The MacArthur Center. Downtown Mall. Taubman Original. Is it holding its own? Or is it dead in the water? Let's find out. Minds - www.minds.com/... Ko-fi - ko-fi.com/doom... Bitchute - www.bitchute.c...
The fountain at 4:00 is gorgeous!!! I love how it shoots the water! And I love all the giant Easter eggs and the Easter village you see a little later. Not only that but the glass walls and the glass elevators are stunning.
I was there around easter, and it actually sort of broke my heart how they had the whole Easter Bunny exhibit and hardly anybody was there because a deadly shooting had just happened and everybody was afraid to be in the mall.
Hey man, I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for posting this. Spent a lot of time in that mall a long, long time ago. As a young, fresh boot of a sailor yet without a hint of salt in my veins, I reported to my ship in drydock in Portsmouth in May of 2000. Whereas everyone else had recently gotten home from a deployment, everybody had developed relationships and friendships, and there I was just some fresh boot. Didn't have any friends yet. So when off duty, I'd get a cab to MacArthur Center and spend countless hours by myself looking around, catching a movie (sometimes two), getting some food at Sbarro or A&W. This was amazing to take a look around and see how much things look the same, and what else has changed. There used to be an FYE music store in the bygone era of physical media music and movies that was on the third floor near the elevators. Anyway, thanks for sharing. This really meant the world to a guy that spent a lot of time there as a young man, but hasn't been to Virginia in nearly 20 years.
I agree 100% It's a great mall in a great area. They need to tighten up on security and bring the teenage curfew back. It's a shame that alot of stores left this mall
It will never recover the big names have left for good...my opinion they need to level it...and make section 8 housing .it's treated like the projects so might as well go all in
Despite its case of "Anchoritis," this mall seems to be quite robust! Perhaps it's time for a "call center" or some such thing to move in where the anchor(s) moved out. What EVER course they choose, I can't help but feel that this mall is a survivor that will somehow continue to thrive. As always, Dooms, thanks for yet another terrific video! Keep rockin' & rollin', my friend...
I spoke to a lady in a delt store there she had been at that mall since it originally opened..she said it's definitely changed for the worse ..the mall was practically empty right around Christmas ..it was very weird to see such a nice mall going under ..but I don't blame people for wanting to be safe when their shopping
It was an upscale mall built in a downscale neighborhood and was never profitable. Nobody goes to Norfolk for upscale shopping, and now the crime is out of control. This video was filmed on a holiday weekend, and probably the last time the mall had that many people in it. It's a ghost town now and doesn't have long left to live. Merchants are pulling out just as fast as they can find another location.
Sad to say, but you are correct with the future of the mall. It’s up for sale and many stores plan on leaving before end of February 2023. I just moved to VA and plan on going to visit the mall tomorrow, as it’s a matter of days/weeks before it’s shuttered. Great video!
The city and builders originally agreed the mall would not be built if there wasn't three anchor stores ( Macy's, dilliards, and Nordstrom) because they knew it would fail without three anchors. Macy's pulled out and they tried hard to find another anchor but when they couldn't find one they built the mall anyway with the intention of adding a 3rd anchor later which obviously never happened. Therefore the mall was doomed to fail from the moment it was built with only two anchors.
4:12 On the left, 'Love Culture', we have a store going into that spot and directly after LIDS and the Pretzel place, we'll be taking over the Torrid spot as well, connecting the two, making it into one big area. Arcade/restaurant. With the whole shut down, we don't know when now. We were supposed to be there this month in June.
Welp, I'm sure you'll be back here soon. We just had a third shooting in a year at this mall yesterday. Mall isn't quite dead, but you've covered Military Circle, and it's the same issue that brought it down.
Great video. I grew up with this mall. I live about 20 minutes away and when it first opened, I was in high school. This was THE mall to go to. I hope that something else opens up in the Nordstrom's space. This mall was planned to revitalize downtown Norfolk. Before Macarthur opened, this was the shitty part of downtown. This area had a lot of vagrants and empty storefronts. The city of Norfolk spent a lot of money to open this mall. The whole point of this development was to bring people back downtown. Over the years Norfolk has had serious problems with middle class/white flight and this mall was meant to counter that. The problem with Norfolk these days is that they put too much money downtown at the expense of other neighborhoods.
A whole lot has happened since this video was posted. MacArthur Center is now what I consider a dying mall. MacArthur Center is now entirely under City of Norfolk ownership, which will pave way for future redevelopment. A wave of closures struck the mall in recent years, with Express, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Victoria's Secret being shuttered during the pandemic. Apple closed their location in 2021, leaving the one in Lynnhaven as their only location in Hampton Roads. In 2022, Barnes & Noble shut its doors at MacArthur, and in June of 2023, Chili's, which I clearly remember going to almost every time I went to MacArthur, closed its doors. In July of 2023, Dillard's announced that they would close their upper two floors and turn their MacArthur Center location into a single-floor clearance center. Just a few weeks after that was announced, the City of Norfolk voted to allocate $4,000,000 to purchase the location and close it down completely. Its last day was September 4th, 2023. Crime is killing this mall, and MacArthur Center will die too young.
I live across the street from this mall and when I first moved here ~ 3 years ago, it was still in okay shape. There was a (quiet) Nordstrom at the time, but it closed up not much later. The problem with this mall is that locals hang out there and think it's cool to bring their violent and gang-related activity into the mall, endangering the people who just want to shop. I remember when I was still relatively new to the area, one night I heard people carrying on below my window, and I asked him what was going on, and they told me there had been a shooting at the mall. There have been a couple of others since then, but the deathknell for this mall was the deadly shooting that just happened there about a month ago. If I'd been in town I likely would've been over there at the time. Maybe 2 weeks after that, there was another shooting outside that compelled Texas de Brazil to close suddenly. A bunch of stores that are actually open in your video are now closed. You should come back and do another video of it. You probably wouldn't recognize it. This mall has a people problem. Because of that people problem, it's about to have a dead mall problem. The city of Norfolk in general has a crime problem, and I hope when we get a new police chief, that will get better.
Fair oaks Mall in Fairfax Virginia is built in the same manner with the same materials in the same type of decor but I also think it was under the same company too
U couldn't pay me to park there and go inside..but instead u wanna charge me to park and visit your mall..with gunshots every other week...nope I'll pass
Update. The mall has gotten worse. More stores have left and it seems like it's dieing. It's a shame. All the malls in hampton roads are dieing. MacArthur mall and lynhaven mall are the two best in the area and it seems this mall extinction is finally starting to have its effects on them.
Spend a lot of time here When I was in the military.. It was a great place to get off base for a while. The parking garage and entrance from the parking lot is very sketchy...
Is Mr convenience still on the first floor next to Dillard's? I mean I live only a few blocks away from that mall but I haven't been there I think since you filmed this which is 2 years ago so that tells you something that they don't sell anything I'm really interested in and that's the problem they tried to put New York fifth avenue type shopping in a Blue collar city that survives on military and welfare
Well what happened was a bunch of teenagers from the projects that are just across the street came in started a fight and threw a security guard through a plate glass window of one of the stores I remember that about the same time that a security guard was drug behind somebody's car at military circle which is just down the road from MacArthur center and I think there was a stabbing and a shooting in there at one time but banning teenagers without adult supervision they just shut themselves out of one of the few points of economics where all you have to do is entice and most likely they will buy if they have the money in their pocket teenagers do account for a good portion of this economy we have that's why I have not gone into that mall since then and I'm not a teenager I'm a 55 year old man but I just thought that was wrong of them so I just never bothered to shop at them again
Yes right across the street from the mall it's The Old City Hall which is the MacArthur memorial why is the regal Cinema gated up did they move or do they just close down their Cinema
Yeah it was a nice mall but nobody in Norfolk wanted it it was a white elephant and think about the city of Norfolk what's her main industry the US Navy and the US Navy does not shop there they will go to lynnhaven Mall or to coliseum crossing in Hampton because they even feel the prices are too expensive in MacArthur center so yes it will go down and it is quite unnecessary people like the fact that they can shop from home anytime of the day or night and have their items delivered to their front door
I see you injured on the food court level well as I remembered as soon as you get in there the bathrooms a sombrero a cheesecake factory a Cajun and lotus grill Arthur treachers and Burger King in that area in cattle corner would have been a TGI Fridays you also had a bookstore that took up two levels of them all the second and third floor on the same in regal cinemas I remember I remember when they just opened the mall opening day and there is no original tenant in there other than the Taylor and the watch repair shop all the way up to two extreme ends
I bet Starwood Capital will default on the loans and property will be put in receivership and then be put in sheriff auctions due to non payment of real estate county and state taxes not being paid.
