Owings Mills Mall

[zt456]

The mall opened in 1986 intending to be very upscale with a Saks Fifth Avenue. Eventually that closed and the mall still remained sucessful but became more mainstream. An expansion wing with many new tenants, a movie theatre, restaurants, and 2 new anchors were added (Lord & Taylor, Sears). A couple years later it began to rapidly lose tenants and is now still have some nationally recognized tenants but it very ghetto and empty. In my opinion the cause of this was the metro bringing in people from Baltimore. The movie theatre and restaurants are still all there and doing fine, just the mall itself was where all the damage was done. Thankfully there are plans to redevelop the nearby area and mall and hopefully they work b/c the mall is just basically becoming a big waste of space.

Some of the parking spaces have been removed and apartments are being built right now next to the movie theatre and food court. Haven't found any news on that but was told that they are going to be for people 55+ which if true is stupid b/c not many old ladies are dying to live in Owings Mills Mall. A smarter project is the Metro Centre at Owings Mills which plans to build 495 upscale apartments, offices, retail, restaurants, a library, hotel, and a community college.

Anyone have any other info or comments on this?

[StevenRocks]

Owings Mills was an incredibly nice mall in 1990 when I last went there. It's sad that it's gone downhill as much as it has. I wish they would diversify the land use and bring in discount retail, offices and residential units. It's too nice a mall to trash, but it won't survive as a regional mall.

[Southernyank]

I remember Owings Mills. I used to love that mall as a kid. its a shame to hear that it is declining the way it is.