Fall of Macon Mall

Macon Mall was constructed between two roads, Mercer University Drive and Eisenhower Parkway.

Macon Mall Site 1960's

This was considered an area of a growing population with  

Macon Mall opened in 1975 as the "Colonial Macon Mall," with department stores JCPenney, Sears, Davison's, and Belk Matthews.

This was around the time of the golden ages of malls across the United States.

This also led to the decline of Macon’s first enclosed Mall Westgate to shutter and redevelop.

Renovation

The first change came in 1986 when a Food Court was added, and the Davison’s department store was renamed to Macy’s in favor of the parent company retiring the name.

Before this, most department stores featured their restaurants.

The mall was rising in popularity, which prompted new stores to enter the Macon Market with the mall at full compacity.

In 1997, the mall was expanded adding 2 new Anchors Dillard’s and Parisian as well as 40 new stores. New stores included Disney, Abercrombie Fitch, Express, Hollister, and Suncoast just to name a few in which many were new to the Macon Market.

Macon Mall Website 1997.

This expansion happened by incorporating JCPenney as part of the mall in which one must walk through JCPenney to access the other half of the mall from the inside.

2 New parking decks were also constructed to handle the increase of traffic, increasing the once 1.1 million sqft mall to 1.5 million sqft nearly doubling the mall. 

Parking Deck near Parisian.

A second level was added to the food court adding Sbarro and Atlanta Bread Company, just to name a few. The food court was branded as Café Carousel in favor of the Carousel that sat upstairs in the food court.

A Ruby Tuesday was also added to the Mall in the lower level of the food court.

Macy's was also rebranded as Rich's around this time.

This also earned Macon Mall a “Super Regional” Mall title and making it one of the largest Malls in Georgia... well until the opening of Mall of Georgia in 1999 and the expansion of Atlanta’s Perimeter Mall, debunking it to the 4^th largest mall in the state by the early 2000s. 

This brought the store count in the mall from 75 to 200.

Change of Ownership

In 2004 Colonial Properties Trust (Who owned the mall) put the mall up for sale as the company was restructuring to more residential development than retail.

The mall was sold to Lightstone Group for $170 Million and the “Colonial” name was retired from the mall giving its present name today as Macon Mall.

All Colonial signage throughout the interior and exterior of the mall were removed or covered up.

Macon Mall was determined unstoppable throughout the early 2000s until around the time the recession hit.

Around this time Rich's name was dropped and renamed Macy's in favor of the company eliminating regional names.

Trouble Ahead

The first blow came when the 102,000 square foot Parisian was closed in 2007. This was closed when Belk purchased the chain from Saks Incorporated and retired the Parisian name. 

Former Parisian Label scar. 

All Parisian stores were renamed Belk, but since Macon Mall already had a larger Belk store, the Parisian was shuttered.

The mall entered foreclosure in 2008 due to Lightstone defaulting on their loan and it was put under the operation of Joan Lang LaSalle.

Around this time Construction of a new Lifestyle Center in North Macon was completed by the name of “Shoppes At River Crossing,” managed by General Growth Properties.

This Center was to be anchored by Dillard’s and feature tenants such as Barnes & Noble, Gap, Victoria Secret, Motherhood Maternity, Build-A-Bear, Talbots, Coach, Yankee, and several other specialties stores.

The new shopping center was 13 miles north of Macon Mall.

Dillard’s left the Mall in 2008 in favor of only wanting to concentrate on one store in the Macon area.

Linens N Things was also closed around this time that sat on a former lot of the Macon Mall Regal Cinemas. This was due to the company declaring Bankruptcy.

This then left both anchors stores added in 1997 closed.

Macon Mall Map 2010. (Photo: SkyCity) 

By the end of 2009 many tenants began to leave the Mall in favor of the Shoppes at River Crossing including some stores closing through corporate Bankruptcy. 

Some Stores even left the Macon Market entirely.

The rise of crime was also at a rise in West Macon after numerous fights were reported on the mall premises. Most notably in the food court where tables and chairs were thrown.

In the Fall of 2010, the mall was acquired by Hull Story Gibson and announce plans of a renovation and demolition of the 1997 expansion wing.

Macon Mall's current logo. 

By this time only American Eagle, Finish Line, Rue 21, Spencer’s, USPS branch, and Victoria Secret remained in the wing.

The new owners gave notices to the remaining tenants to relocate in which many closed altogether, due to already having another location at the newer mall.

Finish Line, Rue 21 & Spencer’s and a T-Mobile Kiosk were the only ones to relocate to the older part of the mall.

In 2011 demolition began on the former Parisian building followed by demolition of the parking garage and the rest of the expansion added in 1997 except for the former Dillard’s.

The renovation also began with many of the mall relics being removed such as the fountains, grand staircases, plants, and skylights.

The Carousel was also removed, and the carpet was placed throughout the entire mall. Closed storefronts were also covered up with historic photos. 

Where the Carousel once stood. 

In 2012, we saw the closure of Sears and Belk. Sears closed it’s 202,000 square foot location at the mall due to a decline of sales while Belk closed its doors wanting to focus on is the newer store that was opened in Phase 2 of the River Crossing shopping center. 

Despite These Closures, the owners opened 2 new stores B. Turners and Dry Falls in the spaces formerly occupied by Old Navy, and a few other tenants. A 15,000 square foot restaurant was also opened named Smok’n Pig.

In 2013, the former Dillard’s building was demolished, which was the last remnants of the 1997 expansion. 

Former Dillard's being demolished in 2013.

In 2015, it was confirmed that Burlington would occupy the upper level of Sears after relocating from the dying Westgate Shopping Center a couple of miles down the road.

In 2016, the center court escalators were removed to cut costs on electricity.

In 2017, JCPenney announced its closure on March 17, 2017, as part of closing some stores nationwide.

JCPenney closed in Late July leaving Burlington and Macy's as the only remaining anchor stores.

In early January 2020, Macy's announced plans to close 2 stores in Georgia with one being Macon Mall and the other South Dekalb Mall.

With Macy's leaving in the Spring of 2020, I am unsure of what is going to happen to this mall. Retailers such as Rue 21, Champs, Burlington, Shoe Department, and a handful of others will remain.

Sources:

http://skycity2.blogspot.com/2010/05/...

https://sheednomics.blogspot.com/2014... https://www.flickr.com/photos/1054240... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1A5El... https://www.historicaerials.com/ https://www.gatewaymacon.org/about-ma...