McKinley Mall - Buffalo, NY | a dead mall doomed by Kohan's noxious empire | ExLog 99 

God, watching this made my heart break. This was my childhood mall. The one I took my friends too. The one my family drove an hour out to, since we lived in the middle of nowhere. It’s where my brother got all of his games growing up. It’s where I discovered Hot Topic and spent many Black Fridays with my Mom. It’s where the family crashed after seeing an afternoon movie, only to hit up the Red Lobster or Olive Garden (before it burnt down) right after. Got my prom dress there, and my dress for college graduation. I remember “The Garden” once being a neon lit food court that wasn’t as spacious. Going through Macy’s with my Mom. Popping into Radio Shack with my brother. The vinegar store right across from Aunt Annie’s. The pet store that used to be next to Sears with the little koi pond. My brother getting a samurai sword from the Karate place. Getting a pedicure with my Mom on Christmas. Trimming my hair right before picture day. The Bubble Tea shop that was there for a short amount of time and that hurricane simulator. It just hurts seeing something that had so many memories decay and burn out. It just really, really hurts.

This mall was literally my childhood. We would go every week almost, from the late nineties when I was a toddler until I was in high school in the early 2010s. So many hours spent just wandering, and sitting in the food court. A lot of my friend's first jobs were there. Seeing it in this state breaks my heart. Thank you so much for this video, excellent work.

I can't wait for the exlog were Sal stands in fron of anther dying mall screaming "KOOOHAAAAAAAAAAAAN"

I grew up in the buffalo southtowns. I have so many memories at this mall...cuz in the early 2000s hanging out at the mall was the cool thing to do. This was definitely a trip down memory lane. Thanks for making this video!

This mall died a long time ago. The initial idea to “revitalize” it meant they gave new “anchors” like Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Barnes and Nobel, Ulta and Old Navy all road facing entrances. This effectively turned it into a strip plaza. It was faster to drive between the front facing stores which all had plenty of parking. The Best Buy and Bed Bath and Beyond sealed about half the entire Sears wing off. This kind of negated the need to walk the mall. It pretty much killed off the interior and Macy’s. This coupled with the expansion of the old Service Merchandise building (the Joann Fabrics etc. across the street) and the McKinley plaza (directly across the street) gave everyone room to move off the mall and have better visibility. The movie theater is not directly accessible from the mall and is behind it. When Musicland went bust and FYE had purchased them earlier in the decade it closed up all the mall record stores (towards the end one was a large Sam Goody) then relocated them all of it to an off parcel FYE Superstore in the now Hobby Lobby (which ran until like 2010) again this made sense, better visibility. Even when Sears was still a draw back around 2010 most of the higher volume businesses had clustered around the primary entrance ways. Mostly everyone else was abandoned when Quaker Crossing up the road by target started to add out parcel plazas. The murder at Sears was likely the final nail for it but it was largely the best in the area.

That Easter Egg with McKinley Mall's letters on it was so pretty.🍭😻

The safety video is like a horror short and hillarious all at the same time! The mall still seems in nice condition. Shame it went to a mall killer.

This concludes Phase IV of the ExLog! Episode 100 and the Richland Mall coming soon! For now...Call 1-800-Dead-Mall-Mike to hire Kohansieh TODAY! He'll destroy any mall you want. But seriously...thanks for watching! Subscribe, or I'll cry.

Nice as usual!! can you make a documentary about the ART, architecture and interiorism on the malls, and graphic design on your dead malls?

The Grim Reaper strikes again, and another mall owned by Kohan bites the proverbial dust. Sal, your videos with its historical background is quite informative and is a textbook example of what a dead mall is and how it happens. TY.

Dude got impaled by a forklift..THROUGH A WALL!!!

I loved this mall! So glad your doing this video , I didn't know much about this group until I recently started watching your videos. Its so sad to see beautiful malls & places gets bought by companies who don't care and in return hurts the local economy.

I feel like my own mall, the one I grew up in, is dying. It's called Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, NY. There honestly isn't much information available about it and it's various attributes (like there is no record of the carousel that the mall installed and took down in the early 2000's), but if you are ever in the area, it might be worth checking out

Nicely done. I lived in a neighborhood that adjoined the McKinley Mall property. As kids we played at the park behind the Mall which was heavily wooded undeveloped property. What a number of property owners in that area banked on in the 1970’s was that New York State would open Casino Gambling where that location in Hamburg, NY would be considered along with Niagara Falls, NY. Of course that never happened. I live in Northern Virginia and what is happening across the country with Malls demise is happening here.

Getting impaled by a forklift fork while sitting in the breakroom through the wall still is my #1 concern while at work. Mind you it is 100% impossible for any of our forklifts to do that and there's a myriad of things that could get me easily killed in a heavy industrial manufacturing plant but this one thing is on my mind every day while on break.

I visited this mall in December 2021, and those planters at 8:45 were in almost exactly that position. Amazing.

Another banger of an episode. Keep up the good work.

I live in Orchard Park, NY and I get my hair cut close to the mall… you should see the mall now.. pretty much everything is gone expect for Best Buy and couple of other shops. ALL of the department stores have closed. It’s very sad.

Malls are obsolete places to shop with highly overpriced stores and no variety of stores. You’ve been in one mall, you’ve been in them all. People want the ability to shop online and not deal with rowdy teens and rude salespeople or lack of products . Malls have done everything to bring about their own demise.

That doesn’t at all look like a “dead mall”. That’s just what an average mall looks like these days. Still rocking a Foot Locker and Best Buy. Even had an open food court. Decent foot traffic as well. Better than any mall in my area

I’m sorry I haven’t been to this channel in a while What a gem

online shopping took away most mall customers. Urban violence will scare off the rest over time. The aesthetics will always be bone chilling nostalgia. Where did the past 30 years go?

OMG! 1-800-DEAD-MALL-MIKE! Hilarious! Thanks so much Sal for all of your efforts and time. Looking forward to 100!

Thanks Sal love your Mall videos and how you really do your Research, these Malls maybe gone and forgotten but are Remembered through your videos ,seeing an Abandoned or failing Mall is.quite Haunting but really interesting at the same time thinking of how busy they used to be,I'm from the UK and would one day Love to visit the USE and visit an Abandoned Mall

A couple suggestions for you: the Exton Mall in Exton, PA. Hadn't been there in years, and now probably 80 percent empty. Also, Dutch Square in Columbia, SC. Went there so often as a child and now in its death throes.

Have you visited the Galleria Mall with its mixed-use expansion yet? Would be curious to see what that is all about 😊👍

Thanks for the new content!

Abandoned or dead mall series. The two malls in Clarksville, Indiana. River Falls Mall and Greentree Mall. River Falls was bought out by Bass Pro Shop and Greentree is struggling. Thank you.

My dad used to sell gift certificates in front of Bon-Ton way back in the day. Lotssss of time spent in this mall with relatives; Sears, JCPenney, Payless, Hallmark, Kay-Bee, etc. Unfortunately, I grew up when this mall was at the end of its run and have since watched it slowly and slowly decay into emptiness. Thanks for such a great video and giving the mall its due!

I'm curious if you have ever thought about coming out here to Oregon. Portland has a few dying malls and one of them, Llyod Center, is scheduled to be closed and torn down. Eugene has a dead mall, Gateway Town Center. There's a few more in other cities.

I love the "safety" video with the paper brick wall.

I always find it Amazing how someone would spend 63 million dollars on a failing Mall it's baffling

Could we turn the old malls into senior living complexes where they don't have to go outside

Another amazing upload! 😁👍 Sorry if I'm rushing you, but can you make the trip to SouthPark mall in Strongsville Ohio sometime soon? (You can take your time, I just want a popular mall youtuber like you to film it.)

Odd that the malls that killed Downtown are dying themselves.

Well done!

I grew up only 5 or so minutes from the Walden Galleria so I never needed to go here. Was last here probably a decade ago and it's depressing to see how far it's fallen since even then just from looking at the directory on their website.

Mike Kohan doesn’t get the money to buy these malls because he’s expecting to save every one of them. He gets it because he’s not. His role is essentially to try to save it if it can be saved, and if the mall is too far gone, to essentially get whatever rent he can out of the mall and then dismantle it for the scrap value.

There was another mall in West Seneca that didn’t last very long either. I can’t remember the name of it but the McKinley mall was famous when I was in high school or I should say college and it was in West Seneca.

Sal, when the pandemic finally subsides to truly controllable levels in both the U.S. and Canada, I'm hoping you can profile a mall here in Canada....and no, you have no Kohan's or Moonbeam's to worry about here. They're not allowed to do business here. X-)

I remember a ton of Sabres players back in the day going there for meet and greets. Another reason why the Galleria has always done better? Canadians. The strategic location by the thruways meant you could spend the day there and go back with ease due to how close the mall is to the border.

this was my childhood mall, one of the places that living in the southern tier we would go every weekend. I can still remember all the stores that used to be in there when I was a kid. I guess it died a long time ago and it's kept a live by machines body is still there

Please come to Wichita, ks & do a video on the towne west mall. He’s doing the same thing here. The mall just went 5 days without electricity, leaving its (very few) tenants, screwed with no answers from Kohan. It’s kinda become a joke in the city about the mall not even having electricity but it’s seriously sad. 15 years ago this mall was absolutely packed with not a single empty storefront. Now there’s maybe 12 stores with only a JCPenney anchor.

I loved episode 98!!!!

The Sears attack wasn't significant in the demise of the mall. Most ppl forgot about it within a couple months. I took many photos in the mall a little less than a year ago, until security came and made me stop. I think you can count the number of open stores on 1 hand now.

Nobody else noticed him the way he was pronouncing the dates at first? LOL! Adorable! Anyway, another good vid.

I was just here tonight because I used to work here for a couple of years so I stopped in while at Best Buy and damn, what the hell happened? All of the good stores are up the road at a huge strip plaza with the Regal, Kohl's, Target, Dick's, amongst others. This mall used to be packed, it really is a shame.

You need to go to the Ridgmar mall in Fort Worth, Texas! I went a couple years ago and it was empty! Only a couple stores left 😭 I heard it was closing soon but going in there feels nostalgic and gives an eerie feeling.

Those safety videos never get old. These days they tend to use real cctv footage of fatal accidents, which has a more profound impact.

I love the little Dead Mall Mike ad, with the courage + Don Vito sample. Speaking of dead Kohan malls, I’d love to see you check out my hometown mall, in Jasper AL. There’s a documentary about it that I’m sure you’ve heard of but it seems to have been a bit kind as to it’s condition. We have a new anchor, though, Durham Sports? Never heard of them. Anyway, loved the vid as always.

Thanks to this I have made it a point to ALWAYS sit in the middle of the room, far away from those flimsy, untrustworthy walls. You never know when a roving pack of forklifts will sneak up and get you!

Awesome documentation and sound mixing!

I remember in 84 when they were still building the mall the mall was up but the parking lot wasn’t done and I’m riding in the car with my parents and it was all gravel and it wasn’t graded and we’re going up and down up and down like we’re going off Roading Later on I got a job as electrician and I did a lot of work on that mall

I remember Ace doing a livestream when that Sears stabbing happened

Ford City Mall needs to be included!

Sal you really have a beef with this Mike Cohan fellow. 😝

"So instead of slipping, most people, are actually tripping." Amen! That's still true, sadly. Don't be trippin.

Wanna come back to our dumb little city sometime? Boulevard Mall just went dead and the Galleria probably won’t be far behind.

Very strange. I also missed 98, and added it to my watch later list. (I clear it every few days, so I'll be watching it soon enough)

This mall had like 6 million stores in it.

McKinley Mall was my teen hangout

4 months since you've posted. We have one open vendor in the food court who's about to expand. Another one coming. Lots of talk of a deal with Costco, not sure where that's actually gonna go but it's possible I suppose. I still think it's doomed though.

I liked playing the safety video at quarter speed

its actually in orcherd park not far from me at all about a 15 minute drive thank you sal for doing this one was 1 of my favorite malls growing up

It's clear to me these communities want rather need their local malls to come back.. Rather than doing everything from your home

I'm from this UK and not familiar with what an Ankered tenant is from what I gather its a Major Company like JC Penny or Maceys am I right ?

It has a surprisingly nice arcade still at least

I think Kohan is all the way out in Arizona now because one of Retail Archaeology's videos has a mall that got bought by Kohan, or is about to bought by Kohan. I would follow Kohan's money to see where it a comes from and goes to. I think there might be some federal law breaking (taxes and general laws) there.

Kohan reminds me of federated. See Khon just waits for mall to be cheap to then kill them off until property value rise and he makes a profit, in the same way as federated Wich acquired so many brands over the years ending for one reason : because MACYS

The mall was baught a few years ago for 8.5 millions and phony promise made ...a gentleman was finishing up a skate park inside large section and was shocked .....local news reporter broke story mall was placed up for auction rotten owners never told anyone lots of local vendors are now worried after investing in there store fronts

The Mall was almost sold to Benderson a few months ago. Also what is the song at 22:09?

Great video! I’m a frequent visitor of western ny… haven’t been back since COVID …. Sad to see Buffalo struggling. 🇨🇦

I've seen a parody of one of those safety PSAs.

Yes this mall is going down and fast .......I live in that area it's sad this mall was such a big deal in 1985/1986....As he is showing this most of these stores are no longer there and food court not there ....and yes a killing in Sear store the outside of the mall is not taken care of the outside look like crap

what technique do you use to film from the part of your body that you do, while staying unnoticed?

Word on the street is they're demolishing it within two years. Think the Galleria is next.

Are you the one playing the music in the dead malls? Or do you add that in?

I did a magic show infront of Sears years ago!

That crazy mall jus dead 💀 like crazy all dis money save it save the mall a lot people jus here what next smh 🤦🏽‍♂️

You know, it's not just there.

People must be laundering money with these mall purchases, then getting tax writeoffs for the value loss.

If Berkshire Hathaway owns the mall, it will put a lot of money into the mall, The company will change the course of the mall around. Kohan is a like a stock raider of the 1980's. he does not care about the fate of the McKinley Mall. Oddly one factor which help any mall is its location. In Northern Kentucky, its regional mall the Florence Mall is surviving due to its location. The mall is located in Florence Kentucky. Strangely the nearest surviving mall Is the Eastgate Mall.

I miss RadioShack 😥

dude I went to mckinley in 2008 and it looked so different

Closing the border sure must have helped

They buy these malls and close them for a reason. Tax right off are one big reason. These guys are business men and the know how to make a buck Im sure that theres so much more than meets the eye on closing these malls. Its all about money!.

What happened? Too many malls and plazas with in 20 mins. sad mall now

What do you expect? The US mall is dying, nothing will change that. The only value is the land. $8.5m is the market price. I am surprised anyone would even fork that.

I went to Niagara Falls and was surprised at all the stores and businesses dead around the falls on the us side while the Canada side was propsperois and very busy. I ask a guy why and he said democrats ruined Buffalo. And it sure looked like it!!

🖤

10:44 wtf?? who let fedora trenchcoat out of the basement?

i dont think online shopping is the primary reason malls are dying its mainly bad owners buying malls doing nothing to them letting business go vacant and not seeking new tenants and selling off its real estate for profit that doesnt just go for this mall it goes for many other malls that have died or are dying

Y'all done the Rainbow mall or Summit Park mall yet? Tried looking through your uploads but RU-vid being stupid

It's that aces adventure with you?

I thought exlog 98 was badass. I even watched another video from the same place by another creator. McKinnley Mall is pretty much lost now. Enjoy the mall as much as you can because the time is limited.

Just trippin on the job site…

Man did they ever find the guy who stabbed that woman

if the dude is paying his loans back,telling a bank to Not give him another loan is silly. sorry Sal but malls are dying for a reason,...nobody is going to come along and Save a mall like this. Have you toured the liberty mall in danvers,ma?.....that mall was dying Before covid hit. i dont think those mall days will ever come back,and that is sad....the mall was everything in the 80s..i actually miss those days.

The Kohan commercial had me dying…I realize it’s based on rather tragic and seedy circumstances, but damn if you didn’t succeed in making them sound hilarious at least. I’ve honestly never heard of this ‘Kohan’ person before, but he does sound like a real douche nozzle. I find it suspicious in of itself there were company’s willing to pay MORE but got rejected, that makes no sense unless the people selling the property wanted the mall to fail too…only they didn’t want to be at the wheel when it did I guess, very suspicious.

Outstanding as always, Liked, Staysafe Pal P..S could ya check out our mall playlist and let me know your thoughts please? THANKS, Take care