's Phase 3 of the hospital expansion, which won't begin construction for at least a few more years.

Other than that, we have 1 corner with 3 structures on it that are empty. Again, that's a ghost town how? I get so tired of hearing people say that. MWC should consider itself lucky that those 2 big box stores are all that are empty (or without plans for them). We could have 4 with K-Mart and Target...but Anthony's and the glass place moved in K-Mart and as I said, Target already has plans...look up the post about the hospital in the main forum, there are even renderings. So we've got an old grocery store and a wally world. Whoopie. Hollywood is nothing but a plan box building....anything can move in there.

[ewoodard]

Bomber I agreee with you about people saying things like that about MWC. I for one would like to see a multiscreen theater go in that corner by tearing down wal-mart, albertson's, and hollywood.

[mmonroe]

Imax!

[decepticobra]

Crossroads was dying well before GM closed. As many of us, me included, have said and tried to drill into the people wearing blinders, the biggest reasons are lack of updating and gang activity. Most people do not want to be near known gang areas. Plus, some freeway construction near Crossroads (widening of I-35) killed traffic. Heritage Park? Probably similar reasons. Plus that area (also Crossroads) are now for the most part, dumps.

quail springs is doing good, and its right next to edmond..a city reknown for rampant auto burglaries. just ask glenda chu of the epd.

[bombermwc]

ugh grammar...

Anyway, Quail hasn't been doing as well as you think. It's surviving, but it's not exactlly busting at it's seams either. Being near Edmond doesn't make it well off. There aren't many stores in Quail that you can't find at any mall in America. Putting the theater in there was probably the best thing they could do to try and keep that place alive.

I guarantee if that theater wasn't attached, that mall would be closed.

[decepticobra]

ugh grammar...
ANYWAYS Quail hasn't been doing as well as you think. It's surviving, but it's not exactlly busting at ITS seams either. Being near Edmond doesn't make it well off. There aren't many stores in Quail that you can't find at any mall in America. Putting the theater in there was probably the best thing they could do to try TO keep that place alive.

I guarantee if that theater wasn't attached, that mall would be closed.

ugh grammar...

(corrections made for you in CAPS)

no one is perfect, so dont tout perfection.

[decepticobra]

Those of you that think the area around Heritage is a "dump", you obviously haven't driven in the area and don't know what you're talking about. You can't be a dump if you have several new neighborhoods built 1/2 mile away. There's only 1 empty building anywhere near the mall (Pep Boys).

How does that qualify as a dump?

along Reno Ave, from Sooner Road until Midwest Blvd echoes of a shopper's ghost town.

Theres a slew of businesses that was either once there and occupied by something less attractive, or just not occupied at all.

Venture Stores, became Kmart, then Anthony's TV & Appilance

Captain D's burned down

Pep Boys closed

Circuit City became Goodwill (before CC's bankruptcy)

Winchell's Donuts is now a florist

Wilco became Walmart then became Max Saver Foods then became Hastings and is now Aaron's

Beachler's IGA is now Office Depot

Heritage Park Mall is dead

Godfather's Pizza is now a laundromat

Target relocated to S.E. 29th

The Walmart on Reno & Midwest Blvd is now relocated at Sooner and 15th street in Del City

Hollywood Video has went bankrupt

[bombermwc]

So for the umpteen billionth time someone posts something like this without knowing the facts.

Captain D's was replaced by a much nicer insurance agent's office.

Pep Boys went bankrupt, has nothing to do with that store's performance.

Target moved BECAUSE THE HOSPITAL BOUGHT THE BUILDING. I'm so tired of saying that.

So i don't really see why a repurposed building is bad. You'd rather have Beachler's than Office Depot? Really? And you don't think the florist makes more tax revenue than Winchells? That reasoning would mean the Del Rancho remade to Popeys remade to Basil is a bad transition. The logic is flawed.

And yet again, we have how many buildings that are actually empty? 2 plus a mall (target doesnt count because it's already been timelined for years for when it will begin construction...and it's not this year either).

I don't see a ghost town