[Asheville Mall]

Oh, man. Trying to remember that second story at the A-Mall is going to drive me nuts. I do believe there was one and, like Orulz said, that it connected to Ivey's which is the current Dillard's location. I've worked within a few blocks of both malls for nearly 30 years now and, though I'd rather be nibbled to death by ducks than go to either one, I have been around for many changes. Yes, Brendle's was the main tenant in Innsbruck Mall for many years. It took up the entire location that is now Big Lots and Office Depot. After Brendle's closed, they divided the space into two stores. There was not a Montgomery Ward there at all. There was a large cafeteria on the upper level on the northeast end. One of those places with initials for a name, like J&S, but not J&S, best I recall.

As for the A-Mall, I seem to remember escalators being in the hallway area that now goes down alongside Dillard's and to the Gallery South area. There was a Litchfield's restaurant in that area, too. They had great Rueben's, btw. The opening into the Ivey's store was in or adjacent to the kitchen/housewares department. Belk's was never a two-story store until their renovation several years back and the second floor section of the mall didn't connect to that store. The Asheville Mall offices were in the second floor and, it seems, there were a few stores up there. Maybe the cigar shop?

I found out quite a bit about Asheville Mall recently. What surprised me was that the back parking deck and old part of the mall were apparently built cheap and have had problems, so the owners have all done a nice job keeping that from being an obvious or dangerous problem. I did notice that the concrete on the back parking deck was quite shall I say old looking...I was a bit stunned about how old it looked considering that part was built in 1989, and the back entrance likewise looked way older than that as well. I also understand that the upper Dillard's was actually completely rebuilt as Montgomery Ward (not original to the mall). It is obvious that somehow they have taken a mall that I understand has been at times unpopular and extremely controversial into the ultimate victor taking down retail downtown, at Innsbruck (whatever it was originally called) and lastly Biltmore Square.

Maybe my memories were completely wrong on the "second level". Apparently the only "second level" was the old upper level dining area of J&S Cafeteria that later became B Dalton with Piccadilly underneath. That would make sense since I remember Piccadilly being on a "lower level". I also understood a second level was planned as well, but was fought hotly. One of those reasons was that apparently that whole entire wing of the mall would need to be rebuilt from scratch to support it. While Asheville Mall did what it had to survive, the reality is that they basically murdered Biltmore Square. While the city obviously did not want a third mall, it seems one mall took over completely on too small of land, but managed to pull it off very successfully. Nevertheless, I quite frankly do not like the sea of parking decks there. Perhaps rebuilding the older mall with the upslope part two levels and downslope part 3 levels might not be such a bad idea. However, I think it should match the original mall in design (skylights, high windows), add some water features and plants and give the mall a true log cabin, mountain feel. I would also demolish the entire 2000 addition to make room for a new three-level Dillard's to tack onto the 1989 addition. The double-Dillard's is odd.

As to Innsbruck...this mall just seems to have gotten the shaft. It is apparently the oldest, but its lack of room to expand except upward and quick crushing by Asheville Mall makes it a miracle it lasted as long as it has. It looks like whatever renovations it has gotten were cheap at best...it still looks like 1965. It took a lot of people posting on my blog about it to get it straight what its anchors were. It was Mason's first, Sky City second and then it was subdivided into Brendle's and Office Depot. Brendle's closed with the chain then Big Lots came much later. Ingles was the other anchor...apparently built before 1970 and closing in 2005. Eckerd was in the mall, but where I'm unsure of. The area does have an obvious crime problem (I saw a store clerk at the replacement Ingles running down a shoplifter), and the actual mall portion has pretty much been relegated to small local businesses not dependent on regular shopping traffic. However, the lower level "strip" portion is largely occupied with some offices or something in the background. It could reasonably be converted to a two-level mall in that area if the need was there, and that portion of the mall is still successful otherwise.

I actually blogged on how this mall could be redeveloped while still holding onto the enclosed mall. It is too bad in that time that instead of creating a ridiculous and monstrous redesign of Asheville Mall that JCPenney and another department store couldn't have just moved in and brought it back. There is an empty anchor pad up front that has never been filled that would have made a decent two-level JCPenney and the disconnected Sky City could have been demolished for a decent two-level department store. As of today, this would make a nice urban renewal project blended with the mall to make it fun. Asheville may have a glut of retail on Tunnel Road, but they do not have everything. I get so sick of how people just "give up" on the first generation malls. Sure some of them are just too bland to remain, but some just strike me as needing inspiration.