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For years now the Haywood mall has been one of Greenvilles dominant retail centers. I feel however that the owners need to add a lifestyle addition to the mall and bring in stores such as the Cheesecake Factory, REI (Recreation Equipment Inc), and other types of stores if the mall wants to stay strong 5 years from now. Dont get me wrong, the mall is strong now but with new retail going up they need to do something now to stay up with the rest. The Columbia Place mall in Columbia 10 years ago was thriving like Haywood is now. Columbinana Center and the Village at Sandhill came in and Columbia Place did nothing but change their name and today the mall is a ghost town on friday and saturday nights. We are not in the 80's where 4 department stores and typical mall clothing stores rule. If you want to see an example of a mall that has adapted to the 21 century, check out the Mall of Georgia in Buford (near Atlanta) and the Augusta Mall in Augusta where not only they have the 80's mall stores like GAP, Macys etc but also a lifestyle component with P.F. Changs, Dicks Sports, and so much more. Not that Haywood is a bad mall but unless if they want to be featured on deadmalls.com then they need to act now before new developments suck away the stores that keep Haywood strong.

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For years now the Haywood mall has been one of Greenvilles dominant retail centers. I feel however that the owners need to add a lifestyle addition to the mall and bring in stores such as the Cheesecake Factory, REI (Recreation Equipment Inc), and other types of stores if the mall wants to stay strong 5 years from now. Dont get me wrong, the mall is strong now but with new retail going up they need to do something now to stay up with the rest. The Columbia Place mall in Columbia 10 years ago was thriving like Haywood is now. Columbinana Center and the Village at Sandhill came in and Columbia Place did nothing but change their name and today the mall is a ghost town on friday and saturday nights. We are not in the 80's where 4 department stores and typical mall clothing stores rule. If you want to see an example of a mall that has adapted to the 21 century, check out the Mall of Georgia in Buford (near Atlanta) and the Augusta Mall in Augusta where not only they have the 80's mall stores like GAP, Macys etc but also a lifestyle component with P.F. Changs, Dicks Sports, and so much more. Not that Haywood is a bad mall but unless if they want to be featured on deadmalls.com then they need to act now before new developments suck away the stores that keep Haywood strong.
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The malls you mention that have "died" (e.g., Columbia Place) did so as a result of losing out to other dominant malls. Haywood Mall is currently that dominant mall (after all, it is the main reason why Greenville Mall and McAlister Square closed). I believe Haywood Mall is the largest mall in the state in terms of square footage.

Haywood has continued to improve. It just finished a huge renovation of the interior, and it looks great. Although the exterior is looking a little worn, the inside of the mall has a very updated and current feel. New stores are being added on a regular basis. Correct me if I am wrong, but Haywood seems to be at maximum capacity with little to not available space for rent. That is the sign of a strong mall.

Once Greenville gets to a certain population and income level, department stores like Nordstrom will want to be in Greenville. They will likely go to Haywood Mall, because I do not see them going to a lifestyle center. Although lifestyle centers are growing in popularity, it seems that there will always be a demand for indoor malls. Many people prefer to be indoors, away from heat, cold, rain, etc.

I think the new retail coming on-line in Greenville is a good thing. There are enough people in the metro area to support multiple retail centers. Ideally, the new retail centers will push each other to improve and bring in better and better tenants. They will also cause even more people to drive from Spartanburg and Anderson to get things that they cannot get in their towns. The constant influx of people moving to the upstate will also do their part in supporting all of the retail options. Haywood Mall is here to stay.

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Haywood Mall isn't the best-in-market, it is the only-in-market as far as enclosed malls go. Nordstrom is considering the Jacksonville Market, and if it does land there, will go to a Lifestyle center.

Lower Haywood Road is struggling and is headed the way of present day Pleasantburg. Greenville is not growing enough to handling all the new shopping centers on the drawing board. All the new retail constructoin is not just to handle growth and new-to-market retailers, but also to shift the retail corridor to Woodruff Road. In five years, Haywood Mall could very easily be struggling to maintain it's position.

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I agree. I lived in Savannah Ga in the mid 90's. The Savannah Mall then was only 4 years old and had all of the stores that Haywood has now. Around 1997 plans for the aging then strugging Oglethorpe Mall was unvieled to renovate that mall. The Savannah Mall also had a 99% occupancy rate in 1995. People in Savannah never pushed for the Savannah Mall to keep up saying that it was a brand new mall and it was here to stay just like many people in Greenville feel about the Haywood Mall. In 1999 Parisians announced that they were closing and many people still were confident that the Mall much newer than Haywood would bounce back. In 2001 Nordstroms closed and pulled out of Savannah Mall leaving the only Nordstrom locations in GA back in Atlanta. In 2001 also Montgomery Ward pulled out but they closed intirely. To get to the point with in a five year span (1996-2001) the Savannah Mall which was by far the largest in Savannah lost out to the much smaller older Oglethorpe Mall which is today the dominant mall again. As for Abercrombie & Fitch, Bebe, William Sonomia, and all of the other great names that they had and Haywood has today, They are gone. Gap closed its Savannah Mall location last year too. It was a chain reaction, when one left the others followed right behind. That mall has halfway bounced back with a Target and Bass Pro Shop but the stores in the mall are your mom and pop type clothing stores and alot of vacant store fronts. It is sad to see such a great NEW mall in the shape it is in today. Haywood shoppers donot get complacent or you might find Haywood following the same fate.

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Haywood Mall isn't the best-in-market, it is the only-in-market as far as enclosed malls go. Nordstrom is considering the Jacksonville Market, and if it does land there, will go to a Lifestyle center.

Lower Haywood Road is struggling and is headed the way of present day Pleasantburg. Greenville is not growing enough to handling all the new shopping centers on the drawing board. All the new retail constructoin is not just to handle growth and new-to-market retailers, but also to shift the retail corridor to Woodruff Road. In five years, Haywood Mall could very easily be struggling to maintain it's position.

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What you are failing to realize is Simon Property Group, and their ability to put money into renovating properties, the fact that they have a ton of available land at Haywood peripheral on the mall to build on, and their relationships with the retailers.

If the Mall starts losing retailers, which currently it is the largest grossing mall in sales per square foot, the largest mall in size, and has the best tenants, Simon will actively start to redevelop, remodel or do whatever it takes. In addition they can leverage their retailers because they are in malls nationwide with them, and just can't pull out because they are unhappy because it will have an effect on their relationship with Simon nationwide.

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. The Columbia Place mall in Columbia 10 years ago was thriving like Haywood is now. Columbinana Center and the Village at Sandhill came in and Columbia Place did nothing but change their name and today the mall is a ghost town on friday and saturday nights. We are not in the 80's where 4 department stores and typical mall clothing stores rule.
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I know that once an area dies, like Pleasantburg for example, the city will jump on board to revitalize the corridor. So my question is: Is there really anything that the City can do to make Haywood still attractive and help it continue to develop and not die off? Or would it be best to let it die and really let some serious redevelopment take place in order to fix some planning mistakes of the corridor? Can we just sit back and watch it happen? Just curious if you guys know of situations that could be used as case studies where this has happened in other cities or have ideas...

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What you are failing to realize is Simon Property Group, and their ability to put money into renovating properties, the fact that they have a ton of available land at Haywood peripheral on the mall to build on, and their relationships with the retailers.

If the Mall starts losing retailers, which currently it is the largest grossing mall in sales per square foot, the largest mall in size, and has the best tenants, Simon will actively start to redevelop, remodel or do whatever it takes. In addition they can leverage their retailers because they are in malls nationwide with them, and just can't pull out because they are unhappy because it will have an effect on their relationship with Simon nationwide.

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I know that once an area dies, like Pleasantburg for example, the city will jump on board to revitalize the corridor. So my question is: Is there really anything that the City can do to make Haywood still attractive and help it continue to develop and not die off? Or would it be best to let it die and really let some serious redevelopment take place in order to fix some planning mistakes of the corridor? Can we just sit back and watch it happen? Just curious if you guys know of situations that could be used as case studies where this has happened in other cities or have ideas...
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I know that once an area dies, like Pleasantburg for example, the city will jump on board to revitalize the corridor. So my question is: Is there really anything that the City can do to make Haywood still attractive and help it continue to develop and not die off? Or would it be best to let it die and really let some serious redevelopment take place in order to fix some planning mistakes of the corridor? Can we just sit back and watch it happen? Just curious if you guys know of situations that could be used as case studies where this has happened in other cities or have ideas...
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That still gives it a huge competitive advantage. Unless another gets built (which is somewhat unlikely in the short-term given the perception that malls across the country are struggling) it should stay afloat. Given Simon's penchant for upgrades, they should at least be competitive in landing the best tenants.

It's coming. There's alot of inefficiently-used land next to high-end development and the area still possesses phenomenal demographics and traffic counts. I'm willing to bet that the area won't be recognizable in 15-20 years.

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This is an old thread, but I noticed something interesting when at Haywood Mall today and wondered if anyone had any input. My daughter and I were shopping and decided to grab something quick to eat in the food court. Our plan had been to get something at La Petit Bistro. We were surprised to see it was gone. They have always been quite busy when I've eaten there before. Orange Julius/Dairy Queen is also closed, and the Fajita place is now closed. There are only 7 open places in the food court now and 3 of them serve very similar foods.

I think it is great that Simon has managed to attract the stores it has to Haywood, and the renovation is one of the best I've seen in a long time. My concern is this-if you don't give people somewhere to eat while shopping, they will go elsewhere. There is only one sit-down restaurant, Ruby Tuesdays, so there just isn't much choice. It did look like something may be going into the space where the Bistro was, but for now, my advice is to be sure to eat before you shop.

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I noticed that La Petit Bistro was all walled up and closed in with plastic the other day when I went in to grab some things from Eddie Bauer and I walked down to get a coffee from Starbucks while I was there. I didn't go into the food court beyond that, though. I had assumed that La Petit Bistro was simply being renovated? I guess maybe there's more going on in the food court than I had thought. I'd be interested to learn more about what's going on, too.

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