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Civic Center Stores


grock

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The following I rememberwere open close to when the mall was closed permanently and Hartford CBD no longer has their services because of the closing(feel free to add any I missed):

TJ Maxx

Foxmoor (Ladies')

Arthur's Drug

Successories

Wendy's

GNC

Others were also but moved within CBD (Footstop, Unique Antique, UConn Co-op)

I don't know much about Foxmoor and Successories. But TJ Maxx was nearly always busy. It was definitely a successful branch. And many of the things they sold are no longer available close to the CBD now. Also, Arthur's Drug stayed open until the last moment, now there's only on Main St. GNC also looked busy and would have fit in nice with the current fitness center.

To be honest, the Civic Center Mall should have remained. Now TJ MAxx is another parking garage, and the other side, nice marble interiors were replaced with cheap white tile.. and empty storefronts.

Another huge mistake for seemingly hopeless Hartford.

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The following I rememberwere open close to when the mall was closed permanently and Hartford CBD no longer has their services because of the closing(feel free to add any I missed):

TJ Maxx

Foxmoor (Ladies')

Arthur's Drug

Successories

Wendy's

GNC

Others were also but moved within CBD (Footstop, Unique Antique, UConn Co-op)

I don't know much about Foxmoor and Successories. But TJ Maxx was nearly always busy. It was definitely a successful branch. And many of the things they sold are no longer available close to the CBD now. Also, Arthur's Drug stayed open until the last moment, now there's only on Main St. GNC also looked busy and would have fit in nice with the current fitness center.

To be honest, the Civic Center Mall should have remained. Now TJ MAxx is another parking garage, and the other side, nice marble interiors were replaced with cheap white tile.. and empty storefronts.

Another huge mistake for seemingly hopeless Hartford.

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Wow Mikel,

I disagree with you less than a lot of other people on this board, but you can't possibly be serious. What is the rationale for keping an empty mall which no one shopped at? I'm not sure how you define "busy" but even during events these places were not doing anywhere near the business they needed to to say open. The Civic Center was an urban renewal failure, plain and simple.

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I am also a little concerned with Hartford 21. It seems stores could have started moving in 2-3 months ago? It doesn't seem like they have anyone lined up to fill those stores yet. You would think there would be some kind of press release at least saying which stores are planned, I don't think store fronts are accounted for besides Bliss.

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It did not need to be demolished. And Larry could have built his apartment tower on one of many empty lots in the area. There's even one right across the street (Asylum/Ann) among many others.

The mall was destroyed but could have been a great asset to the city in the future for many years.

Also, people keep saying the exterior was bad and uninviting, but it could have had a simple facelift. The interior of the mall was built with first-class materials and was very solid.

What did Larry do with all the marble he removed??? What was wrong with the nice brick floors that it had to replaced with cheap white tile??

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What are you talking about? That is the whole point of Hartford 21- residential with street level retail. Even with a new arena, if no stores open there, we are in trouble (Bliss market is already slated). Are you referring to the mall that no longer exists? Or the Coloseum- which is well, a Coloseum?
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It did not need to be demolished. And Larry could have built his apartment tower on one of many empty lots in the area. There's even one right across the street (Asylum/Ann) among many others.

The mall was destroyed but could have been a great asset to the city in the future for many years.

Also, people keep saying the exterior was bad and uninviting, but it could have had a simple facelift. The interior of the mall was built with first-class materials and was very solid.

What did Larry do with all the marble he removed??? What was wrong with the nice brick floors that it had to replaced with cheap white tile??

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I'm actually really surprised that you liked the mall when you always trumpet the old days of Hartford and grand European style cities. You of all people should know that interior malls should never be placed in the center of a downtown. It causes every street bordering it to have nothing but a concrete wall to look at and ruins the walkability of an entire section of the city. Downtowns are for street-facing stores and that is what the Hartford 21 project did. The whole point was to flip the mall inside out and integrate it into the streets. As for what happened to the stores in the old mall, they essentially couldn't afford the increased rent. The old mall was losing money because the rent from the stores was so low in order to keep them there. I'm sure Northland has a whole bunch of people interested in moving in there but these things take time. If nothing happens for another few months, I'm sure they will lower the rents to entice business a bit more. I'm honestly not that worried especially because they managed to get a grocery store in the damn thing. If they can do that, they can do anything.
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You of all people should know that interior malls should never be placed in the center of a downtown. It causes every street bordering it to have nothing but a concrete wall to look at and ruins the walkability of an entire section of the city. Downtowns are for street-facing stores and that is what the Hartford 21 project did. The whole point was to flip the mall inside out and integrate it into the streets. As for what happened to the stores in the old mall, they essentially couldn't afford the increased rent.
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Spat-

There are countless interior malls here in downtown boston.

And they are all beyond successful.

The Prudential mall, cambridgeside galleria, the corner mall and foodcourt, landmark place, etc etc etc.

There are COUNTLESS I have been to in NYC as well.

Check your facts.....or opinions.

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I dont think storefronts need to be street facing downtown to be successful.

If the Buckland Hills Mall was in the middle of downtown Hartford, I think it would be just as successful, and some of the million parking lots and garages would fill up.

You are right, Providence is a better example.

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Hmmm..

When the mall opened, it had a few great stores -- Eastern Mountain Sports was great. The On A Roll, Arthur's Drug, B. Dalton, too, however, living malls do become dead malls. If you want to lose money - mikel (Of course, you're a socialist so you don't care about money) - own a dead mall.

The Civic Center Mall in the 1990s and this decade was not the thriving mall of the 1970s Sorry, but every great mall had its time, and the Civic Center Mall's time is up.

I loved the door to the Whaler's store. It was my favorite store at the mall. My favorite stores - 1) Whalers Store, 2) Eastern Mountain, 3) Munson's Chocolates , 4) On a Roll (When I was for the boat shows, I used to have coffee and breakfast there) and 5) the food Court (again, during lunch when I was at the boat shows - I used to eat at the food court.)

JimS

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It did not need to be demolished. And Larry could have built his apartment tower on one of many empty lots in the area. There's even one right across the street (Asylum/Ann) among many others.

The mall was destroyed but could have been a great asset to the city in the future for many years.

Also, people keep saying the exterior was bad and uninviting, but it could have had a simple facelift. The interior of the mall was built with first-class materials and was very solid.

What did Larry do with all the marble he removed??? What was wrong with the nice brick floors that it had to replaced with cheap white tile??

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spatula is right. You simply can't compare Hartford to Boston or New York. It's apples and oranges. Downtown Hartford is infinately smaller in terms of area and population. The Civic Center Mall was a ploy to try and get people from the suburbs to drive into the city to shop. But why would they when they can go to Westfarms, Buckland Hills, etc? Boston and New York have the population to support downtown malls on their own, and enjoy millions of visitors that frankly Hartford doesn't have and never will, despite the Convention Center. I am not an economist by any means, but the simple fact is the Civic Center Mall failed economically. Forget all the bad stuff it did to the urban environment, etc. After awhile people did not go there to shop.

The real argument here would involve Providence (what else is new?). Providence Place has indeed been very successful- so there is a better comparison for Hartford. Still, in my opinion it was still a mistake. The Civic Center was successful for awhile too. But at some point, people in Providence will be wondering why that thing was ever built and look to redevelop it as well...

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