Regency's Unrelated Sibling :: Aiken Mall, Aiken

     "If you build it, they will come," only rings true to an extent. What you build can't have numerous flaws. It has to be at least partially necessary. It can't be vulnerable and not be managed well. It needs to be in the scope of the community. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, the project can't be oversized, pointless, and have little reason to exist. However, the Aiken Mall broke pretty much every rule in the book. It was pointless, unnecessary, and had little reason to exist. And because of this, it's on life support and is irrelevant in the Midland retail scene.

Here's an unspectacular main entrance for the mall.

Entering the main entrance with Dillard's straight ahead. With two Dillard's locations, the mall was in a worse position. The stores are like Siamese twins ; if one dies, the other one does the same.

Seeing the old Belk logo on a directory isn't exactly making me optimistic. With a directory like this, you would have a pretty nice mall. That is far from the case though. 

     Before getting into the specifics of everything, I'll go over a brief history. Built in 1989, the mall boasted anchors Belk, Brendles (catalog store), Phar-Mor, Sears, and JCPenney. This anchor setup didn't last long, but perhaps for the better. Presumably during their first bankruptcy, Phar-Mor shut its doors at the mall. Brendle's fell in 1996 with the rest of the Elkin, NC company. With two anchors dead, the mall began to face financial struggles. A foreclosure and court case later, ownership switched from Zamias to Urban Retail Properties. With financial and vacancy problems in the mall's adolescence, the outlook wasn't looking as bright for the mall. It was likely that Aiken would be left without a mall as early as 10 years.

The only color that comes from the mall comes from these food establishments. You need a renovation when it gets that bad.

The Belk corridor remains bright thanks to having an open store. It's one of two pockets of life in the mall.

To the left of the entrance is this dark, long, flavorless hallway. That's pretty symbolic.

     Luckily, an unlikely hero came to the rescue in the form of Dillard's in 2000. Dillard's occupied the former Phar-Mor and Brendle's locations, giving the mall a full anchor roster again and improving the fortunes. With this newfound stability, the mall prospered well into the 2000's. Traditional mid-market stores filled the corridors. Aiken's mall finally appeared to be a place to hangout, shop, and have a good time. Yet one of the largest financial events in world history was on the horizon. In 2008, at the head of the Great Recession, Aiken, its mall, and its economy, began to flounder. Gap, an original tenant, was one of the first stores out. The creek became a flood though, and key tenants like Kirkland's, Belk Home, Dollar Tree, and FYE shuttered their locations from 2008 to 2011. The only real good news that came in that time span was the addition of Books-A-Million in 2008. In 2007, the mall had a promising, bright future ahead, following the mess in the 90's. In 2011, the mall was at 45% occupancy and on life support. The shopping center was in an odd phase where the mall was dead, but the anchors vibrant. However, the knockout punch wasn't far away.

Detail of a seating area between the food court and JCPenney. This looks like a toss salad in mall form. You just put benches and planters there and hope it works. You put little character in it and make it look like it was made in all of five minutes. Probably because it was made in five minutes.

I detailed some store fronts in the mall for vintage's sake. I'd imagine that most storefronts are original.

More stores. The odd-fonted store in view says Authentiks. There is a photo of an alive one at another mall I photographed on this trip. 

       Depleted and injured, the Aiken Mall pushed ahead as a shell of what it once was. This obviously wasn't sustainable for retailing success. And everyone's doubts were confirmed in 2016. Anchors and anything else feeding on dying dreams dropped like flies. Sears died. Penney's questioned their existence at the mall and left. Then Dillard's looked at the other anchors and called it quits. Whatever survived the store exodus woke up in the dumpsters of the zombified mall filled with elderly mall walkers. Maybe that wasn't really how it happened, but something of that variety occurred. Five stores remain today, giving out a whopping 12% occupancy rate. I don't know who is paying the bills at this point, but they wait not much longer.

Any ideas for this bubble-sided, two entrance store?

Looking back to Belk. The lighting looks both cavernous and psychedelic, which is a weird mix.

JCPenney rocks a plain, 90's look. Not much to say here.

     On November 21, 2017, major developments came out of the Aiken Mall. Owners Southeastern announced the demolition of the mall, as soon as February 2018. The mall is slated to become a lifestyle center similar to that of the Shelter Cove project on Hilton Head. Belk will anchor with possible big-box tenants joining alongside. Developers cite sales tax revenue as a benefit from the new retail center. Not much else is known on the mall's new life at the moment.

The Dillard's mall corridor is very spooky. The random green light gives off kind of abandoned vibes to the mall. It reminds me of the flickering lights you see in the parking lots of asylums.

I took a photo of RadioShack for all the wrong reasons.

By Sears and BAM is this mall entrance.

This is by far the most unique Sears entrance I've seen. No tiled look here. This is full blown 90's, asymmetrical aesthetic.

     I have mixed feelings over this redevelopment. There are some factors worth mentioning that pushed the Shelter Cove project. Hilton Head keeps a year-long influx of wealthy tourists and people who have vacation homes there. Thanks to this, the island has a steady economy that is pretty safe and secure. Aiken is a city that has seen low growth and lacks a major economic sector. It lacks even a sliver of wealth and anything a bit more upscale than Belk would struggle. Anything built would immediately have competition. Augusta boasts a major mall that has suppressed Aiken's mall for years. The Augusta Mall is full of life and has a full anchor lineup. To the east of Aiken is Columbia, with its own set of retailing options. Columbia has a strong economy and population that easily beats out Aiken. I've taken the stretch between Aiken and Columbia many a times, and it's not a long drive at all. Thanks to this, Southeastern will have to attract stores that can survive in such an environment. Most of these stores would have experience in the Aiken market, and perhaps its mall. If these stores left the market because of its health, why would they come back?

Looking back from BAM/Sears to the Belk. The bland architecture blends together and becomes something of an ugly tunnel. 

Detail of the entrance near BAM. The developers went to town with those green lights. 

This part of the mall has the most life. I can imagine BAM attracts a decent crowd. 

     The reasons for the mall's death are eerily similar to that of Augusta's Regency Mall. Both malls were probably screwed from the start. Some similar problems killed the malls : poor anchors, bad location, and careless owners. If you have lived in Aiken for a while, say since the mall's opening, and can't remember Brendles or Phar-Mor, I can't blame you. Drug stores (Phar-Mor) and magazine floors (Brendles) are never strong anchors. Thanks to bankruptcy and weak management, both stores vacated their locations early. These spots were empty for too long, already hurting the vulnerable mall. The savior was Dillard's but in two places. Splitting the merchandise and traffic, both stores are as good as one. This means that essentially one anchor was still vacant. But the two mall's similarities don't end there. What happened in 1986 at Regency happened in 2007 at Aiken ; a teenage girl was abducted and raped, showing need for security. Management also slipped up with the rapid closing of stores. There was no backup plan, and with one anchor remaining, the writing was on the wall. The mall was dead. I won't speak much on the location. A simple trip to Google Maps does the trick. The mall is not close to the interstate, and the task of driving here from I-20 was tough enough for me.

A dead Hibbett Sports occupies part of the mall.

And I'm not guessing here. Here's proof.

Bath and Body Works doesn't actually need shoppers to exist.

The JCPenney court remains bright with no stores.

     In all, it's no wonder that the Aiken Mall died. The only good news we can take from this is the future. I'm no fan of lifestyle and power centers leading the shopping options of a fair-sized towns, but it's better than nothing. Honestly, I hope the best for what new comes out of this. A dead mall isn't helping anyone, but maybe something that does help takes its place. Maybe the citizens of Aiken won't need to drive for shopping. They can simply find it a short drive away. And maybe citizens can happily shop away the days, for once and for all.

Belk's entrance looks normal, but I'm not a fan of the horizontal stripes.

JCPenney decided to blend in rather than stand out.

Belk looks like a Dillard's.