The rise and fall of the American shopping mall (Warren Pennsylvania edition)

 

The Warren Mall opened in October 1979.  At the time the city's population was 12,200, down from its 1940 peak of 14,891, while Warren County was treading water at 47,500, down slightly from its 1970 peak of 47,682.  Due to its small market size, the area arrived late to the shopping mall party.

By the late 2010s, the mall had been in a more than decade-long state of decline, with a vacancy rate approaching 80%.  In 2006, the opening of a Walmart Supercenter and Lowe's home improvement store less than a mile from the mall accelerated its loss of tenants, a few of whom moved into storefronts at a strip shopping center built within the same development.

The death knell for the mall was the closing of its last anchor, the Bon Ton, in 2018, the result of a bankruptcy filing.   Its other two anchors, Penney's and KMart, had already departed.  

Photos by Retiring Guy (2016 and 2018)

During visits with family in Warren, I'd made occasionally trip to the mall.   A death watch, to be sure.  I always encountered very little foot traffic there.  

By 2018, the decision was made to demolish about half of the mall's original structure, eliminating the enclosed mall and creating an open-air plan with a redesign of the remaining storefronts.

Even with the addition of Dunham.s Sports, I'm not convinced that the mall has a viable future.  Since the mall first opened in 1969,  the city of Warren's population has decreased 23%, to 9,404  The county's population has also declined, to 38,587, a 19% drop.

Business Insider, 1/6/2023