Underground Atlanta - Atlanta, GA

Underground Atlanta - Atlanta, GA

  July 01, 2018    Robby S.

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UNDERGROUND ATLANTA
50 UPPER ALABAMA STREET
ATLANTA, GA
CLOSED 2017

Here's something I'm quite excited to be talking about. For those of you that don't know, Underground Atlanta is this underground shopping center in South Downtown Atlanta, located beside the Five Points MARTA Station.

The area was constructed during the American Reconstruction era after the Civil War, however the site was not purposed as a shopping center until 1969

The center received an update in 1996 to accommodate heavy traffic that the Atlanta Olympics would bring. Many of the signs in the area still bear the Olympic rings, now 22 years since the city hosted the event.

The City of Atlanta sold off the property in August 2017 to a South Carolina based developer, where it plans to reconstruct the lot. While some of the above-ground properties remain in business, everything below the ground has been shuddered.

There's also an above-ground entrance which remains unused. The escalators in the entry pavilion have since been decommissioned and are no longer powered.

On the basement level of the plaza, there's not much that remains. The outside has been left abandoned and all signs have been removed, but on the inside, the mall virtually remains untouched.

Just behind the signs that reads Shops, Restaurants, and Entertainment, there are some neon lights that still remain powered.

As I mentioned earlier, the inside portion of the mall has been left virtually untouched. It's unclear if the space will be repurposed or demolished and rebuilt, but as of now not much as been done.

Something odd that you might notice in some of the pictures is that there is actually a maintenance worker on the inside cleaning the floors. Keep an eye out for him in the blue shirt.

There was one remaining vacancy on the upper floors of the mall, and that is a former Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Parlor

Additionally, despite the Underground's closure, the MARTA station across the street still retains signage directing patrons to the mall

So that's about it for the Underground Atlanta. I'll report updates should anything new come of the property, however it's future doesn't look too bright. Be sure to check back next Sunday for another article from BrandHistoryUSA

Until next time!
~RS

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Lord & Taylor / J.C.Penney - Providence Place Mall - Providence, RI

Lord & Taylor / J.C.Penney - Providence Place Mall - Providence, RI

  May 27, 2018    Robby S.

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Some exterior Lord and Taylor signage to the left ©MagazineUSA

LORD & TAYLOR
J.C. PENNEY
BOTH CLOSED ANCHORS
PROVIDENCE PLACE MALL
PROVIDENCE, RI

So if you know anything about the Providence Place Mall, you would know that the mall is doing exceptionally well, considering how it's an indoor shopping center. There are very few vacancies and many popular retailers and tourist attractions such as Dave & Busters on the third floor.

The Providence Place Mall is a shopping center located in Rhode Island's capital city of Providence, just off of the I-95. The mall currently houses 146 shops and three anchor stores (Macy*s, Nordstrom, and Bed Bath & Beyond). Doesn't it seem odd that for such a large mall there are only three anchor stores, one of which is quite small?

Well, that's because the mall was designed to house an additional anchor space, which has been owned by two different companies throughout the mall's existence. When the mall opened in 1999, it was anchored by Nordstrom and Filene's, with Lord & Taylor moving in sometime in 2001.

Here we have a few shots of the store of the Lord and Taylor store prior to its opening. The images come from the architectural firm Johnson Schmidt & Associates, who was in charge of the store's construction

©JSA via Dimeo

©JSA via Dimeo

©JSA via Dimeo

The store was originally constructed to account for three levels of retail space, much like Nordstrom and Macy*s. The mall's only anchor to be limited to one floor is Bed Bath & Beyond, which is on the first floor only.

L&T would only last for four short years until 2005, and J.C. Penney opened in the mall on February 24, 2006. Later on that same year, Filene's would be converted into a Macy*s store.

Here we have some of JCP's exterior signage facing I-95 ©The Daily Meal

Interior signs pointing towards JCPenney ©Greater City Providence

JCP's interior entrance on an unknown floor ©프로비던스 기차역

Inside the store ©Dexter V via Yelp

Despite opening in 2006, the JCPenney underwent renovations in 2012, showing that the company had some confidence in this location. The reason it gave for shuttering the location, however, was that the store was under-performing.

As it stands in the mall today, the L&T/JCP space has been barricaded off and the bottom two floors of the main retail area have been demolished to expand the north parking garage. Remarkably, the exterior of the building remains completely intact.

While the location was still open, YouTuber georgef551 went into JCPenney and filmed the store's escalators. While the focus of the video of course is on the escalators, you can see quite a bit of the store from the video, so be sure to check that out below!

Stay tuned for Providence Place Mall updates in the near future. It's pretty interesting since this mall is one of the most 'alive' malls I've been to ever, compared to the mostly dead malls I frequently cover on this blog.

Until next time
~RS

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Rehoboth Mall, Rehoboth Beach, DE

Rehoboth Mall, Rehoboth Beach, DE

  February 25, 2018    Robby S.

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REHOBOTH MALL 
18908 REHOBOTH MALL BLVD
REHOBOTH BEACH, DE 

If you haven't already read about my experience exploring the Kmart in Rehoboth Beach, I highly suggest that you go do that now! It gives a bit of background to the competitive nature of the Rehoboth Beach Resort.

Now getting into the mall itself...

The Rehoboth Mall was one of the first malls to open in the Rehoboth area, and to this day remains the only indoor mall of the area. Quickly other development such as the Rehoboth Outlets (Now owned by Tanger Outlets and consists of three separate outlet centers along DE-1). In the early days of the mall, a Roses department store was the main anchor. Currently the nearest Roses store is 16 miles away in Millsboro, DE.

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