Florence Mall

[GSP Tiger]

What's happening at Florence Mall?

Joseph A. Bank's mens store is coming.

Link: Jos. A. Bank to open Florence store

Florence, SC Morning News (01/05/2006)

[flotown]

What's happening at Florence Mall?

Joseph A. Bank's mens store is coming.

Link: Jos. A. Bank to open Florence store

Florence, SC Morning News (01/05/2006)

The mall has certainly come back to life in the last 5-10 years after years of irrelevancy. Unfortunately, there is little room left for growth, unless more parking space is sacrificed. I've heard Bentons is building a new restaurant across the street, so their existing building may well be torn down and replaced with something else.

[DigitalSky]

http://www.edensandavant.com/oc_center_detail.aspx?cid=67 looks like a unique place

[GSP Tiger]

The mall has certainly come back to life in the last 5-10 years after years of irrelevancy. Unfortunately, there is little room left for growth, unless more parking space is sacrificed.

Horizantally there appears to be no additional room yet vertical expansion remains possible. A parkind deck would be beneficial for additional parking. Locating it in a large area would oust some outparcel tenants.

[Charleston native]

What about the land that sits behind the mall, meaning behind the mall facing McLeod Blvd? There seems to be plenty of wooded land for building additional parking if they wanted to expand. I'd first renovate the current exterior of the mall before expanding...it looks too generic for a distinctive name like Magnolia Mall.

[vicupstate]

^^ You are confusing Florence Mall with Magnolia Mall. Florence Mall is at 5 Points, Magnolia is west of that at I-20 and I-95. Florence Mall is not enclosed.

[DigitalSky]

Here's Magnolia Mall's website http://www.shopmagnoliamall.com/pages/index.jsp

[Charleston native]

^^ You are confusing Florence Mall with Magnolia Mall. Florence Mall is at 5 Points, Magnolia is west of that at I-20 and I-95. Florence Mall is not enclosed.

Whoops! I forgot about that...I know all about Florence Mall, but I forget about the actual name since it is not technically a mall. I was thinking of Florence's only enclosed mall. OK, remembering this, I have to say that parking and expansion is limited.

[flotown]

Pics from a January '06 Sunday morning. Missing is the side with Cici's pizza. I'll get that another time.

[Spartan]

THanks for sharing these pics

That is Florence Mall, not Magnolia Mall, right?

[digital_sandlapper]

THanks for sharing these pics

That is Florence Mall, not Magnolia Mall, right?

Yes, that is Florence Mall. I used to live in Flo-Town, and miss it.

The new library on Irby St., if you haven't seen it, is unbelievable! Florence is finally starting to enjoy a well-deserved renaissance, at least in that section of town. Now, just hope that downtown redevelopment will follow . . .

Cheers, Pee Dee People!

[NCMike1981]

Was Florence Mall ever an enclosed mall? It seems as if some of the larger stores could have been dept stores in a past life...especially the "Redbone Alley" place, and possibly Stein Mart....

was it a mall that died and was reborn as a power center?

[digital_sandlapper]

Was Florence Mall ever an enclosed mall? It seems as if some of the larger stores could have been dept stores in a past life...especially the "Redbone Alley" place, and possibly Stein Mart....

was it a mall that died and was reborn as a power center?

Yes and no. Florence Mall was a mall with department stores that had entrances facing out toward the parking lot, AND IN toward a central courtyard. This courtyard was subsequently covered over, but not climate controlled. Many of the old style plaza malls were done this way to compete with the new crop of indoor malls--Richland Mall in Forest Acres/Columbia started out as a "courtyard" mall.

Over the years, as the big stores abandoned the old mall in favor of the newly built Magnolia Mall (in the late '70s), the courtyard was just integrated into the indoor portion of the new tenant stores. Until recently, the last original tenant "old-school" department store in Florence Mall was Peebles. It closed in the late '90s, I believe (the whole chain may have folded for all I know.) Now, Stein Mart, Books-a-Million, and other specialty stores (vs. "department" stores) occupy those spaces, thankfully.

In the meantime, Richland Mall, which was totally renovated into an indoor mall several years ago, continues to struggle and lose anchors and all national chains yet again . . . and now, they're just going to turn it into condos!

[vicupstate]

I wouldn't say it was 'covered over'. From the beginning there were awnings/cover inside the central court that protected shoppers from the rain if they walked immediately adjacent to the stores. The area between each side was mostly open.

There was a major renovation done in the '80s that remodeled it, but it wasn't any closer to be an enclosed mall.

In the '80's everyone though the mall would go that route (enclosure), but they never did. Fortunately the mall has completed turned around sincce then.

[GSP Tiger]

There are some photos of Florence Mall from its early days in the Old Florence topic.

Was Belk the previous tenant where Redbone Alley now exists?

[vicupstate]

Thanks for posting BoDragon !! Those pictures really take me back. That is where my mom and I did our Christmas and Back to school shopping. I remember the trees in the courtyard had gotten really big by the late '70s. It really looked good. The remodeling took them out though.

No, Red Bone is not where Belk's is shown in the photograph. The Belk's was on the Hoffmeyer end. More or less where Peebles use to be and Stein Mart (?) is now.

The Piggly Wiggly and Reb Bone together were previously the JC Penny location until Penney's moved to Magnolia Mall around 1980, 81 or so. The Penny's in Magnolia Mall opened a year or two after the rest of Magnolia Mall. Magnolia mall opened in '79.

During it's hey day, Florence mall had Belk's, Penneys, Coker's ( a local department store out of Hartsville), Eckerd's and Roses as it's primary tenants. Sears was Downtown until moving to Magnolia Mall in '79.