Dillard's leaving Hickory Hollow Mall

[timmay143]

In Charlotte, our area in decline is the Eastland Mall area. Shame since many, including myself, have such fond memories of the mall just back in the 90's. The Ice Skating Rink was a huge hit there.

Now its abandoned and the area is rigid, tired, and rough.

There had been talks of turning it into a Hispanic mall, but it recently got bought by the city to be converted into a Studio for movie companies. Not to different it sounds than this area.

The only way to turn around the situation is to be innovative which can be done. It's not a lost hope. Just a matter of the economy getting better $$$

Thanks for the input! Hopefully, something will be done to reinvent HHM which will then hopefully be a catalyst to the rest of the area.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I am a lifelong resident of Nashville, but quite a few years behind you. You're probably the first person I've come across who has described the transformation of Antioch from a long time resident's perspective....or at least the ones I've come across aren't as well thought out.

Hey, I'm not THAT old ! Is 38 old ? As for social experimentation, that was going on before I came along. Ultimately, I think governmental attempts to assure "fairness", "justice", et al, ends up making things worse. We've seen that throughout the course of the 20th century up to the present day. The galling thing is that so many misguided souls believe this is positive progress. As I noted earlier, that the folks often pushing said "progress" tend to conveniently exempt themselves from their own policies. I guarantee if they watched their own neighborhoods rapidly transform, they would not just sit back quietly, either pushing hard to stop it or simply up and moving. Since we had little to no say, most of those that could get out did so.

Others on the thread have suggested it was market forces and poor planning that had a hand. Of course, that is partly correct as well. Consider that all of this added up to a perfect storm that sent Antioch on a downward spiral. Unquestionably, planning out here was pretty poor from the get-go, but that is also in the purview of the politicians as well.

Also pointed out that we're moving towards the Parisian model, where the central city and inner ring contain the wealthiest and most productive areas, where the outer arrondissements are populated by the criminal underclass that even the police don't wish to bother going into. I do hope we do not deteriorate to that point. However, I'm sure some politicians wouldn't mind the removal of the underclass from the inner areas to improve property values. Look at enlightened San Francisco, which essentially drove out the working class Black population, because they could no longer afford to live there. More of that hypocrisy at work, the "we care" (so long as "they" stay far away).

As for ideas on how to "improve" Antioch, I'm sure I could come up with them, but they'd probably be on the draconian side (such as taking a bulldozer to a large area), though never did I think that asking for the vigorous enforcement of immigration laws would be "draconian." If you don't have a large % of your population that doesn't respect the law, it's hard to expect them to be a part of raising the standards of a community. That alone would have a miraculous impact on cutting the crime rate. Both parties, unfortunately, have to take the blame for not doing what needs to be done.

To bring the subject back to HHM, maybe we could build a bonafide old-style "downtown" of sorts with HHM (or at least the property) as a epicenter. Ultimately, that would probably require demolition of the entire property and a redesign of the environs. Whether that would work for the long run in bolstering the area's desireability and attracting back more middle class residents is the question. I don't expect anything to change in a positive way anytime soon, at least not for another 20 years (longer, if things are left "as is").

[smeagolsfree]

Hey Davy,

38 is really old

[fieldmarshaldj]

[timmay143]

If I had the money, I would keep the existing HHM structure. Convert some of it into office space, library, community college, or whatever is already going to be there. Keep some of the retail. Build around in the surface parking various structures (with garages for parking instead) for various needs such as residential, retail, commercial (medical, tech, etc), pedestrian spaces (cafe, plazas, parks, etc). Sort of like a MayTown center concept. HEY TONY!

I can't believe the mall sold for 1 million. I hope this guy does something decent with it.

[fieldmarshaldj]

^Hey, if Tony G. wants to take a crack at HHM, he can be my guest. Maybe he can build the Sig out here in Antioch.

[Justiceham]

The Hickory Hollow Target has been sold.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2013/07/former-hickory-hollow-target-store.html

[smeagolsfree]

I know this is a sore subject for some of you, but this sort of confirms what I noticed at HHMall or Global Mall. They are having a hard time and the place is in bad need of renovation.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20140212/BUSINESS02/302120116/With-less-than-20-percent-storefronts-occupied-Global-Mall-faces-an-identity-crisis

[fieldmarshaldj]

^A name change (Global Crossings Mall -- and who calls it that ?) is not going to make things better any more than changing the name of Detroit to Happyville. Until the problems of this area are addressed and solved (and as I've said for many years, nobody in city leadership has ever done anything to "help" Antioch positively, but they sure have "helped" us negatively), it will be (as a Tennessean poster put it) just lipstick on the proverbial pig.

[bwithers1]

Here is a "green shoot" for the Hickory Hollow area.  The NBJ announces that the developers of Nashville West shopping center are holding community meetings with CM Jacoba Dowell (D-32) for a property five times as large near the I-24/Bell Road exit.  Here is the link http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/real-estate/2014/10/nashville-west-developers-pursue-huge-antioch.html