Southlake Mall, Morrow

     The Southlake Mall, in Morrow, Georgia, a southside suburb of Atlanta, is doing far better than many will tell you. While it wasn't avoided by the "white flight" phenomena that deeply affected Atlanta, the people that too many suburbanites would call "unsavory" have taken the mall and led it to heights many malls would wish to see today. Too many people will also tell you that this mall is struggling, or that its been long dead and in need of revitalization. But this is very far from the truth. The mall that I saw on the Saturday evening I was there was one of hustle, bustle, and shopper-filled corridors of success. While there may have been some bumps on the road to where Southlake is today, the mall stands on a solid lineup, a loyal customer base, and an excited, energetic vibe that many malls fail to capture today.

We open this post with a view of straight outside Sears. Due to the busyness of the mall, I was unable to get a better angle here.

The Southlake Sears entrance may looks like every other Sears, all the way from the interior entrance to the customary closing signs.

The Sears/Food Court court is something to look at. On one hand, that carousel sign is awesome, and so is the tilework. But for such a large space, shouldn't there be some greenery, a fountain, or at least a eye-popping skylight for an otherwise bare roof?

     Southlake Mall opened its doors in 1976 with all the standard details of other Atlanta malls. National retailers Sears and JCPenney took up anchor spots along with homegrown Rich's and Davison's. Southlake Mall was the first major mall to be built on the deep southside of the city, and this distinction led to early success for the mall. This success was crucial for the mall to have, as only four years later the Shannon Mall was built ten miles away in Union City. But thankfully, the fast-growing pace of the southside allowed for two malls at the time, though obviously this pace couldn't keep on forever, and such a truth would cause potentially devastating reparations for the malls involved.

Sears court with my back to the Macy's-JCP area. For a cloudy evening, this mall was awfully bright, and I'm a fan of that for sure.

Looking down on the second floor towards H&M, with Macy's in the far background.

Macy's court. This is another place that could use more detail. For a mall whose layout forces it to not really have a center court, a centerpiece would help put a landmark in the mall. "The big, white Italian fountain" sounds much better than "Macy's court", ya feel?

     While two malls in a somewhat short distance from each other worked for a little while, competition would begin to get the best of one of the malls. Both malls' had their Davison's become Macy's in 1986, but the Macy's at Shannon Mall was bested by its nearby Southlake store and closed in 1999. This would be the beginning of the end of Shannon Mall, and with even more pressure from Arbor Place and Ashley Park, the mall closed in 2011 after years of decline. While seeing a mall get swept off the map is never a good sight, without Shannon's decline and the expansion of Southlake's trade area, who knows how Southlake would have fared in the recession. This turn of events definitely helped the mall, but even when the mall should have been thriving without flaw, major issues began to develop behind the scenes.

Looking back to the Sears wing with my back towards Macy's. The placement of that elevator seems really inconvenient, but I suppose you have to have one somewhere.

Here's the south entrance wing. I'm pretty sure this entrance is longer than the Macy's wing, which is worth noting. The stores down here are mainly the traditional nail and hair salons, though there's a GNC in this wing.

Macy's wing from the former JCP court. I can't say I hate the lights that hang from the railings, but doesn't it look quite silly?

The former JCPenney is covered by a mall advertisement on the second floor, while the first floor is a Forever 21. The second floor is occupied, but by Chime Solutions, a customer contact service. At least Chime could have done something with their storefront, like what Sykes did at Sumter Mall.

This massive Macy's caps off the mall on the east side. I gotta say that I do like the dual-entrance with the showing space in the middle. While you don't see these often, when Rich's designed the store, they used this design at a couple of other malls. On another note, the second floor of this store seemed absolutely huge to me. I swear this thing just kept going on.

     Throughout the early years of the mall's life, as suburbs would usually be, the area was primarily middle-class white. Because of this, the mall could have early success and was clear of demographic issues regarding the immediate area. But as Atlanta continued to move farther south with new suburbs, whites began to head with the wind, causing a phenomenon known as "white flight." Also, with the main economic engine in the neighborhood being that of industrial work, minorites picked up where the whites left, and with this shift came a definite shift at Southlake. While at that point the mall had been like any other suburban shopping center, the fact that some whites felt wary of visiting the area left a mark on the mall. The mall became more of the urban type, with mom-and-pop and urban wear stores taking over where chains left. Though with the population to support it, this change became a boon to the mall, and things picked up at the same pace as they normally would. If truly anything, this shift helped the mall, giving Southlake an edge and something different from the other Atlanta malls. And with issues still to come, Southlake would need this edge more than ever.

Aside from the addition of a food court in 1999, Southlake has never had a proper expansion. There's plenty of space to do one as well, though at this point I would have no idea who would fill up such a wing.

In front of Macy's on the first floor. Apparently, Skillz once had a store in Perimeter Mall, but I have no idea what it sells.

Looking back towards the former JCPenney/F21. Oddly enough, this wing seemed fairly dead compared to the Sears side. Obviously it wasn't that dead, but there was for sure a difference.

F21 from below. It's pretty dark down here, which is understandable.

     Yet, while all this was happening, Southlake had to deal with yet another concerning front : consolidation and anchor closings. While Davison's got the ball rolling in 1986 in becoming Macy's, the effects of this wouldn't come until some time later when in 2003, Rich's began the process of turning into Macy's. Macy's didn't want to keep two stores open, so while the Rich's became Macy's, Macy's moved out of the original Davison's and into the Rich's store. This effectively left one anchor closed, but more was yet to come. In 2011, JCPenney left the mall, giving Southlake two vacant and two full anchor slots. Fortunately, over the next couple of years, these vacancies would be refilled, with a conference center occupying the old Davison's and Chime Solutions, a customer contact company, filling in for JCPenney, It also got a small boost when Forever 21 occupied a section of the old JCPenney, and H&M also took up some space recently, helping round out a mall desperate for fashion anchors. While Southlake rolled successfully with a two-anchor look for a few years, another hit was taken when Sears announced their closure at the mall in June 2018. It is so far unknown on what will replace the store.

Looking forward to the bend in the mall's layout. Yeah, about that aforementioned fountain. This is one plain court.

Looking back into the Macy's corridor. Such a wide abyss of switching tile with so much potential to spice things up.

Sears court and food court entrance. You truly cannot tell the difference between the two main courts in this mall. I do however appreciate the carousel sign, you could call it gaudy but it's unique. Adds a little something.

They really squeezed the food court in here. I was unfortunately unable to take a photo of it though, as the number of people inside and the layout would have meant some tight angles.

Clear shot of the Sears corridor. One thing I have forgotten to say about this mall is how the kiosks are in non-intrusive places. They're still here, but I have seen some malls filled with kiosks in the court areas.

Detail of the carousel sign. Seems like for the majority of people it would have made sense to switch "food court" and "carousel" on the sign, but I guess it's a lot harder to make a fun food court sign. 

     While replacing the previous two closed anchors with non-retail entities was a successful move for the mall and helped it last through the past few years, whoever replaces Sears absolutely needs to be a proper anchor. I don't really have confidence in a discount store here as it wouldn't help the "urban" feel that the mall has been stuck to, and there's already a Roses, a Burlington, and a Fallas nearby. The only problem is that the options are deeply limited here. Anything more upscale than Macy's has nearly no chance of opening in the space. If Belk didn't open at Stonecrest when it had the opportunity, it isn't going in here. JCPenney is struggling, and somehow Dillard's doesn't feel right for the space or the mall as a whole. Owners will likely have to get a little unconventional to replace Sears. Yet, I think it's possible. Entertainment could be a boon for the mall, as the crowd could fit with it and the mall doesn't have anything to fit that bill yet. In my opinion, a reachable scenario for the mall could be having a large-scale entertainment complex on the first floor (think go-karts, bowling, arcade, etc.) and a grocery store on the second. Now, while a Kroger in a mall seems wild and right out of the 60's, Kroger did seriously toy with opening up in a section of the Cumberland Mall Sears a couple of years ago. Both of these replacements are pretty reliable and could bring a lot to this mall, so if I was the owners I would head off in that direction. An empty anchor doesn't help anyone.

Here's the only photo I was able to get of the food court. The design is at least somewhat close to Northlake Mall's food court.

Sears from the lower floor. Hardly remarkable.

View of the lower floor with Sears at my back. This is the last of the interior photos.

     Southlake Mall has always been resilient, though such a trait may be needed more than ever now. Southlake has nearly overcome everything through its lifetime, but today the mall must peel off the dead skin and begin a new era. However, the owners must make the correct moves here for success. In today's landscape, making a bad move can easily knock off a mall, and Southlake is in a vulnerable spot. Though long an underdog in the Atlanta shopping culture, these next years could make or break the 42 year-old mall.

Sears is made of boxes here. As far as I know, this is a somewhat unique design, though Sears has usually copy-and-pasted its designs elsewhere.

Sears from below. More of the boxy elements are shown here. 

JCPenney/Chime Solutions from afar.

Penney's is almost a mix of brutalist and modern here. I don't understand the look, but do I like it? Yes. In fact, I love it. There are some very plain stores that could use this (see below).

Rich's/Macy's was not so revolutional. While a plain store wasn't all that rare in the 70's, it looks out of place nowadays.

Macy's from afar.

Davison's/Morrow Center from afar. The only change that this store has ever seen was a repainting when the convention center moved in.

Main entrance from afar. This entrance really doesn't stick out for being the most important entrance.

Lenox Square, Atlanta

     Rare enough is it to for you to find a mall of early vintage still standing. Even rarer is finding a vintage mall surviving with ease. And rarest of all is finding a vintage mall lead a world-class shopping district known around the world. Lenox Square is all of this : a 1959 mall that miraculously survives today despite everything that has gone on around it. Sixty years of change in its area and the area is truly the reason for how well the mall is doing. Unlike most other malls of its age, Lenox Square rolls along without a problem. How did it get here? This post will address just how Lenox Square remains successful now and into the future.

It's always a good sign when there are tons of postcards on a mall. Sure, retailing was much crazier and malls were much more back then, but still. That's a Kresge's on the right and Muse's on the left. Davison's is on the far left. Scenic South Card Company.

An old aerial photo of the mall. The block near the bottom right of the mall once contained a Colonial supermarket. 

Rich's court in all of its black-and-white glory.  From a Georgia State University photo collection.

     Lenox Square was born in August of 1959 as Atlanta's second mall. The first Atlanta mall was the Stewart-Lakewood Center in the southside of the city. SLC still stands today in its original form, though with one side of the mall knocked down. Anyways, that's a story for another day. Lenox opened up with a pretty much a full set of Atlanta stores ; Rich's, Davison's, and Colonial Supermarket all had a piece of the retailing pie. Another notable fixture of the mall was a Delta Airlines kiosk, operated by the hometown airline. The largest national chain in the mall was a Kresge's five-and-dime. It's also worth mentioning that the layout of the mall at opening was far from unique. Southdale Center in Minnesota, built three years earlier, has a nearly identical history with the mall, as with a few other early shopping centers. Yet this didn't seem to matter, as Lenox did exceptionally well through its youth.

Another aerial photo, this one from Malls of America. Note how the surroundings of the mall are all forest and not nearly what it looks like today.

As one would expect, the grand opening was special. This photo is a good one, especially with a full list of original stores smack-dab on the sign.

     Even without a bump in the proverbial road of youth, there was still room for improvement. And would Lenox improve in 1973. A new, fully-enclosed, one-story wing anchored with the Dallas-based, upscale Neiman-Marcus chain was completed. The addition of any store is certainly a thing to celebrate, but the impact that the expansion would have on the mall was tremendous. This feeling wouldn't truly kick in though for decades. Of course, that doesn't mean expanding was a bad idea. A new, enclosed wing with a unique store helped protect the mall against incoming competition. And in its current form, Lenox was growing vulnerable to this.

Taking photos was basically a science in the midst of holiday shopping. This was not helped by the presence of kiosks.

Macy's court through a forest of kiosks and a fountain as the centerpiece. Think of how bright and beautiful this court would be without fidget spinner merchants.

This entrance wing leads to the parking deck just outside Macy's. Sorry for the blurriness, as I mentioned it was not easy to do this.

Another, much-clearer image of a simple entrance wing. This appears to be roughly opposite of the Macy's entrance. 

     Following two booming decades, Lenox Square remained relatively unchanged for another two. Rich's would expand with a new budget store and Men's Department in 1982. A year before, a food court, large renovation, and expansive Plaza Court was completed. In 1992 though, the latest major expansion for the mall was finished. This added a second floor to the main north-south corridor. Turns out something really hit with this new level, as Rich's expanded once more in 2000 bringing the store up to nearly 450,000 square feet. It really goes to say something to Rich's that their generally middle-class, fairly-normal department store did this well in ultra-luxury, over-retailed Buckhead, especially given the competition against the likes of Saks, Lord & Taylor, and Neiman-Marcus. However, the closure of the downtown store in 1991 and the fact that Rich's was from Atlanta were probably helping.

This oddly-angled shot shows a Panera Bread and another entrance. Am I the only one who thinks mall Paneras are endangered? I swear these were a lot more common about a decade ago. 

Say all you will about the interior design, but the layout is simple. 

The aforementioned Panera is to the left and Macy's is straight ahead. Old malls were odd in the fact that anchors didn't often bookend corridors but were instead built into the mall itself. Anchors were essentially very large inline tenants. 

     Unfortunately, and to many Atlantans dismay, Rich's was consolidated into Macy's beginning in 2003 and ending in 2005, but there was a little good news. Thanks to the mall's classy clientele, Federated could afford turning the existing Macy's into the city's second Bloomingdales. A new search for a new anchor was avoided, and the mall's luxury status was solidified. In 2009, the mall was able to celebrate its 50th birthday, which is something to say in the retail industry. Fifty years is a hundred factoring in competition, consolidation, and demographics. That last one makes this feat especially amazing.

Detail of the center court fountain. As you can see on previous photos, this structure goes straight up in the air and is much larger than what is seen here.

Here we have the "Luxury Wing", which isn't a bad name given the Neiman-Marcus anchoring it. 

A closer look at Neiman-Marcus. 

     Today, Lenox is doing quite well for itself in the hellscape that is retail today. In fact, it is doing so well that I would go to say that Lenox can survive another sixty years if the ownership knows what they are doing. Of course, luck is going to have to work out as well. Luck has really come in handy for the mall in its first six decades. It's a wonder in itself that Lenox has lasted this long, given how much demographics can change in sixty years. But not only did the demographics stay stable, they got better. Way better. An old mall in a traditional, middle-class suburb is cool, but a mall surrounded by the likes of Arthur Blank, the former homes of Tyler Perry, and a playground for the wealthy is even more impressive. And even if Lenox was that middle-class mall, it could be dying. North Atlanta is filled with a mall seemingly around every corner, and this would have worn on Lenox over time. Essentially, the money is the blood for the mall. Without it, Lenox would have ceased to exist by now. 

Though it may not seem like it from a distance, the Neiman-Marcus wing has some quirky design features. Note the markings above the second floor logo.

Even the stores in this wing are much different than what you would see. No kiosks in this wing. Instead, we have vintage early 19th century pianos for sale, and a look at the price tag is definitely turning away some shoppers. Would you pay $130,000 for a piano constructed in 1900 and imported from Europe?

Here we are looking down the main corridor towards Bloomingdales. I really like the tarp-like skylights incorporated in this mallway. It kinda gives some futuristic vibes that really go well with the 1959 beginnings of the mall. The skylights also work well with how bright the corridor is in general. 

The mall continues down towards Bloomingdales with the only major difference coming in the change of skylight design.

     Where this money also helps the mall is that the mall controls its own destiny. With the fact that Lenox is THE mall in Atlanta and that the money isn't likely going anywhere, Simon has oodles of leverage on what they feel like doing. Doubling the size of the mall is as doable as keeping things where they are. Despite all these possibilities, I don't think Lenox is going to make any drastic changes. As the old saying goes, don't fix it if it ain't broke, and Lenox for sure ain't broke. It would also be unlikely that if new stores were added, they would remain as pricey and upscale as the others in the mall. Besides, from a business standpoint Simon would essentially be shooting themselves in the foot as Simon-owned Phipps wouldn't benefit at all and might even suffer with an expansion. So, even if keeping things normal isn't flashy, perhaps it's a good thing Lenox remains the same.

Bloomingdales pretty much just sneaks into the mall corridor. This remains a vestige of older malls, as older malls didn't tend to have anchors bookending corridors but instead having anchors blend freely with the corridors. 

If anything is really amazing in this mall, it might be how much this court area has been changed since its construction.

A closer look into the abyss that is the food court and Bloomingdales court reveals a seemingly-suspended California Pizza Kitchen and layers of stores. In all of the many malls I've visited, this area remains a favorite.

     Contrary to many other malls, Lenox is one that doesn't have much to worry about down the road. In fact, it's entirely possible that if Macy's closes as a company and only Neiman-Marcus remains, Lenox will survive. I would go as far to say that Lenox is nearly immune to anything. And so, this story of a long-standing mall won't end with any foreshadowing. It ends with a sort of content-ness about the future. Down the road into the night it seems that there are no nightmares, only dreams of unknown benefits.

Looking across the court to Bloomingdales. This shot would be perfect had Oprah been elsewhere and not staring into my camera.

This look from the dungeon of the food court up really shows the detail in the court. It's quite beautiful.

We head back to the main corridor, this time on the second floor.

Turn around, and here we have Bloomingdales and the end of the second floor.

The Neiman-Marcus wing looks awfully cavernous from this angle. 

What better way to end a beautiful mall with a beautiful view of Buckhead's skyline and a parking lot with more than a few six-figure vehicles.