Cityplanner

It would be nice to have a tribute page to Bell Tower Mall. It was certainly part of my childhood and surely the lives of a lot of people then, soon to be no more.

I'd be surprised if Westgate closed. It has multiple anchors and plenty of in-line stores still. Plenty of malls limp along with 1 anchor and a high interior vacancy rate. Westgate isn't at that stage.

You're exactly right; Belk has stated that stores won't close and the bankruptcy is a quick, pre-packaged deal. I just figure that a retailer that's filing for bankruptcy and is in a distressed industry (mall-based department stores) can say it won't close stores, but I'll believe that when I see it.

That's really too bad because while I went there in maybe 2006, it was a stunningly beautiful property. I'd certainly go there just to enjoy being there, and it had really nice stores in it.

World War I was planned to be over before Christmas...

Is Stony Point Fashion Park going to close? The mall map online shows a lot of vacancies!

National chains and other destination retailers, please--I'm not sure if another cute gift shop will attract crowds.

This is based on the map available at https://shopgreenridge.com/interactive-map/ It's hard to read- the small red dots are apparently food places and the large red dots are vacancies. I was wrong; I misread all red dots as vacancies. Yes, it's less than 1/3 vacant but more than 4.

The only thing that gets me about Haywood is (other than it being unattractive on the outside and full of mid-tier stores): 1. In the 1950s, inexpensive car-dependent sprawl was built along large roads leading out from downtown. Within 10-20 years, it started looking bad and commerce started moving elsewhere. 2. In the 1960s, inexpensive car-dependent sprawl was built along large roads leading out from downtown. Within 10-20 years, it started looking bad and commerce started moving elsewhere. 3. In the 1970s, inexpensive car-dependent sprawl was built along large roads further out from downtown. Within 10-20 years, it started looking bad and commerce started moving elsewhere. 4. In the 1980s, inexpensive car-dependent sprawl was built along large roads further out. Within 10-20 years, it started looking bad and commerce started moving elsewhere. 5. In the 1990s, inexpensive car-dependent sprawl was built along large roads further out. Within 10-20 years, it started looking bad and commerce started moving elsewhere. Does anyone see a cycle here; perhaps a cycle that should be changed?

Greenville used to have an Eddie Bauer, at Greenville Mall and then Haywood, and Greenville had a Disney Store in maybe 1990? Odd that there's no H&M. I thought that Z Gallerie had disappeared as the one in Charlotte closed, but looks like I was wrong. My main gripe about Haywood is aesthetic: the mall is unattractive on the outside, and the surrounding area is 1985 all over again. (At least it's not 1975 all over again.) It could look nice like SouthPark does but it doesn't. Maybe Greenville's downtown does so well because other commercial areas around town are so unattractive? (Let me run for cover now.)

Goodness, I don't like Haywood Mall; in the '80s I went to McAlister Square instead and in the 90s I went to the new Greenville Mall instead--but I'm certainly not rooting for it to fail. The entire area does need to be upgraded. At least it hasn't deteriorated that much; it's just not particularly attractive. Aesthetic improvements (landscaping and more attractive architecture) would certainly help. It's one of the first things that visitors to Greenville see, and it's likely a good chunk of the local tax base. I hope that it improves, but not to the detriment of downtown or other areas. I'd like all parts of town to succeed.

On the Shops at Greenridge online map, over 1/3 of the small store spaces are empty. Maybe Greenridge is a place "nobody goes to because it's so crowded"?

Where would the Apple Store go--Birkdale? Maybe someone, at last, could lure it uptown (although that would be inconvenient for the slews of high-income people in north Mecklenburg). I can't figure out why some stores in high-traffic areas close- maybe the Lenox Square's Starbucks paid too much rent for its volume, even if had a lot of business?

Charlotte Business Journal reports that (1) Starwood paid $248 million for the mall a few years ago and (2) there at least 12 vacancies in the mall's interior. I wonder what the mall is worth today.

Wow, that's really bad. Dick's is an anchor that doesn't seem too selective about the malls that it's in. And there are Starbucks everywhere. The sign of "game over" for a mall in the South is when Belk and Chick-fil-A close, but losing Dick's and Starbucks is pretty close. I'd expect this to be the beginning of a steady trickle or stream of stores closing.

Weird for both stores. I'd think that Haywood or Woodruff Roads or downtown would have been better for both of them. Maybe even Augusta Road, actually. Sorry, I am not driving to Verdae just to go to either, but I'd shop there if they were located in a place where I was already headed. Hale's was at McAlister Square at least through the late 1980s, at the entrance next to Meyers-Arnold. I forget what was in the space was after that.

And during that period billions of dollars were allocated, and disbursed, for rail projects around the country, and for a high-speed rail project in Florida specifically. That money often went to (1) small projects (such as incremental track improvement projects and rebuilding some Amfleet cars) or (2) large projects (such as the Florida HSR project that failed. Even the track improvement projects, such as the proposed 110-mph routes in Illinois, haven't resulted in promised improvements over a decade later. So despite promises of 110-mph trains in the Midwest, a high-speed rail line in Florida and more, many of those promises weren't fulfilled. In 2008, Obama said that the night that of one of his election victories was "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." I'm waiting for tangible effects of that, too.

I suspect that the problem uptown is that the physical layout is not conducive to shopping: blocks of uninterrupted storefronts, accessible to anyone. Downtown Greenville has plenty of mall chains in it (and a Staples, which is in a complex that people likely drive to). Downtown Greenville has block after block of uninterrupted storefronts (and trees to shade crowds on hot days). And the buildings were built to be stores, mostly. So it's made for retailers. Uptown Charlotte probably has much better demographics (more people who live in the urban core, and they're wealthier), but less retail. Maybe because storefronts are split between the Overstreet Mall and the street, and uptown blocks are mostly office buildings, not set up for retail? So it's not made for retailers because if they locate on the street they'll miss the crowds in Overstreet Mall, and it's not made for individuals who shop because it requires walking past a lot of blank walls and office lobbies, not stores.

I'd say getting Brooks Brothers back is more likely than a 20-story building.

Agreed re: lack of great design; it may be that Target and Best Buy had built similar multilevel "big-box" shopping centers before in the same style and figured it made sense to use the same design, just as other retailers have similar designs for shopping centers that they anchor. The outer boroughs of NYC have a few Target-anchored shopping centers that are similar....meaning that the Bronx and uptown Charlotte have similar retail designs.

I regularly shop at urban Targets in Manhattan. I do because that’s the only realistic option; a regular Target is too far away. An urban Target is better than no Target but if a regular Target is reasonably close by, shopping at an urban Target makes no sense: why go to a store that has 1/4 the selection of one that’s also close by? With a real Target at Midtown, the only reason I see to have an urban Target is to have one right in the middle of Uptown, for office workers who need something and it doesn’t suit to stop at Midtown on the way home to get it.

Sidenote, but am I the only one who prefers the old logo, with the cursive-style B in Belk, instead of the current B with feathers?

Totally true about uptown Charlotte. And you are also right about NYC: there isn't a Target on Wall Street, although the Tribeca one is close by. Maybe a location uptown that would be easily accessible to everyone, not just Bank of America office workers, would do better--such as in the Epicentre if that's ever turned around? Or along Trade or Tryon? I certainly agree that being in a place with residents nearby is helpful. And a small location would make more sense than a 300,000 square foot one. There was no outdoor sign for the uptown Belk; it was just hidden away in the Overstreet Mall so that the only people who'd know about it were office works who walked by on their way to lunch or the parking garage. Nor was the store advertised, as far as I knew.

This is terrific, and thanks to city political and business leaders, and UCB decisionmakers. It would be icing on the cake if these new developments were all done in a timeless architectural style, such as Georgian, Federalist, classical or neo-Renaissance. I'm not sure how well the "mid-2000s box" style will hold up in a few decades, just as 1960s and 1970s architecture seems horribly dated (looking at you, Daniel Building).

In all my years working uptown, I don’t think I ever saw a single customer in the uptown mini-Belk.