Mall History

[Greg S]

After we got to talking about the different malls and their history in the Oak View thread figured this was a good stand alone topic.

One of the cooler, least discussed malls in the area was Midlands Mall. I didn't get to go a ton when it was thriving but I remember as a kid thinking it was the coolest one in the area. Between the sky lights (I believe the first in the area to have them) along with different levels and carpet in the common areas. Very unique for around here.

Greg

[OmahaRedWing]

There was a nice Brandeis at Midlands Mall. I also remember a really good Athlete's Foot (a predecessor to Foot Locker).

[ChadJK]

I saw an old listing for Claire's at Westroads Mall that said it was locate at Unit Whatever in "Westminster Mall" and then I remembered that old school Westroads named the mall corridors different things. Anyone remember what the others were named?

Also, I just noticed the other day that First Westroads Bank is still independent and in business. I kind of forget it existed.

Found this article on Westroads Mall history: https://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/ ... 6-and.html

[NEDodger]

I saw an old listing for Claire's at Westroads Mall that said it was locate at Unit Whatever in "Westminster Mall" and then I remembered that old school Westroads named the mall corridors different things. Anyone remember what the others were named?

I also remember Alpine and Boston. There was a fourth leg and then I think the basement was something else?

[NEDodger]

Was it Bavarian Mall?

[Garrett]

After we got to talking about the different malls and their history in the Oak View thread figured this was a good stand alone topic.

One of the cooler, least discussed malls in the area was Midlands Mall. I didn't get to go a ton when it was thriving but I remember as a kid thinking it was the coolest one in the area. Between the sky lights (I believe the first in the area to have them) along with different levels and carpet in the common areas. Very unique for around here.

Greg

Yeah the shame about Midlands though is how much of downtown Council Bluffs it demolished for construction, only to be supplanted by Mall of the Bluffs 10 years later

[thenewguy]

i remember midlands; it was super awesome as a kid because of the clock and coin fountain (i don't remember much of the stores, i was young at the time). The orangish-redish colors were awesome too

[thenewguy]

evidently, there used to be a pretty sweet buffet at westroads called bishop's. I don't recall mention of the place before but looked pretty damn nice

https://myomahaobsession.com/2016/03/17 ... hey-close/

[Jason4225]

evidently, there used to be a pretty sweet buffet at westroads called bishop's. I don't recall mention of the place before but looked pretty damn nice

https://myomahaobsession.com/2016/03/17 ... hey-close/

I grew up in Sioux City and we had a Bishop’s Buffet in our mall as well. As a kid I thought it was amazing. My go to was a chunk of ham, chocolate milk, and French Silk pie. Everyone in our family loved it at the time. My tastes have changed a bit since then, but I wish there was a dessert that brought me as much joy as the French Silk pie in those days.

[mrsticka]

I remember when Westroads’ food court, The Grand Cafe, opened in 1991. My parents took us to it. It looked like a really awesome place. Not to mention quite overwhelming. There were a total of 12 places to go in there. I think we ended up going to Runza there. At least, that’s how I remember it.

[jag42]

Eerie drone footage looking down at Crossroads Mall food court while the mall was being demolished and after the tent tore apart. I worked at Sbarro as a teenager late 1980s.

[omaha79]

When talking about mall history in Omaha, the one that gets completely forgotten is Omaha's poorly thought out, ill fated, and short lived Park Faire downtown. I would love to know exactly how long it truly functioned as a real mall. I think it opened in about 1984 or 1985. It was Omaha's first attempt to revitalize the former retail corridor of 16th Street that had fallen into disuse.

My guess is that it only truly functioned as a mall for about 10 years from 1984-1994, maybe less. I worked down in that area in 2003 and, by that time, all that remained was a Walgreens and Quiznos. Both closed by roughly 2005 and the mall was finally converted to a parking garage.

My friend worked for the parent company that owns the now parking garage a few years ago. At that time, there were still areas on the upper floor that connected to the sky walk that looked like they would have when it was a mall. Overall, there are almost no mentions of it being a mall online and I've only been able to locate roughly 2-3 photos on various facebook groups over the years. It's truly almost a missing and forgotten link in Omaha's retail history.

[omaha79]

For the heck of it, I created a list of every dead mall in Omaha's/Council Bluffs history. Feel free to add any if I've missed any...

The Center
Crossroads
Southroads
Midlands Mall
Mall of the Bluffs
Park Faire
Oak View

[WBR_Tom]

I've been working on the new website for Omaha Heritage Preservation over the last 18 months or so, and a large part of that work has been finding and cataloguing thousands of photos from their archives. Here's some photos of the exterior of the Park Fair mall that we scanned in from the original 4x5 slide film. These slides were undated, but I believe they're from 1988 or 1989 based on other slides in the same box that were dated.







This one isn't Park Fair specifically, but it's related: an aerial shot of Central Park Plaza under construction that you might find interesting nonetheless. This was was undated, too, but I'm guessing it's from 1980 or 1981 since the building opened in '82.

https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/wp ... ews_32.jpg

[OmahaRedWing]

When talking about mall history in Omaha, the one that gets completely forgotten is Omaha's poorly thought out, ill fated, and short lived Park Faire downtown. I would love to know exactly how long it truly functioned as a real mall. I think it opened in about 1984 or 1985. It was Omaha's first attempt to revitalize the former retail corridor of 16th Street that had fallen into disuse.

My guess is that it only truly functioned as a mall for about 10 years from 1984-1994, maybe less. I worked down in that area in 2003 and, by that time, all that remained was a Walgreens and Quiznos. Both closed by roughly 2005 and the mall was finally converted to a parking garage.

My friend worked for the parent company that owns the now parking garage a few years ago. At that time, there were still areas on the upper floor that connected to the sky walk that looked like they would have when it was a mall. Overall, there are almost no mentions of it being a mall online and I've only been able to locate roughly 2-3 photos on various facebook groups over the years. It's truly almost a missing and forgotten link in Omaha's retail history.

Another for consideration that was small (though it might have been larger than Park Faire) was the one on 56th and Redick. I remember going to it a few times in the 70's as they had a 4 screen movie theater in it (maybe the Northhampton 4?). It was at least 2 stories and enclosed, had stores and the previously mentioned movie theater. There was also a strip mall on the west that had a grocery store. The buildings are still there off 56th and Sorensen.

[omaha79]

I've been working on the new website for Omaha Heritage Preservation over the last 18 months or so, and a large part of that work has been finding and cataloguing thousands of photos from their archives. Here's some photos of the exterior of the Park Fair mall that we scanned in from the original 4x5 slide film. These slides were undated, but I believe they're from 1988 or 1989 based on other slides in the same box that were dated.







This one isn't Park Fair specifically, but it's related: an aerial shot of Central Park Plaza under construction that you might find interesting nonetheless. This was was undated, too, but I'm guessing it's from 1980 or 1981 since the building opened in '82.

https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/wp ... ews_32.jpg

Awesome! anything of the interior out there? I've never really been able to imagine what the main concourse of the mall would have looked like.

[omaha79]

When talking about mall history in Omaha, the one that gets completely forgotten is Omaha's poorly thought out, ill fated, and short lived Park Faire downtown. I would love to know exactly how long it truly functioned as a real mall. I think it opened in about 1984 or 1985. It was Omaha's first attempt to revitalize the former retail corridor of 16th Street that had fallen into disuse.

My guess is that it only truly functioned as a mall for about 10 years from 1984-1994, maybe less. I worked down in that area in 2003 and, by that time, all that remained was a Walgreens and Quiznos. Both closed by roughly 2005 and the mall was finally converted to a parking garage.

My friend worked for the parent company that owns the now parking garage a few years ago. At that time, there were still areas on the upper floor that connected to the sky walk that looked like they would have when it was a mall. Overall, there are almost no mentions of it being a mall online and I've only been able to locate roughly 2-3 photos on various facebook groups over the years. It's truly almost a missing and forgotten link in Omaha's retail history.

Another for consideration that was small (though it might have been larger than Park Faire) was the one on 56th and Redick. I remember going to it a few times in the 70's as they had a 4 screen movie theater in it (maybe the Northhampton 4?). It was at least 2 stories and enclosed, had stores and the previously mentioned movie theater. There was also a strip mall on the west that had a grocery store. The buildings are still there off 56th and Sorensen.

Interesting. Definitely not a part of the city we spent any time in. Does the building still exist? What was the name of the facility?

[WBR_Tom]

I've been working on the new website for Omaha Heritage Preservation over the last 18 months or so, and a large part of that work has been finding and cataloguing thousands of photos from their archives. Here's some photos of the exterior of the Park Fair mall that we scanned in from the original 4x5 slide film. These slides were undated, but I believe they're from 1988 or 1989 based on other slides in the same box that were dated.







This one isn't Park Fair specifically, but it's related: an aerial shot of Central Park Plaza under construction that you might find interesting nonetheless. This was was undated, too, but I'm guessing it's from 1980 or 1981 since the building opened in '82.

https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/wp ... ews_32.jpg

Awesome! anything of the interior out there? I've never really been able to imagine what the main concourse of the mall would have looked like.

I haven't come across any (yet) but I'll keep an eye out for any interior shots; I'm curious to see what it looked like, too. OHP's archives are enormous, and the stuff that we've added to their new site only scratches the surface of what they have in storage. The Lynn Meyer (former City Planner) collection alone has around 10,000 images from the late 70s-early 90s; I've seen interior shots of a lot of the old Jobbers Canyon buildings and other non-extant structures downtown in those boxes. So maybe there's some Park Fair ones too!

[omaha79]

I've been working on the new website for Omaha Heritage Preservation over the last 18 months or so, and a large part of that work has been finding and cataloguing thousands of photos from their archives. Here's some photos of the exterior of the Park Fair mall that we scanned in from the original 4x5 slide film. These slides were undated, but I believe they're from 1988 or 1989 based on other slides in the same box that were dated.







This one isn't Park Fair specifically, but it's related: an aerial shot of Central Park Plaza under construction that you might find interesting nonetheless. This was was undated, too, but I'm guessing it's from 1980 or 1981 since the building opened in '82.

https://preservation.cityofomaha.org/wp ... ews_32.jpg

Awesome! anything of the interior out there? I've never really been able to imagine what the main concourse of the mall would have looked like.

I haven't come across any (yet) but I'll keep an eye out for any interior shots; I'm curious to see what it looked like, too. OHP's archives are enormous, and the stuff that we've added to their new site only scratches the surface of what they have in storage. The Lynn Meyer (former City Planner) collection alone has around 10,000 images from the late 70s-early 90s; I've seen interior shots of a lot of the old Jobbers Canyon buildings and other non-extant structures downtown in those boxes. So maybe there's some Park Fair ones too!

It would be shocking if no pictures exist. It was a big project for Omaha in the 80's.

[Greg S]

When talking about mall history in Omaha, the one that gets completely forgotten is Omaha's poorly thought out, ill fated, and short lived Park Faire downtown. I would love to know exactly how long it truly functioned as a real mall. I think it opened in about 1984 or 1985. It was Omaha's first attempt to revitalize the former retail corridor of 16th Street that had fallen into disuse.

My guess is that it only truly functioned as a mall for about 10 years from 1984-1994, maybe less. I worked down in that area in 2003 and, by that time, all that remained was a Walgreens and Quiznos. Both closed by roughly 2005 and the mall was finally converted to a parking garage.

My friend worked for the parent company that owns the now parking garage a few years ago. At that time, there were still areas on the upper floor that connected to the sky walk that looked like they would have when it was a mall. Overall, there are almost no mentions of it being a mall online and I've only been able to locate roughly 2-3 photos on various facebook groups over the years. It's truly almost a missing and forgotten link in Omaha's retail history.

Another for consideration that was small (though it might have been larger than Park Faire) was the one on 56th and Redick. I remember going to it a few times in the 70's as they had a 4 screen movie theater in it (maybe the Northhampton 4?). It was at least 2 stories and enclosed, had stores and the previously mentioned movie theater. There was also a strip mall on the west that had a grocery store. The buildings are still there off 56th and Sorensen.

Interesting. Definitely not a part of the city we spent any time in. Does the building still exist? What was the name of the facility?

Yep both the old mall building and the outside strip center are still there. If you are headed downtown on Sorensen you can see them from Sorensen at 56th. The strip center now houses Eagles Nest Church. The enclosed center including movie theater or just east of it.

[Renovator2559]

Online shopping only accounts for 20-30 percent of clothing sales.
European malls are thriving and they have online shopping too. While US malls are failing. So online shopping is partly to blame

One reason of US malls failing, is due to poor urban planning, suburban sprawl causing unnecessary traffic congestion and walking in a large mall parking lot is a drag for most.

European malls do not have any large parking lots, instead European malls have excellent connections to public transit.

Another factor to mall failures is the increasing divide between upper middle and lower classes, people have less funds to spend, so they buy at places like Walmart instead.

Class "A" or luxury malls for the upper class are doing well.

[mrsticka]

When Crossroads was extended and renovated in the mid-to-late 80's, this was what it looked like:


This is what I wish they had done:



How Oak View Mall was built:


How I wish they built it:

[Greg S]

Besides online shopping, malls have been in the decline because tastes have changed. In the 80's and 90's we viewed shopping and malls like entertainment. Sure their were movie theaters and arcades, but people would just shop for entertainment. My kids (teenagers) just won't do that at the frequency we did. They don't view shopping as fun. Maybe 4 times a year tops would they be interested. Kids today aren't near as materialistic as we were. I remember kids saving up and spending lot of money on name brand clothes in the 80's and 90's. Today's kids aren't nearly as driven for stuff like that.

Greg

[Greg S]

When talking about mall history in Omaha, the one that gets completely forgotten is Omaha's poorly thought out, ill fated, and short lived Park Faire downtown. I would love to know exactly how long it truly functioned as a real mall. I think it opened in about 1984 or 1985. It was Omaha's first attempt to revitalize the former retail corridor of 16th Street that had fallen into disuse.

My guess is that it only truly functioned as a mall for about 10 years from 1984-1994, maybe less. I worked down in that area in 2003 and, by that time, all that remained was a Walgreens and Quiznos. Both closed by roughly 2005 and the mall was finally converted to a parking garage.

My friend worked for the parent company that owns the now parking garage a few years ago. At that time, there were still areas on the upper floor that connected to the sky walk that looked like they would have when it was a mall. Overall, there are almost no mentions of it being a mall online and I've only been able to locate roughly 2-3 photos on various facebook groups over the years. It's truly almost a missing and forgotten link in Omaha's retail history.

Another for consideration that was small (though it might have been larger than Park Faire) was the one on 56th and Redick. I remember going to it a few times in the 70's as they had a 4 screen movie theater in it (maybe the Northhampton 4?). It was at least 2 stories and enclosed, had stores and the previously mentioned movie theater. There was also a strip mall on the west that had a grocery store. The buildings are still there off 56th and Sorensen.

Interesting. Definitely not a part of the city we spent any time in. Does the building still exist? What was the name of the facility?

Yep both the old mall building and the outside strip center are still there. If you are headed downtown on Sorensen you can see them from Sorensen at 56th. The strip center now houses Eagles Nest Church. The enclosed center including movie theater or just east of it.

Was driving from downtown to NW Omaha so I took Sorensen and went by here. I had thought there was a gap between the old enclosed space and the strip center but saw there isn't and it's all one building. Definitely all of it still standing.

[mgoett]

When will the Center Mall get the wrecking ball? I did get a suit and corsage there for prom. like everything else this needs redeveloped. would like to see the VA expand on this mall.

[Greg S]

I posted about it briefly in the Elsewhere forum about downtown Chicago, but thought specifically this part fits here.

Macy's flagship store in downtown Chicago on State Street. Originally the main Marshall Fields store. I had previously been to the large Macy's/former Marshall Fields store near the Water Tower Place Mall off Michigan avenue. And was really impressed. It closed recently unfortunately. Had no idea this one was so much larger. I looked it up and it's the 3rd largest store in the world supposedly.

For those that love the old downtown department stores, I highly recommend checking it out. Macy's is keeping it in great shape and well stocked. Absolutely beautiful architecture and art throughout the store. Will go every time I can when in Chicago. Heard it's awesome at Christmas. I have very fond memories of the downtown Omaha Brandeis store as a kid. During college I worked at the Downtown Miller and Paine store in Lincoln just before it got bought by Dillards (and closed a short time after).

Greg

[PWL73316]

A lot of the decline of the mall is downstream of the decline of Americans caring that much about clothes. And the mall was kind of a downwardly mobile large formal department store, which was downward from bespoke tailoring.

clothing.jpg

[Bob from Omaha]

Sure, the percentage of disposable income spent on clothing has fallen by half -but is this bad news? Hardly. We have a lot more disposable income than we used to. For example, circa 1970, disposable income amounted to about $4,000. With clothing expenditures of 6% (see the chart above), that’s about $240. However, when you consider the increase in disposable income since then (43% in real dollars, adjusted for inflation) and even at today’s new low of only 3% of disposable income spent on clothing purchases, this means the average spent is $810 per year, amounting to a 300+% increase. We’re doing great! Disposable income only increased 43% but we got a disproportionate percentage of it, namely a 300% increase in spending. Don’t let statistics get you down, do the math.

Full story

Sorry. One of my minors was economics.