Greenville Mall

[perrykat]

Sounds interesting - I'm guessing it came around during the 1995 remodel.

[csedwards72]

Sounds interesting - I'm guessing it came around during the 1995 remodel.

Late '90s. There was a restaurant downtown called the 858. The same owner opened a restaurant at Greenville Mall that opened at the 1995 re-opening in the At Your Table space. That restaurant closed and At Your Table opened. I thought that the 1995 restaurant, whatever its name was, was very good, but it closed. At Your Table got really good reviews but didn't make it, either.

[perrykat]

They, probably like a lot of other stores in the mall were probably too specialized.

Another thing I noticed in the directory yesterday is a restaurant called "Club X." Is this a nightspot or something??? LOL!!!! Just out of curiosity I rode around the mall but I couldn't find it. It's in the phonebook and the location is 1025 Woodruff (mall address.)

[jimgreenvillem]

I work part-time at Hollywood 20 at the Greenville Mall and I thought I should register and comment...First, there are no current plans to raze/demolish the shopping complex, actually there are no said plans to change it at all currently that I know of. They are probably going to just sit and wait to see what is best to do.

I was also told by a coworker that some retail/department stores are looking at the two anchor stores for possible locations. I have no clue as to what they would be presently. But I do understand they are close to reaching an agreement on one, which instinct tells me is probably the Wards building. The last I heard about Bass Pro Shops is that they were still considering Greenville Mall as well as a few other places for possible locations. I honestly know NOTHING about Burlington Coat relocating to the Greenville Mall.

Greenville Mall is such a nice mall, I can't imagine seeing bulldozers and wrecking balls tearing through it! Yikes!

[csedwards72]

Re: Bass Pro Shops- I don't see where else the store would go other than Greenville Mall. I drove through Greenridge and the Point yesterday and there doesn't seem to be any free land or vacant already-built space at either one in a size big enough to fit a Bass Pro Shops store.

Greenville Mall's exterior needs some work to make it look as nice as its inside does. Hopefully any new anchors will come in together with some exterior fixing-up.

[motonenterprises]

Welcome to the board Jim!

[perrykat]

Hi Jim and welcome!!

I agree with csedwards about Bass Pro Shops.....The Greenville Mall is VERY logical for a new location. I honestly think that would help usher in a resurgence for the mall. That's where they build most of their new locations now anyways.

BTW, I looked in the window of the former At Your Table and there are paint buckets and wood all over the floor and it looks like someone's been working in there recently. Maybe a new restaurant is going in soon? The lights were on in there.

PS; I went today and did some shopping at Finish Line, Calendar Club and Eddie Bauer and there were actually people SHOPPING!!! Had to wait in line 10 minutes at the Orient Express to get lunch. Actually I was kinda happy to have to wait in line.

[jimgreenvillem]

Greenville Mall has a VERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRY good shot at getting Bass Pro Shops according to what I've heard. I hope they can get it. It would probably bring some more attention and shoppers to the mall.

I found a story on Deadmall.com that is very similar to the Greenville Mall, a Bass PS moved there and brought more tenants in which brought the mall back...Sure, it would be a big change from Drexel Heritage, Parisian, Williams Sonoma and so on but at least it would be something!!

http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/savannah_mall.html

Oh, thanks for the welcomes everybody

[StevenRocks]

Savannah Mall is a place that was literally saveed from the wrecking ball by fresh new ideas. It could serve as a model for Greenville Mall, but one also has to consider that Savannah doesn't have as much retail as metro Greenville generally and is a larger city.

[upstate29650]

Savannah Mall is a place that was literally saveed from the wrecking ball by fresh new ideas. It could serve as a model for Greenville Mall, but one also has to consider that Savannah doesn't have as much retail as metro Greenville generally and is a larger city.

True, but Savannah does serve a larger geographic footprint.

Grenville's closest mall competitor is Spartanburg, whereas Savannah's is Charleston (100 miles away). I wouldn't consider Hilton Head's Mall & shopping to be a competitor, as it targets an entirely different demographic.

[jimgreenvillem]

Here's another example of Bass PS bringing back a dead mall. http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/forest_fair_mall.html

I hope the new mall owners will get some "fresh new ideas" and save Greenville Mall from a wrecking ball eventually.

[StevenRocks]

Forest Fair is actually a good mall to compare to Greenville Mall. It was surrounded by more popular retail, went through several iterations and was recently redeveloped as Cincinatti Mills, a hybrid outlet/entertainemt mall.

[perrykat]

I've been to Forest Fair Mall/Cincinnati Mills - It's a very nice mall. It's gorgeous, just like the Greenville Mall. I hear it's been a big success.

Oh, for those baseball card collectors, the Greenville Baseball Card store has re-opened next to Mr. Knickerbocker as of today. It's not in the old spot anymore for some reason.

[greenvilleguy]

Spoke to the owner of Nina's in the mall yesterday and he said the mall is definately being torn down sometime next year and something like Greenridge will be built. I know there is a lot of retail that Greenville is still missing but that will be a large development. If Bass Pro Shops come to that area I would assume that they would use a large portion of the land, but there will still be a lot left. I wonder if Palmetto Home and Garden will remain...

[perrykat]

Well, if so, it'll be better than the mall's current state. If something like GreenRidge was built, what would anchor it though? We're either getting everything or have it.

[csedwards72]

Did the owner of Nina's say why he still has a store at Greenville Mall, quite a while after all of the anchors left? How much business could stores there (apart from Harold's, which seems to be destination retail) be doing?

This has been a really interesting discussion; so it seems as though the mall's future prospects include one or more of the following:

1. Continuing in its current nearly dead state for a while more;

2. Demolition and redevelopment as a Shops at Greenridge-type development (which seems to be all the rage these days among shopping center developers- http://www.theshoppesateastchase.com is a shopping center in Alabama I drove by a few weeks ago and is similar);

3. Attracting new moderately-priced anchors such as Burlington Coat Factory and Bass Pro Shops, which presumably would attract mid-priced chains such as Payless Shoe Source and the like. Greenville Mall would still probably need an exterior sprucing up and would need an interior renovation in maybe 5 years.

It seems as if option 3 would be the cheapest way to turn around the mall in the short run, but I'd guess that a developer would focus on what would produce the best rate of return. I'd guess that a developer would have a difficult sales job attracting in-line tenants to 3, though (and in-line tenants generally pay more rent than anchors), as the leasing agents might have to say, "well, the mall died two times but we know this time it will thrive...".

[perrykat]

Hi CSEdwards, always glad to hear your commentary.

If you're asking how the stores in the mall are doing, Finish Line, Eddie Bauer, Nina's, April Cornell, and Mr Knickerbocker seem to do be doing fine.

Stores like the thing next to April C with the pocketbooks and scarves that doesn't have a sign (I think they call it MO JO or something like that), the Oriental Jewely plance, and Penn Art Galleries don't appear to be doing too hot. Out of all, I honestly think Golden Nails is doing the most business! LOL! Really, losing draw stores like Talbots and White House/Black Market really hurt mall traffic.

Option 3 is what I would like to see the most; hey, it's not like the mall was 5 or 6 years ago, but at least the space would be used. Malls like that seem to do decent business.

I guess the reason I'm reluctant when I hear "lifestyle center" is because that's what we've been told for years. And GM endures. Now with Greenridge and the Point, that literally would drain a new lifestyle center from stores right now.

Nina's at Greenville Mall seems to do pretty good business. Is it an original store?

[RestedTraveler]

Spoke to the owner of Nina's in the mall yesterday and he said the mall is definately being torn down sometime next year and something like Greenridge will be built.

This is just as I had suspected, especially if Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World is in the works for the Greenville Mall rather than the Point. Those stores are between 150,000 and 175,000 sq. ft. and require almost as much space on the outside of the store for parking storage of boats/trailers/etc..

[csedwards72]

Nina's isn't an original store. The location where it is now (or at least when I last visited that mall- outside the former Parisian entrance) was some type of women's clothing store originally- I think it was a Houston-based chain called Accente or something. Nina's has bounced around in the mall. I think it first opened maybe in the late 1990s but I don't really know; it just definitely wasn't there in 1995.

[perrykat]

Oh OK. Yeah, they're still there.

Sorry I keep asking questions about the mall and harping on it; but one last thing.....What happened to Shoe Sensation, Sunglass Source, ZAP Electronics, Sharon Luggage, Crabtree/Evelyn, Mole Hole, and Camelot Music?? Seems like they all closed around the same time, was just wondering what spiked it. I still have a pair of sunglasses I bought at S Source. I obviously spent WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to much time browsing and shopping the Greenville Mall in the late 90s/early 00's!

[jarvismj]

As afraid as I am that the mall will be torn down, what I am afraid of is developers over doing the "lifestyle center" I'm convinced that given the right resources and right managment, GM will make a comback, and even one that will surprise us here at UP. The one reason I want the mall to remain is that I feel fat lazy people (like myself) need to walk more than 20 feet to the store, not wait and tie up traffic for 10 minutes trying to get the closest spot. That is the one thing that I've kinda noticed at Greenridge, but more predominately at WalMart and BiLo. If they would go out and try to bring new tenents into the mall, ones that may or may not be in the area, it will work. BCF needs to get in there at the old Wards, and BPS at the old Dilliards. If Oshmans leaves, lets try to court Filenes Basement. It just pisses me off that no one puts up a fight to keep the mall up. If they want to raze something, I can give about 4 properties on Laurens Rd they would have fun with. I had something more to say, but I'm too mad to remember at this point.

[Greenville]

I like Greenville mall. It's a nice mall, and I hope to save it. But let's face it, for whatever reason, that mall has not done well. If we could get a few great anchors in there, and have some other stores open inside the mall, that would be the best option.

Honestly, will bringing in anchor stores like Burlington Coat Factory do anything to bring the mall back? I doubt it. It will allow the mall to survive a little longer, but it won't transform it into a legitimate mall. So when I hear people discussing the mall being razed and a lifestyle center going up, I am excited that something new could happen on the Greenville Mall site to breathe some new life into it. Especially if it means recruiting some great stores to Greenville that wouldn't come otherwise.

[perrykat]

If they just throw something like a BCF in to the old Monkey Wards and don't do anything else with attracting stores to the mall, I consider it as merely a way to pay the bills until a decision is made about the property.

Greenville Mall could make a decent comeback if it is handeled correctly. Since Urban Retail sold it the mall has steadily lost its strongest performing tenants . Poor management plays a huge role in that with any mall (eg; Aiken Mall in Aiken, SC, was purchased in 1999 by a more "well-to-do" company...It was like 70% vacant...it was full in two years)....I understand some bank has owned it for the past two years and they did nothing for the mall and weren't interested in making it profitable. Look at all of the stores the mall has lost in that period!

I like what you came up with jarvis.

I like the idea of filling the rest of the mall in with things like FYE, Bath and Bod Works, White Barn Candle Co., Delia's, Sunglass Hut, Fossil store, Restoration Hardware, Sharper Image, etc...Not "upscale" but specialty.

The Greenville Mall is such a gorgeous property; it burns me up to think of what could have been done to save it all of this time and it has just sat. Now it may be too late.

I think leaving the mall and trying to attract new tenants is the best thing to do for now. The mall would need to run spots, do billboards, etc. show families in the mall, and promote that there's something for the whole family to do there. I would call it the "New Greenville Mall."

[motonenterprises]

I am willing to bet that this mall will be here longer than most of you will.

[RestedTraveler]

I'd almost take you up on that wager, but then again...I've got one foot pointed towards Colorado Springs already.