DEAD MALL SERIES : Super Dead, Creepy Owings Mills Mall at Night **DEMOLISHED** 

You should check out the Montgomery Mall in North Wales, PA

Max Zomboni Your comment made my day!

No, that's just how you know you're in Baltimore.

@@jayjayjames2332 I was going to ask why this mall is dead, then you said Baltimore.

You’ll be dead by the time police come

jayjayjames2332 lol true

+This is Dan Bell. I was just reading an article about that. They aren't being very specific but I think they want to do what was done to Golden Ring Mall. Of course they mentioned the plans from 4 years ago and how that never happened so who knows.

+This is Dan Bell. I feel so sad. Me and my parents used to go here in the 90s and early 2000s. We bought EVERYTHING here. I just cried at parts of this video. :( :( :( :(

you should consider a 360° camera. On mobile youtube, us viewers can use our phones to change the field of view. it's awesome

+This is Dan Bell. Saw this when they announced the mall closed a couple days ago. Sad to see this mall go down but not surprised, it's been struggling for many years. I will say after watching this, watched other videos from your series and am hooked. Hope you keep making them, it is interesting to watch

Another mall bites the dust... At least you can try to explore it a year or two later. But seriously, I wish it farewell even though I live in Indiana. Is Macy's or whatever anchor there is still open?

👍

+userunavailable3095 -- thats really sad that they took over property that could have stayed.

userunavailable3095 it is interesting to me that you mentioned this because that is exactly what I was wondering as I watched another video showing its demolition and division into huge broken and crumpled up piles of recyclables and disposables.

Sad how it all turned out. I hate it when these corporate fucks destroy tradition and history for money, wherever in the world it happens.

They didn't need to predict the internet or cell phones. All they needed to do was look at the economy instead of the hype. Bethlehem Steel was already shut down. Sparrow's Point was abandoned. Anyone with a lick of sense could have seen that with the major driver of the Maryland economy gone, that wasn't a good time to build a multi million dollar mall. Yeah, Don Shaeffer was great at conjuring up unicorns and lollipops, but the truth of the matter was, Baltimore was without jobs. People without jobs don't spend money. Anyone with a lick of sense could also have predicted the 30,000 abandoned properties in Baltimore as well.

You got it!

Absolutely! Very much agreed!

Spot on! I live in Illinois, Chicagoland Area, malls that flourished when I was young, are dying. So sad man. I'm NEVER political, but we are in big trouble with the disappearing of the Middle Class.

+Spacebaby Where I live, the mall is still going strong here. Really strong actually. Which is surprising. The Mall at Rockingham Park in Salem NH came into being and wiped out a mall in the next town over in Methuen Mass and one up in Manchester NH. The funny thing is, the original owners/developers of the mall from all appearances wanted the mall to fail when come to find out later they actually didn't expect or believe people would be willing to travel the extra distance, even if only a couple miles, especially just to avoid a %5 sales tax if from Mass. They were very wrong though, and it screwed them. The Mall at Rockingham Park was built on what was pretty much the only land in this region of New England that was zoned for gambling at the time and had seen attempts to build a casino there, which the residents of the town wanted and still want there but will probably never happen as of last month. The original owners of the mall were hoping to cash in on this. They actually built the mall just that bit more opulent than a lot of malls at the time architecturally. They also designed it so that there were absolutely no load bearing walls that would interfere with an open floor plan. Which there was no reason to do this in the design as a mall. Now as a casino, there is definitely a reason for it. Not only that, the mall was literally built right off of the highway at the first exit coming into NH on Route 93 I worked at Gloria Jean's Coffee during the holiday season one year and was able to see the areas of the mall the general public don't. After walking through the corridors knowing what I do about the property and the town wanting a casino, it all just clicked on figuring out the original owners' plans. When it was clear that the mall was going to survive, which it putting the Methuen Mall under and turning the Manchester Mall into a dead one, even with it's anchors, was a clear sign of, they sold to Simons. Now it could see itself dealing with tough times. The man who owns the Tuscan Kitchen here in Salem just bought Rockingham Park Race Track in two parcels and is looking to develop the area into a well to do living and shopping complex, for lack of a better term. With what he plans on bringing in for businesses, it could definitely hurt the mall now. I guess things really can go round and round.

+Frontenac Can't forget Caldor, Ames, Zayers, which Ames bought, Woolworth's, Montgomery Ward, or many others that have faded away either. I grew up with all of them in my life at some point.

where i used to live in Maine the repurposed the old textile mills into luxury loft condos.

I lived in a development in the UK built on the grounds of a former whiskey distillery. The houses and apartments were fairly well built and it was a quiet area. Unfortunately about a year later, the village police station was closed due to post-2008 cuts. Petty crimes & break ins increased. I myself confronted 2 thugs who were breaking into cars on the estate one night. The police had to come from another town 10 miles away so they were gone by the time the cops arrived. But the experience shook me up. Then there was an armed robbery literally next door about a month later and I thought fuck I've got to get out of here. Luckily my lease was up a couple months later and I left. I wonder how the place is doing now.

It's better to demolish it and redevelop the land into mixed housing & commercial lots. There's a lot of empty unusable space inside (atriums, plazas, corridors, etc.), the glass roof will soon become expensive to maintain, the components from the 80s & 90s will need expensive upkeep or replacing, and the large indoor space will cost a lot to heat, cool, ventilate, and light.

Yes! Supposedly, there have been a few malls that have been converted into multi-purpose spaces. But out of the episodes of this series I think this one looks the best. It doesn't seem that outdated to me unless at night makes it more appealing to me. If it were somehow converted to be more outdoor, with even more plants, keeping the fountains, better restaurants, and bars it would seem like somewhere I could walk around.

Or like a water park lol

This mall shut down a few years ago, so at the time he did this, it hadn't been too long since closing.

Brad Bailey I know I'm late, but this video was filmed less than one week before they actually shut their doors.

It's been demolished

The Dark Portal what a waste of imported French Polished Marble

emonchan oh thats a neat idea

Any somewhat major chain will likely have a media clause saying no one is authorized to speak to media except for some PR person in the corporate office. Doesn't mean employees won't do it, but they may unknowingly jeopardize their job if they do.

Indy Cyclist don’t think they’re worried about losing jobs at places thatre shutting down anyway.

Right? All those staircases.

Sounds like a good horror movie.

Same..

Good marble comes from Italy. It comes with Italians to install it too. For real they ship out with the rock. They don't let anyone a touch it either. The union is cool with it because mafia.

@Kilo Byte lol

and gnc too lol

Literally every dead mall I've been to, one of the last, if not the last open store is always Bath and Body Works.

Very true! We got the Frisco Station Mall here in Rogers Arkansas and we got a few stores left in there, even the Bath and Body Works!

+SneakerHeadInTheBay I know exactly how you feel. In my childhood, malls were the place to go on the weekend to shop and explore. Stores were bustling and hustling with busy shoppers, music was loud, commotion was everywhere, room was tight. Now across all america and all over the world, malls are shutting down to rot and decay due to online shopping and world recession. It brings a tear to my eye something once so majestic now is a massive pitfall, an eye sore, and a torn piece of my past. I hate it every time a mall shuts down.

+Crossingman18 couldnt agree more.

You can "blame" online shopping for that. And also the rise of smaller streetfront shops in some areas. Why drive 15-30 minutes & get stuck in traffic, to buy something at full price when you can get the same thing for slightly less online & delivered to your home? Then, they also opened more malls of various sizes, which added to the competition. People like me who grew up in the 80s-90s also got sick of malls. Yea, they were the place to go when we were in our teens, but you grow up & tastes change. Young people in their 20s & 30s prefer to live in the gentrifying inner suburbs, where shopping centres there are smaller.

It's also true that shopping centres are destroying local businesses that rely on loyal customers - especially in the case of food establishments. I know this is an issue in Scotland where I currently live. Sad all around.

Yes, OC is jam packed. Tons of Asians at the malls xP I hate going anywhere on the weekends.

Also GNC. And giant gumball machines.

+fueledby_fandoms , there's nothing odd about being fascinated with dead malls...don't worry, your normal and not alone..lol. We're all here with you and your in great company with all these fine and really nice commenters (: After all, we're a special breed...us UrbanEx fans and we gotta stick together.. it's the rest of the world at large that I worry about...lol

+fueledby_fandoms The mall in my town is dead as hell. It's always so sad whenever I go in. It's just phone case stores, a jewellery store, used books, like three convenience marts, and a Staples. The rest are just empty shops. But there's, like, three floors of office space above the mall. It's weird.

salutations fren |-/?

If you liked this mall and were amazed with the Rolling Acres Mall, you should check out the circa 2010 videos of the Dixie Square Mall (this was the Chicagoland mall that the Blues Brothers and Illinois State Police tore up in the Blues Brothers movie. Then play Portal 2...

they are cool be careful in them, homeless live in there and could jump you like they did my buddy who tried to skate one.

Matthew Hurley lol right.

That's like a lingerie shop being called The Yeast Infection

Idk but there was one in Rotting Acres Mall at one point

It's noticeable name I guess. There are a few outlets here in Australia.

Lmfaooo

+alison davis I'm 22, I find this sad as well, this was my childhood on the weekends with my grandparents when I got into my teens. I mean our mall was small and still is in that area and is still relitively thriving but last time I went there were more stores closed and I wondered. Is it happening here to? It's sad, people have good memories.

> marble floors > imported > from France Wow.

M A R B L E F L O O R S I M P O R T E D F R O M F R A N C E

Eve Smith mr. burns grich greedy nasty rat went balls out on this one

FAINTSY!!!!

Rich pompous idiots love to waste other people's money on fancy impractical crap just to show off to other rich idiots how fancy they think they are.

it is omggg

Holy shit, that was beautiful.

+ObsoleteOddity Godamn we got the next Shakespeare right here

Fabulous Muffin lol ! :)

THEPOWER99FM You're right there - I realise it's easier (mostly) & cheaper (mostly) to shop online, but it means the slow death of the heart of our communities.

ObsoleteOddity I'm in Fort Smith AR and the first mall we had here is repurposed to two different call centers, a pain treatment center and another doctors office. they still have room and but it's not nearly as sad as it was for a while.

+ModernDinosaur i used to live right down the street from this mall in high school and used to dream of skating inside of it

Quasar i was literally thinking the same thing

imagine how bored the security is, they would be on ur ass in a second

Especially with hard ass wheels.

KraKraIsCra me too

seen = saw

Ken Williamson what a good idea maybe some of the other malls in trouble could do something like that

Living. At a mall. What a concept.

So my 90s dream's of living in a mall can come true!

Where was this?

jasper the dog the community doesnt want the extra traffic. already tons of apt by there

jasper the dog or make this place into a bazaar/ weekend yard sale

jasper the dog There's actually some malls that are starting to do that.

Agreed. Large areas for communities of the apartments. So many sleeping on the street.

not a dog man, not a dog

+ForceEight WHAT?!!

+This is Dan Bell. right?! i'm assuming that the macy's announcement really pushed everyone who had stayed over the edge. it took so many years to finally start to slow down (I used to run the caribou coffee down the street), but things really happened quickly these past few months...

i know this is late but when all the lights were off was it still accessible?

+lazyla27 That's so true. Our justice system is messed up here in Baltimore which is one reason why the city isn't making progress on the Freddie Gray trial.

The Inner Harbor of Baltimore - with its facelift and increased high police presence was like spraying perfume on a rotting corpse... For the sake of safety, the ghetto element required that you maintain prudent situational awareness and beggars (pseudo and otherwise) would approach every few minutes. With these elements, why even bother to go- for any reason? There was a Brooks Brothers over there and ultimately I just couldn't bare going even only for that purpose.

Sadly our ruins will not last as long, the oldest abandoned malls are already decaying as they are made of cheaper material not solid stone like old castles.

Plus the property value means that when a building of today becomes unsalvagable it generally gets demolished.

@@proxy4620 what precisely do you think malls are made out of? Because I've built malls and they're concrete and steel. Which are pretty solid materials. You look at the interior decorations and think they're the building. They're not. Malls are steel and concrete boxes. But you cannot see any of that because it all gets covered up. Along with building malls I've gutted them for remodeling too. Every store has a demarcation wall. It is its own separate box.

@@1pcfred I suppose you're right, maybe they will last that long. But so far the abandoned malls do appear to be crumbling quite a bit... But it could leave the bones of the structure behind like what happened with old castles

@@proxy4620 castles were built with longer occupancy expectations than commercial buildings today. Now we design for a 50 year life cycle. By then the world has changed so much things become obsolete. Malls themselves have certainly outlived their usefulness. Castles were built with rubble construction. So they're basically piles of crap. They build two walls then fill in between them with rubble. Piles of rubble undisturbed do have long shelf lives.

+Grizzly Bear Seriously!

+This is Dan Bell. No I mean like, how everything was lively and now it is very quiet and subtle, I don't mean it is litterly depressing, it is just sad. Plz don't hate me =)

You misunderstood. I mean, seriously...it’s depressing. Not...seriously? Haha.

Oooh! Thank god, I thought you hated me, anyways, another amazing video! Well done!

+Joeseph lmao!

Woodville Mall in suburban Toledo actually had the heat shut off due to non payment. Winters in NW Ohio can be brutal, the mall was around 37 degrees inside!

They leave the power on to prevent people from stealing copper wires.

money laundering. The actual owner must be having some illegal business and they use these dead shops as a front to show their wealth is legitimate. Also if you check their cash/accounts book, you will also notice that most (99.9%) of their sales are cash sales and not through debit/credit cards. Most money laundering fronts are cash intensive businesses. So if you see a dead shop that survives more than a year of paying rent, staff salaries and bills, its probably a money laundering front. This is important to take note especially in the era of online shopping

Gia Marie who’s cooper?

I'm surprised that all those signs were still turned on inside the mall.

And it's a social event as well. People go to the mall just to see and be seen; just to get out of the house and have somewhere waste a few hours.

You're right. Malls started dying way before online shopping became huge. People forget that these big malls were expensive to operate and charged all their tenants a lot of money to operate in them. This, in turn, made shopping at a mall expensive vs. stand-alone stores. People eventually chose with their wallets. Why drive to the mall, deal with crowds and pay higher prices when WalMart or other stand-alone store has the same thing for a lot less money? I loved shopping in the mall in the dead of winter with a few feet of snow on the ground, walking around with a short sleeve shirt on. But those days are over, sadly.

I agree, I think a lot of times they go dead because of the area. There's either an increase of violence and incidents or the area gets bad and more poor. The only mall in my general county that closed years ago was due to that sort of thing, and plus it was far away for the road and hidden. Other malls are still doing really good and got bigger. I think malls that are in rural areas and poor areas are certainly dying.

Elle Taylor Death of the middle class.

Bryce Terry agreed

Between the Costco and Lowe’s it’s certainly much more active than the old mall. My father, who works in the nearby office buildings, said it’s a lot busier in the entire New Town area

Tnb Spotter Also, there is SO much retail space now. So many strip malls nowadays, many near a big box store.

+Tnb Spotter That's true, because the problem with violence at malls occurred way before internet sites such as Amazon. Similar problems occurred at Irondequoit Mall in Rochester, NY and slowly but surely many vacancies occurred through the 1990's. Now it's a vacant eyesore. The problem is that certain malls that are accessible via public transportation bring in the bad element from the inner cities. People become afraid to go to these locations, word gets around and business is lost.

Not to mention, inept management and changing consumer preferences.

So black people basically

I've lived in in Texas, Florida, Alabama, both of the Carolinas, and in Maryland. It's been the same situation in each of those states. Colin Flaherty has a RU-vid channel, he can tell you all about it.

New England Gardening Classic horror movie

I love that movie!

New England Gardening great movie!

+Howard Mayo Let me guess. You're young or a lefty? If the city bureau weenies had any business savvy they would be out making large chunks of change, not pushing paper, or doofy ideas.

+abby stylinson okay your name and profile pic 😍

hooter tooter I'm neither since you asked so politely. I just feel it's a waste for property like that to sit and rot.

+hooter tooter turn it into apartments could make a good penny on it...some of our malls have schools now

+Howard Mayo I started watching videos like this within the last day or so & was thinking things like this - either schools or shelters for homeless people, etc.

Booker DeWitt That’s because Dan adds in the old music, you nitwit. That’s why it doesn’t change with every cut in the video.

@@headphonic8 LOL he thought the muzak was actually playing there. I wish malls would go back to that.

+Andrew Dollen Thanks, Andrew!

Depressing??? Damn snowflakes Ill equipped for life

@@c0m4g1bb Really? Damn conservatives can't understand hyperbole!

+Nuclearxpotato CHOPPING MALL. No zombies. Just security robots that kill people.

This is Dan Bell. What ever happened to that movie? I've heard about it but I've never seen an official media release.

Nuclearxpotato 1986 I think it came out or 1987

Or have a serial killer following someone in a dead mall, and there are 150 empty stores for him to hide in...oooh! That gives me goosebumps just thinking about it!

hell yeah!

same

Which track specifically?

movom s Couldn't say, since im sure our tastes aren't exactly the same. Just search up those terms on youtube, soundcloud and bandcamp and explore!

+Chris V Which tastes? Mine?

+Chris V I am. Can’t use it in my videos. Copyright.

movom s Yes, yours and mine.

Finally someone in these comments says it. Owings Mills Mall wasn’t killed by online shopping or the economy. It was the decision to extend the Baltimore metro into Owings Mills. You can plot that malls decline on a timeline beginning at that moment.

The set of the Starcourt Mall was designed to look almost exactly like this one! They even tried to use it in the 1st season but scrapped it during the beginning production and re introduced their own set for Season 3!

@@andrewmartinson3186 Where'd you hear that? I've never heard that they were gonna have Starcourt in season 1

+William Cale Many years ago I worked at a dead mall at one of the few locations still open. It was us, Dollar Tree, Victoria's Secret, Rex's, and Bath and Body Works. VS and BBW will stay in dead malls until the very bitter end, I've found. JC Penney's and Sears were the remaining anchors (two others had closed and their spaces remained unoccupied by the time I started working there). All of the open non-anchors were in the same wing of the mall and there were probably a good 30-35 vacant storefronts. The movie theater had long since been closed. Everything in the food court had left and the only option if you were hungry was a place that sold pretzels and slushee-type drinks near the center of the mall. As for what it was like, it was pretty depressing, especially since I could remember being a kid and how absolutely full and vibrant that place was. There were three malls in my town and this was the smallest, but it had some great stores. I fortunately didn't have to do a walk of shame down a completely empty wing to get to work, but it's not like our section was full. I would always feel a little bit of nostalgia because there used to be a mom and pop music store in there that sold a ton of stuff you couldn't really get anywhere else in town (imported metal stuff from Europe was what I went there for, but of course that was just a small selection of what they had) but that it had long since shuttered. The real decline started after a terrible storm did significant damage to the place and just absolutely wrecked some of the places inside. The mall's owners talked about all these great "renovations" and "additions" they were going to make, but like so many of these types of malls, they never happened, and people just stopped coming. Even after one of the other three malls in town closed down completely, that still didn't drive any additional traffic to this place. I took the job there knowing that the store was closing once its lease was up (approximately 4 months later). I was up for a promotion and it was essentially a test to see if I could handle running a store. My store was of course never busy; you'd get maybe 20 transactions on a Saturday when other stores in the company that I worked for would have closer to 150. Weekdays were like 7 or 10 transactions. I'd have days where because of returns, I'd wind up not even being able to deposit money in the bank. Evidently it had been like that for close to two years by the time I got there. Eventually my company broke its lease and pulled the plug on the location after I'd been there about 6 weeks. Closing the store was fun but a really frustrating experience. We didn't have a closing sale, so we basically had to package up all of the inventory (and it was a large amount) and ship it to other locations. It took forever. You would not believe the insane amount of paperwork that was just shoved everywhere that all had to be looked at and either sent off to corporate, sent to the new store I would be running, or shredded for security/privacy purposes. We wound up leaving a bunch of fixtures and other things in the location that it just made no sense to try to relocate.

i work at a salon in a dying mall right now. the holidays have brought more people in lately on the weekends, but on the weekdays it is truly dead. took a walk around once and encountered only one other person. i’m still getting paid though, so i’m kind of ambivalent. just enjoying everything.

yeah it was creepy.

It's still funny how it glitches

TheRobloxNoob 21 ikr

+apizzaparty Right! I keep thinking that watching these videos. All that marble mmmm. lol

Yes! I'm going to attempt that.

+Max Moser (aMAXproduction) Can’t get the bank loan.

+This is Dan Bell. Gee, I wonder why.

EL FromNY very true