Century Plaza

[sabre0link]

That's good to hear about Brookwood's redevelopers; perhaps there is hope for Century Plaza. My view of malls is that as long as there are people with at least some disposable income nearby, and as long as the customer base is well-matched to the stores in the mall, the mall will do OK. This article seems to have some mixed messages, describing the Eastwood area as becoming "obsolete" but offering some home of successful redevelopment:

http://www.southeastrebusiness.com/article...highlight2.html

I believe that's how Brookwood Village became what it is now... they looked at nearby Mountain Brook and found stores that cater to that demographic. I actually feel weird being in that area dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans... I feel weird dressed that way in this whole area (I live in Cahaba Heights). If you wore a business suit to Brookwood, you'd blend in; however if you wore that to the Galleria, you'd stick out.

While there are some duplicate stores between Brookwood and The Summit (like Banana Republic), Brookwood does have some stores unique to it... like Hot Topic (that store seems out of place there... heh), and a two-story Books-A-Million, among other stores. They also have Valet parking for the mall and for some of the restaurants, much like the Rave down at Lee Branch has Valet parking, too.

Given what they were able to do with Brookwood Village (Colonial actually controls/owns it...), I hope they can do the same (match the neighborhood, etc) for Century.

[mallguy]

Any updates on this distressed property? Have the small stores inside the mall started to close?

[mallguy]

Any news on this shopping center? So sad.

[kayman]

Nope.

[Alababy]

In case anyone's interested, here's an article from 7/11 regarding Belk closing Century store.

http://www.al.com/business/birminghamnews/....xml&coll=2

And another from a TV station from the evening before:

http://www.nbc13.com/news/9494988/detail.html?subid=10101622

[kayman]

The place is simply a victim of the "if it's new, then it's better" syndrome most people suffer from nowadays. Why am I not surprised?

[mallguy]

That poor mall- on the video, the interior shots of the place make it seem dead as a doornail, with lots of vacancies and nobody inside. Is the extensive tenant list on the CenturyPlaza.com website outdated?

So sad.

[kayman]

This isn't directly related to the Century Plaza itself, but word is Circuit City is planning on moving to Trussville as well.

[TRoberts]

This isn't directly related to the Century Plaza itself, but word is Circuit City is planning on moving to Trussville as well.

Did you hear where in Trussville? We know it won't be Colonial Tutwiler since Best Buy is opening a new store there. You would imagine it would however be near there in order to compete with Best Buy.

[kayman]

Did you hear where in Trussville? We know it won't be Colonial Tutwiler since Best Buy is opening a new store there. You would imagine it would however be near there in order to compete with Best Buy.

It's suppose to be a free-standing superstore located near Colonial Tutwilers Farms.

[TRoberts]

It's suppose to be a free-standing superstore located near Colonial Tutwilers Farms.

The move is not confirmed by Circuit City although it was reported on July 30th in the Birmingham News.

http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/b...?bnr&coll=2

As the article states, Circuit City may be following Parisian (Belk), JC Penny & Belk to Trussville and fleeing the Eastwood Area.

I would have to wonder though if it wouldn't make sense to stand ground in Eastwood seeing as once they leave, there is no true Electronics store. There will be Wal-Mart but that's it. I would imagine that at some point, there would be a demand for an Electronics store in the area.

I don't know...

[mallguy]

How's this mall doing with its anchors now in the process of fleeing?

[Dystopos]

Nope... you guys really dont understand. KPS is the group planning the redevelopment. They're a great firm and transformed Brookwood Mall from a dying mall to one of the most popular malls for the wealthy in Birmingham. This isnt just a "maybe" type of thing. It's definite... just a matter of ironing out the final plans.

I think you're overreaching here. KPS's study was for the entire Eastwood/Oporto area and was commissioned by the City of Birmingham. Its recommendations are made from a market study on trends in the demand for retail/hotel/office/residential land and have nothing to do with what General Growth Properties wants to do or will be able to do. GGP has not planned a redevelopment of Century Plaza, they have merely speculated on the shape a redevelopment might take to address market trends. Though it would be easy to argue that GGP would be smart to take these plans to heart, and though they have, through their local spokesman, indicated an interest in redeveloping along those general lines, there has been no indication that they actually plan to spend the money it would take to make that location attractive to the tenants they would need in order to pull it off. It's a FAR cry from "just a matter of ironing out the final plans". At this stage, I doubt they even have preliminary plans on paper.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a continuing decline through maybe one more season before it's just Sears toughing it out with the inside gates down. They might stay for a couple of years until a firm decision is made on whether to redevelop the site. If you hear about a new Sears opening up anywhere on this side of town, I'd call that the last nail in the coffin.

[mallguy]

How's this mall doing? Its deadmalls.com commentary was not too promising.

[davidzLA]

I look forward to doing a walk-thru when I'm in town at Christmas, I haven't been inside since this time last year. At that time things were clearly diving down, down down... It's become a bit of a tradition of mine to buy a half-price calendar the week before New Year's, and last year I picked it up at the calendar kiosk downstairs. I had a brief conversation with the 50ish female salesperson about how the mall has changed since my time. "It's changed a lot," we agreed.

I worked at Camelot Music at Century Plaza for about 4 years from 1990-1995. I started just as the last renovation was being completed, in fact I had only one walk-thru the old setup earlier that year before the remodel. The Crestwood area at that time was relatively healthy, just beginning to transition down. There was no Summit or later Trussville retail. Century Plaza occupied a fairly comfortable position as the mid-market mall for Birmingham. In that sense, the Riverchase Galleria was a regional destination mall, the pre-reimagined Brookwood Village served non-harried locals, Eastwood Mall was also coming off it's last remodel and mostly full, and Western Hills was the "other mall," rarely visited or mentioned. Century Plaza was JAMMED at Christmas. Many, many a day I parked in the far reaches of the upper parking lot on the hill behind the mall, or on a few select days shuttled from remote parking altogether.

But entropy was a harsh mistress for Century Plaza. While it seemed perfectly fine when I started, within a couple of years things were going downhill. Shrink (shoplifting) was way up, so we had to install a Sensormatic tagging system. Local tastes changed. Store vacancies started to stack up. National trends had there impact also - Hickory Farms closed their year-round in-line mall stores, other consolidations. I'm guessing the death plunge of music retail did in that Camelot location during the bankruptcy. The *McDonald's* closed and never re-opened. I was out of town long before Rich's closed, and 2006 saw a crippled mall get it's legs shot off with the close of 2 more anchors.

Times change. Whatever happened to Century Plaza cannot be blamed on management - the entire area went to hell, insofar as I can tell on return visits. People were given choices and they chose somewhere else. I have my doubts that turning the Eastwood Mall site into a Wal-Mart Supercenter will do anything more than create another best-avoided, overcrowded Wal-Mart Supercenter. I used to predict that the next mall in Birmingham would be built in the Trussville area, but in fact it avoided that now-gauche form and has a lifestyle center complex instead. Whether retail zones like the Crestwood/Eastwood area deserve active preservation is a matter of debate. If anything I would have recommended keeping Eastwood Mall intact, as the first mall in the state, for what that was worth (apparently very little.) If retail has mostly relocated, maybe those properties are better used for residential or re-purposed commercial real estate. If the area has moved on, maybe it's time people moved on. It's not Pompeii.

The signs of death I uneasily anticipate more each year are looking for the Motel Birmingham to close, and to see if the India Shoppe is still doing. My old Camelot store was near ARCADE FOUR, Chick-fil-A & Wolf Camera area for those of you familar with the mall. The store must have closed by 1996 or '97. There was a leather coat shop in there for a while and last time I went by, it was vacant. So many memories in that space.

[mallguy]

Any news on this mall?

Do middle-income people shop there?

[davidzLA]

Any news on this mall?

Oh, it's dead. I did walk through at Christmas as I anticipated. Three empty anchor locations and many in-line vacancies. The Sam Goody location downstairs has been rebranded as F.Y.E. I took the "F.Y.E. Grand Opening!" signs outside rather cynically but was told that the store had in fact been closed presumably permanently prior.

My tradition of buying a half-price calendar was thwarted, as they didn't bother with Century Plaza this year.

I was there with a friend, a Birmingham native who spent huge amounts of childhood time at that mall. It was he who suggested that it might be the last time I was inside Century Plaza, and I tend to agree. Aside from a wholesale increase in income levels in surrounding neighborhoods, any store that wanted to be in that mall would be there already. What can management possibly say to convince me Century Plaza is worth the investment? The money that supported the mall is gone and now, so, is that mall. At some point Sears will relocate and the upkeep will become wildly unprofitable. The site will eventually be bulldozed.

It took five minutes of standing in line at Chick-Fil-A to place our order with one of the three employees on duty.

We were the only customers.

Do middle-income people shop there?

Very few people seemed to shop there, period, and judging income from the remaining store mix, not many.

[kayman]

Poor management and poor upkeep/security on General Growth Properties part is what killed Century Plaza. The income level in the surrounding neighborhoods to the South & West are pretty decent such as Eastwood, Crestwood, Altamont, the Highlands, and being very close to Mountain Brook. Eastlake is also experiencing a turn-around, and it also finally to occuring in Woodlawn and Avondale. So the income levels of the area is no excuse, it is the management of the mall that is at fault.

If General Properties had cared to keep the mall competitive instead of as soon as they gain management duties to Riverchase not abandoned CP, it would have redeveloped and became a more contempory center as Brookwood has become. It seems that GP has a poor track record in the Birmingham area in general because Riverchase is starting to slip because their occupancy rates have dropped in the past year from 96% in 2005 to 93% in 2006. Also the recent relocations/closings of Suncoast, Kirklands, and the up in the air future of the current Parisian and former McRae's buildings have hurt Riverchase as well.

[davidzLA]

So the income levels of the area is no excuse, it is the management of the mall that is at fault.

There's plenty of monied folks nearby, sure. But they don't shop at Century Plaza anymore, because the mall clientele is now predominately black, and that's reality whether it be happy or pleasant or pretty. And the community at large largely shuns shopping centers that have become identifed with a minority. Not just locally but nationally, so it's hardly a "Birmingham issue."

If General Properties had cared to keep the mall competitive instead of as soon as they gain management duties to Riverchase not abandoned CP, it would have redeveloped and became a more contempory center as Brookwood has become.

Sorry, can't agree with you there. All it takes is one look at Eastwood Mall. Same area, same problems, same trends, (ultimately) same fate - but Eastwood had different management. If they could project a return on the investment, they would have tried something, but Century Plaza is and was well past that point in my opinion.

It's unfortunate. So much of my time in Birmingham was tied up in that neighborhood and particularly in that mall. Nonetheless, I wouldn't invest $5 in Century Plaza and ever expect it back. Definitely a case of 'pick your battles'... and not that GP really faced a 'choice' (Which mall will get the bedroom in the attic???) but if they did, I'd have made the same choice.

It seems that GP has a poor track record in the Birmingham area in general because Riverchase is starting to slip because their occupancy rates have dropped in the past year from 96% in 2005 to 93% in 2006. Also the recent relocations/closings of Suncoast, Kirklands, and the up in the air future of the current Parisian and former McRae's buildings have hurt Riverchase as well.

Not that I owe GP or anything, but c'mon - you know better. Galleria management has little to zero responsibility for national closures like Suncoast or regional rebrandings like Parisian, and it's not likely they're blocking a resolution of the Pizitz/McRae's space.

[A2]

I know this is a bit off topic, but what was the name of that Indian Guys shop at the bottom of CP, next to the MickeyD's, and by the Fountain???

I spent many a days of my youth in that store. I keep thiniking it was "Journeys", but could be way off. I know that they used to sell DocMartins, which as a punk Kid I just had to have. Not to mention they had the best collection of T's on the Planet (at least if you are into Music).

As for the general topic about CP's decline, all I can say is what a freggin pitty . In its hayday, that Mall was the S*#t!

A2

[davidzLA]

I know this is a bit off topic, but what was the name of that Indian Guys shop at the bottom of CP, next to the MickeyD's, and by the Fountain???

I spent many a days of my youth in that store. I keep thiniking it was "Journeys", but could be way off. I know that they used to sell DocMartins, which as a punk Kid I just had to have. Not to mention they had the best collection of T's on the Planet (at least if you are into Music).

That would be the India Shoppe, and it's still there, right where you describe it - lower level next to the Sears. Journeys is a straight-up shoe store and there was a location near the center court for many years, I remember seeing the closed location at Christmas but they may have relocated within the mall. Years ago, before my time, India Shoppe was in that center court area and after that, downstairs towards the McRae's end.

[3choBoomer]

That would be the India Shoppe, and it's still there, right where you describe it - lower level next to the Sears. Journeys is a straight-up shoe store and there was a location near the center court for many years, I remember seeing the closed location at Christmas but they may have relocated within the mall. Years ago, before my time, India Shoppe was in that center court area and after that, downstairs towards the McRae's end.

I think that the India Shop has moved to 5pts South.

At least it stayed in the city

[davidzLA]

I think that the India Shop has moved to 5pts South.

At least it stayed in the city

I noticed at Christmas that there was an India Shoppe location on 20th Street I had never seen before - that's a pretty good location for them actually - but at least in December, the store inside Century Plaza was still there and open.

[A2]

I think that the India Shop has moved to 5pts South.

At least it stayed in the city

Definatley a solid move, if this in fact the same store. The demographics of 5 Pts totally support this shop's target market. I will have to check it out as soon as I am back in the Ham. Thanks again for the info!

A2

[bhamsly]

What are your thoughts on U-Drift at Century Plaza?

http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stor...ml?surround=lfn

I think that this is good for not only the Century Plaza area, but the the entire metro area. This is something unique to most cities, and I hope that we get it. It is something really cool, yet safe since it could reduce street racing.