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South Hills Mall, Cary, NC


NCMike1981

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I was just wondering if anyone had any background info on South Hills Mall, in Cary. I gather it's the 1st mall in Cary, built in 1963, about 16 yrs before Cary Towne Center (aka Cary Village Mall). I was wondering i anyone knows what South Hill's original anchors were. Were stores like Belks and Sears ever there or was it always more of a local store mall. I imagine that the mall started it's decline when Cary Village Mall opened. Anyone remember A line tenants ever being there?

Today the mall is being de-malled....Burlington Coat Factory and Rugged Wearhouse anchor this mall of just under 500,000 sq ft. There is still a small indoor portion of the mall which has access to Burlington Coat Factory, although the store has no mall access checkouts and closes that entrance at 6, shortly after the license plate buerau closes.

The only background info I recall from random visits to the mall was Michaels being in the anchor spot where B.C.F. now sits.....and I believe there was a Piece Goods there as well. I also recall a small Food Courtish area, or maybe it was just a restaurant with tables and chairs outside in the mall corridor. Kerr Drugs used to be inside the mall b4 building a freestanding location in the parking lot, and I imagine the cafateria that now sits in the parking lot, K&S I believe, was a part of the inside of the mall b4 the demalling began.

Any1 else have any more info or pics please post, I've been curious about this mall since I moved to Cary in 2003...unfortunately I only went there a small handfull of times growing up when I lived in Durham....I think my mom went there for the Michaels....

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Here are some pic I found from the Wake county 2000 Census website....

mvc-016s.jpg

mvc-019s.jpg

mvc-020s.jpg

Found out some more random info from it's pre de-malling days...

-# of stores: 44

-last expansion date: 1985

-last renovation date: 1991 (I'm assuming it renovated in some way to compete with Crossroads as this was the yr that opened)

-Burlington Coat Factory is the off price main anchor @ 59,000 sq ft

National/Regional Tenant List (remember this is outdated:

-Central Carolina Bank

-Mitchell's Hair Styling

-Grand Asia Market

-K&S Cafateria

-Kerr Drug

All the other tenants were local...definately doesn't sound like an upscale place hehe

The complete listing can be found at:

http://www.mandsconnect.com/marketingSite/...nterProfile.pdf

That site states the mall opened in 1972 but I read elsewhere 1963....any1 know which date is correct?

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I'm amazed that mall still has anything going on. Not only is it visually unattractive, but it is overshadowed by almost everything else in Cary. A friend of mine looked into leasing some space in the mall and the owner or manager he talked to made it sound like the mall was made of gold and precious stones.

I think that some serious remodeling would do wonders for it. Either that or tear it down in favor of some urban village thing.

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BCF and Rugged Wearhouse sort of have the image where you expect them to be in a lesser mall or shopping center, because the rent will be lower. It makes you think their prices will be lower as well, I guess.

Grand Asian Market just plain kicks ass. Where else around here can you choose between thirty different varieties of short-grain rice? The restaurant in there is short on the decor and atmosphere, but it's some of the most authentic Chinese food to be had anywhere in the Triangle.

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Wow those 1995 pics are really sad! At least they dressed the mall up a little bit, before it was about the most spartan mall on earth! I guess that Michael's must have left around the time that Crossroads opened in '91. I thought it was open in South Hills later then that, but apparantely it was gone by '95.

Any1 have any idea what the original anchors were? Any actual department stores located in the mall back in the day?

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As I moved here in 1971 and did not live far away, South Hills has never had an anchor like Belks or Ivey's that I knew about. It did have a Roses if I remember. I moved here when Crabtree was a field but came in the early 70's. South Hills was always a low rent mall even though it has prime location. I don't remember going there too much as North Hills and Crabtree were always the destination.

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  • 1 month later...

Here are some pic I found from the Wake county 2000 Census website....

mvc-016s.jpg

mvc-019s.jpg

mvc-020s.jpg

Found out some more random info from it's pre de-malling days...

-# of stores: 44

-last expansion date: 1985

-last renovation date: 1991 (I'm assuming it renovated in some way to compete with Crossroads as this was the yr that opened)

-Burlington Coat Factory is the off price main anchor @ 59,000 sq ft

National/Regional Tenant List (remember this is outdated:

-Central Carolina Bank

-Mitchell's Hair Styling

-Grand Asia Market

-K&S Cafateria

-Kerr Drug

All the other tenants were local...definately doesn't sound like an upscale place hehe

The complete listing can be found at:

http://www.mandsconnect.com/marketingSite/...nterProfile.pdf

That site states the mall opened in 1972 but I read elsewhere 1963....any1 know which date is correct?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

1972 I was living on Kingston Ridge Rd. in Cary when it was built. It was never much to it when I lived here. I could remember talk about how I 40 would be back of it.

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  • 3 years later...

I was a kid living just down the street from 1976 - 1984, I remember the mall well. Roses was really the only anchor store, it took up the whole "Rugged Wearhouse" end of the mall. There was a back exit into the mall itself. There were small specialty shops, all mom & pop owned. Large gates kinda formed the doors to these shops. Neuse Pottery, or whatever it was that's now closed, was I guess the main mall entrance. You'd walk in there and I remember a portrait studio on the left, as well as the DMV office being there on the left. A florist was on the right. Down a bit more was the "restraunt/concession stand," which had the best hot dogs. I must have ate 10,000 lunches there. "Lock Stock & Barrel" was a restraunt there in the middle of the mall. I remember a fabric store beside it, there for many many years. Kerr Drug was attached to the mall (where I think the photographer is now), and also had an exit into the mall. It wasn't until the mid 80s or so that the Burlington Coat factory wing was built, and those other shops went in down that way. Also of minor note, there was a gazebo-type thing (2 of them, actually) in the middle of the mall. As a kid I took art lessons sitting at this thing. They remained in the mall until they de-malled the place.

The barber shop across the parking has been there since I was born, I think it's still open? Across Buck Jones road there used to be Hardees, the "Lighthouse" gas station, and the gym used to be the South Hills twin movie theater.

Really was a solid place to shop before Cary Village Mall was built.

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  • 1 year later...
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Here's a YouTube vid I came across showing South Hills Mall in 1985. A few that caught my eye were:

-Shoneys and movie theater across the street from the mall

-the fact that Burlington Coat Factory was there at the time (didn't realize it had been there 25+years)

-Kerr Drug was "Kerr's Drugs"

-it appears as if the recently vacated Rugged Wearhouse anchor was abandoned (Roses must have already vacated that location in '85)

-the mall was officially called South Hills Outlet Mall

-notice all the undeveloped land as well as the view out towards the highway....

very cool video

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Its important to document stuff. 1985 was the beginning of the development around here going from fast, to being on steroids. I moved to the area in 1987 and remember taking a trip to the movie theaters at South Hills. It was a big deal back then going to South Hills Mall. Funny that the mall in Poughkeepsie NY is also South Hills, and IBM's big move was from there to here. Many of us felt an odd connection to the Cary mall if only for that reason.

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  • 9 months later...

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