Crossroads is not dead but it might as well be. Look at the sign outside of the mall. There is only one feature: AMC. That is not even part of the mall. The targeted demographics of most malls do not go to Crossroads not because it is unsafe, but because there are not many stores of their liking present. Crossroads cannot survive with primarily locally owned stores in there. It is neither a suburban upscale shopping center, nor is it a historic one. The mall needs Gap, not Nissi Clothing. Express, not Excellence In Fashion. Eddie Bauer, not Eastern Treasures. Bath and Body Works, not Kool Stuff. The mall doesn't need 4 empty anchors. Until there are the well known, respected stores in the mall, it will not survive. End of story.
Sorry to say this...but Crossroads simply has no viable future as a retail center. I do agree that Crossroads should be "saved" though - I really do want to see the mall retooled for another purpose (or a variety of purposes!), which I hope is a goal that the folks here that want to save Crossroads can get behind. Such a use could be a boon for the area community and/or Oklahoma City as a whole. You could have community/government/education/church tenants that would be beneficial to the community, and also make Crossroads a business center that could compete for business with Moore/Norman/MWC/etc. It would be quite a shame to see the existing building go to waste and see it rot away and ultimately be demolished.
Typically the term "dead mall" simply implies an extremely high vacancy rate, and not necessarily the mall being shuttered. Given that Heritage has no anchors aside from Sears and very few stores remaining (I can probably count them on my fingers), and that Crossroads has zero anchors and that the vacancy rate is probably about 50% and rising, I would say that both of them can be considered dead malls.
Crossroads is not dead to me when I see plenty of traffic inside.
i dunno... the decline of a mall is a much slower process than the decline of a small business. i'm not so sure that the thread title is unreasonable here... even though crossroads is hanging on, it'd be tough to say that it's not on the skids.
-M
A mall without anchors is a soon to be completely dead mall. In this economy the mall will not make the end of the year.
It's laughable people are even comparing Crossroads to Penn Square. Penn Square serves a completely different demographic. Just because PSM has a few parking lot attacks very rarely, doesn't make it a dead mall. Going into a half empty mall, with an eery feeling and no anchors or major national tenants, I'd consider that a pretty dead place, even if it is still on life support. Crossroads is alive, but in a vegetative state.
I never said PSM was dead; I brought up the PSM parking lot attacks as a point of reference for the folks saying Crossroads was unsafe. Just trying to point out that one isn't necessarily more or less unsafe than the other; regardless of whether the mall is "dead" or not, crime happens everywhere.
I haven't done a stufy, but i would not be surprised if someone undertook one and discovered CRM is far removed from being a hot bed of criminal activity, violent or otherwise.
Crime free? Nope. But a relatively low crime incident area - yeah, that wouldn't surprise me much.
I gaurentee if Crossroads ever revamped the interior, it would attract new business.
I bet it could easily get a -
- Buckle
- A&F
- Hollister
and many more... I list those three, because that is where I like to get my clothes.
Then get back some of the Anchors who would like to be appropriately placed.
I bet it could get Dillards and JC Penny back. Look at how they still own those buildings of the mall.
The problem is the mall itself... It has looked the same since 1974, minus the ceiling which was redone in the early nineties.
I love the mall to death, but even I have to admit the place is dark and dank. A resemblences of colors from the 70's and early 80's...
The mall merchants begged the owners to renovate and modernize the mall, but they were so high on themself money wise, they refused to listen to the tenants, so they bailed. That is the greed of money for you.
First things first... Renovate the mall... Make it cosey. Make it look as nice as PSM or QSM, advertise good rental fees, and watch as the area inside and out, flourishes...
They still own those, because no one paid the minimum bid for the mall at the auction....
In round about way Crossroads Management killed the mall....
1. Building the old Best Buy shopping center that blocked the view of the mall that has yet to be at 100% occupancy since it was built. That center could have easily been built on the east side of the mall on the site of the torn up parking lots that have not seen cars since the 80's.
Anybody in their right mind would have saved that space for eateries and service oriented businesses.
2. Years of no remodels or recruiting of major retailers.
3. No serious effort to land a replacement for Wards. They could have easily recruited Sears to that location. Just simply because they had every piece of the puzzle to make a good location for Sears.
4. They should have invited Wal-Mart or build the new Supercenter on the Mall perimeter. instead of 240 and Santa Fe. The store is already a dump because they built the store way too small for the amount of traffic flow. Chances are more than likely they will relocate again and turn that store into a Sams Club.
5. Instead of fighting to stay in the competition they just went to sleep and let the suburban developers take their business.
Wasn't the Best Buy in that location built as a Jumbo/Oklahoma City Sports location? I think Best Buy moved in after the sports store closed.
Thats correct but the Best Buy was originally located right next door, where the gymnastics place is now.
That's right, I was thinking they moved at some point. I was maybe in the south location twice, when the northside store was out of something.
In the right hands, this mall could come back.
I feel like I could manage this mall better.
I don't think anything can help to bring Crossroads back. All the development has moved to MWC and Moore and there isn't any reason for someone to go in there. Even if there were some anchors, the area is so depressed that no one will visit.
Penn works because the area has stayed nice enough and the mall has been well maintained. They managed to get the stores that aren't seen in every strip mall in the world. What was special at Crossroads???
what on earth could they do with that building if the mall is done, it took shepard mall awhile to get anything in there now its pretty full or was before AOL left, not sure now but there are always a ton of cars there....
Should it cease being a shopping mall in the future, possibilities exist for the space, so long as its structurally sound and the price points are in line with other locations. retail is based on location, location, location, but most anything else is based on easy access and price point.
Of course, when that interchange gets a workover, access will be an issue, mall, office park, residential, or whatever is there at the time.
turn it into a indoor bourbon street with the anchors being hotels, you have to stay in the hotels to attend the party bars and clubs inside the mall ( no public intoxications since its all indoors and no drunk driving) lol just thinking a bit crazy today
Well it happened again.
I haven't even thought of Crossroads in a long while, but I had that dream again.
The first time I had the dream, which I shared in an earlier post on this thread, I saw the renovated mall from the old Picadilly/Braums wing.
Now for some reason I was somewhere, and ended up in the middle of the mall, near 5-7-9.
I was with a friend, and I told him, "hey remember I told you I had a dream about white marble floors with green marble diamond?" He said, "yeah," and I said, "well here it is. My dream came true." Then I woke up.
When I have dreams like that, they usually come true.
Looking from the middle of the mall, it seemed wider. Meaning I think they cut a chunk out of all the stores, so they weren't deeper, more then they were wide. Like mall stores are nowadays.
It was REALLY nice looking from the middle, and the mall was full of stores. It still had a brown feel to it, but WAYYYY nicer, and way more modern. I didn't notice any food places nearby, so I am guessing they built a food court somewhere else in the mall.
Man I hope this is what really happens. Like I've said before, or maybe, I have had dreams where I've met people, before meeting them in person. I had a dream in December I was holding my newborn baby girl, and making her laugh... That was 4 months before finding out, I was having another baby girl, which isn't due to be born, until June. When I took my fiancee to the hospital for her ultrasound, they asked me, "Can you guess what it will be?" I said, "I know 100% it will be a girl." The lady asked me, "why do you think that?" I said, "Because I had a dream I was playing with a newborn baby girl in my house that looks like my daughter did when she was first born." Sure enough the lady looked at me, and said I was right.
Can you dream me a Ferrari?
LOL
I think dreaming about a baby girl is a little different. First of all, thats a 50/50 shot... better than you'd get anywhere in vegas
second, your vision of that mall sounds hideous.
No kidding, green marble? Who uses green marble these days?
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