| Location | Macon, Georgia, United States |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1975 |
| Management | Hull Storey Gibson Companies, LLC |
| Owner | Hull Storey Gibson Companies, LLC |
| No. of stores and services | 125 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 |
| Total retail floor area | 1,080,000 sq ft (100,000 m2).[1] |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Website | www.shopmaconmall.com |
Macon Mall is a two level, 1.1 million square foot regional shopping mall located in Macon, Georgia. The mall features Macy's, Belk, JCPenney and Sears (soon closing) as its anchor stores, as well as a two level food court.
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The mall opened in 1975 as a 1.08 million square foot shopping mall anchored by Davison's, Belk Matthews, JCPenney, and Sears. A Woolworth was added later which went bankrupt and today sits as the upstairs food court. The opening of Macon Mall led to the demise of Macon and Georgia's first enclosed mall, Westgate Mall down the street. At opening date the mall was filled with hundreds of light bulbs in a disco-style theme. This appearance quickly became dated and was expensive to maintain, leading to the mall's first renovation in 1983. The food court was added in 1986 and Davison's changed over to Macy's, due to Federated Department Stores eliminatning the Davison's name.
For fourteen years Macon Mall was one of the largest malls in the state of Georgia encompassing 1,448,200-square-foot (134,540 m2). The mall underwent a huge renovation and expansion in 1997 that nearly doubled the size of the mall and added Dillard's and Parisian as anchors. This made the mall more upscale and added over forty new stores in a wing on the otherside of JCPenney. This expansion made Macon mall the largest mall in the state of Georgia for two years until Mall of Georgia opened in 1999 in Gwinnett County. Subsequently Perimeter Mall and Lenox Square both trumped Macon Mall in size respectively, pushing it to fourth largest mall in the state of Georgia, however it was still the largest outside of Metro Atlanta. Two parking garages were constructed on the new wing to handle the increase in business and decrease in parking. An extra level was also added to the food court that brought in Atlanta Bread Company, Sbarro, and Time Out Arcade. (All are now closed) Macy's changed over to Rich's in 1998. In the years following the expansion, Macon Mall ran a near monopoly on regional retail. In fact the slightest competition didn't come until 2001 when a new power center named Eisenhower Crossing opened down the street and took the Old Navy from the mall. Federated Department Stores announced they were eliminating all of their regional names in favor of Macy's in the mid-2000s and Rich's at Macon Mall was changed back to Macy's in 2005. Belk also dropped the "Matthews" name from their store and Steve & Barry's opened a large store on the upper level of the Sears wing in 2005.
Parisian was bought by Belk in for $285 million and the Parisian was closed in 2007. The mall entered foreclosure in 2008, and put under the operation of Jones Lang LaSalle.[2] In 2008, The Shoppes at River Crossing, a new lifestyle center, opened in North Bibb County and took Dillard's from Macon Mall. Dillard's stated they could better serve the market with one store, but their departure was speculate to be because of the mall's debt issues. With Dillard's gone, this leaves the two anchor stores added to the mall in 1997 vacant, and the mall performance began to deteriorate rapidly. This in turn created a ripple effect and many tenants began to depart the mall in 2009, such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Ann Taylor Loft, Eddie Bauer, Hollister Co., The Gap, Charlotte Russe, New York & Company, f.y.e., Ruby Tuesday, Piccadilly Cafeteria, and Steve and Barry's. Some of these stores moved to The Shoppes at River Crossing, many left the Macon area entirely, and some closed due to corporate bankruptcies like Steve & Barry's, B. Dalton, Linens N Things, and KB Toys just to name a few.) The Movie Tavern that was suppose to open in spring 2009, in the former Parisian building, never did mainly due to the mall's financial issues. The upper level of the food court has been completely abandoned. This exodus of retailers is a direct result of Dillard's vacancy, new competition, and the weakened economy. In 2009, Macon Mall introduced Art Space. This is the second art space concept in a mall in the U.S. The first is Crestwood Court outside of St. Louis. More in-line tenants closed in 2010 like Express, Yankee Candle, Wet Seal, Subway, and Chick-Fil-A. On December 29, 2011, Sears announced that they would close the store at the Macon Mall due to a decline in sales at both Kmart and Sears stores nationwide. (http://www.13wmaz.com/news/article/158949/175/Sears-at-Macon-Mall-to-Close).
In September 2010, it was announced that the mall had been acquired by Hull Storey Gibson of Augusta, Georgia. They planned to demolish the east wing of the mall beginning with the vacant Parisian building. The former Dillard's building remained and the area in front of it was turned into parking and green space. The original and remaining portion of the mall, which has fared better in recent years, was renovated. The art space tenants in the 1997 addition were asked to vacate, while the remaining inline tenants were asked to move to the west wing. While many did (Rue 21, Finish Line, Spencer's) just to name a few, there were some who left the mall including American Eagle Outfitters, Victoria's Secret, and Sunglass Hut. Hull Storey Gibson hopes that with the excess space removed, the mall would begin to prosper again and attract new tenants. Demolition began on August 15, 2011. Once demolition was complete, North Point Mall in Alpharetta outside Atlanta relinquieshed Macon Mall as fourth largest mall in Georgia. Macon Mall also signed off with a new restaurant called Smok’n Pig which is supposed to be the largest tenant to sign with the mall. This restaurant is supposed to boost up the economy by hiring up to 150 positions. This restaurant is going to be 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) and take up at least 7 stores including the former Baskin Robbins which is located on the Sears wing of the mall which has the most vacancies. The Renovation was revealed on November 18 and 19 in a two-day celebration. Notable changes included the whole mall being carpeted, new skylights and ceilings, new restrooms, removal of the carousel, and the moving of staircases. Demolition was completed by the end of 2011.[3]