Carolina Circle Mall
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Carolina Circle Mall was a shopping mall in the northeast section of Greensboro, North Carolina, anchored by Belk, Dillard's (Was Ivey's until 1990), Montgomery Ward, and a six-screen movie theatre.
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[edit] Ice Rink Era (1976-1987)
Carolina Circle Mall opened on August 4, 1976 with only 22 stores and 750,000 square feet of leasable area spread out over two levels.
The advertising campaign for the mall during its early years in the 1970s was based on Alice in Wonderland. In fact, the mall's emblem during the time included the Cheshire Cat.
During the mall's early years, it featured Greensboro's only ice rink, which made it competitive with the city's other mall, Four Seasons Mall. The ice rink closed and was removed during renovations in the late 1980s.
The mall was bought by Sunshine Properties in 1986. These new owners promised to renovate the mall to keep it up to date with Four Seasons Mall.[1]
[edit] Carousel Era (1988-1996)
The mall's first and only renovation began soon after and was completed in June of 1988.[2]
The renovation included a number of major changes such as a brighter color scheme, new emblem, a food court, and a $250,000 custom built carousel, which replaced the ice rink. The carousel was removed when the mall's fortunes took a turn for the worse in the late 1990s.[3]
On September 30, 1993, realty company Zamias Services Incorporated bought the mall for $16 million in cash and agreed to take over the $21.17 million mortgage.[4]
In February of 1994, the US Postal Service bought the lower level of the mall's Belk. Belk kept its upper level open as a store.[5]
[edit] Downfall
One by one, stores began to close. The last store remaining was Montgomery Ward, which went out of business in 2001, effectively closing the mall.
[edit] Present
In June of 2005, the mall was demolished to make way for a new shopping center, named "The Shoppes at Pyramids Village" and Wal-Mart which opened on August 16, 2006.
[edit] Reasons for Downfall & Further Info
Carolina Circle Mall was a "kid friendly mall" with an ice rink, game room, toy stores and a "Teen Disco" called Current Events. In the early eighties a restaurant/bar that overlooked the ice rink named Annabelle's was the place for the "yuppie crowd" of northern Greensboro. With glass windows that allowed diners to watch ice skaters as they enjoyed an adult beverage and a good meal,and decor reminiscent of an old Inn the restaraunt was packed most nights.
The addition of a skate park on the eastern mall property near the waterslide also contributed to the "kid friendly" atmosphere. Teens could be regularly seen "cruising" in search of "dates" in the parking lot at the rear exit as well as inside the mall itself. Many a romance was begun by a young lad yelling from a car at a girl sitting on the wall outside the theater exit.
The demise of the mall can be traced to the low income apartments that were located behind the Kmart store near the mall and off White Street to the southeast. Older shoppers no longer felt safe going to the mall due to packs of roaming thugs and incidents of crime in the parking lot. Consequently, affluent shoppers began to stay away and returned to Friendly Shopping Center. But they also would not allow there children to venture to the mall on Friday and Saturday nights as had been customary, thus causing a mass exodus of retailers the likes of which has not been seen since the Israelites left Egypt.
The Greensboro Police took up satellite offices inside the mall which was believed to be a solution to the conditions mentioned above. But this only reinforced the apparent decline of the area. Roaming hooligans and a terrible odor from a waste water treatment plant nearby sealed the malls fate.
Today a Wal-Mart Supercenter stands on the parcel that was once Carolina Circle Mall. The loss prevention reports from this WalMart show the area has not changed. According to confidentail corporate reports this store has one of the highest reports of pilferage in the region and will be slated for shutdown if it does not decrease dramatically.
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