Cincinnati native/resident here: Arcade Legacy is an absolute treasure. One of the best collections of 80s, 90s, and 00s video games there is - Arcades, consoles, games, everything. Love Arcade Legacy!
Yeah it's kinda got that 1980s/'90s Nickelodeon game show set feel to it. Sort of like what you would have seen in game shows like _Figure It Out_ or _Double Dare_ if you wanna go WAY BACK.
This video was awesome. I love the decor and food court of the mall. I would have loved to see it when it was busy. It is sad but still beautiful. Thank you Wallie
This is just amazing how this mall remains open to this day, kind of reminds me when I filmed Richmond Town Square and how quiet and dead it was. Awesome job on this one and thanks for documenting for us to see.
I live in Cincinnati and was 10 when this place opened. It was amazing! I clearly remember the Bigg's department/grocery store (similar to Meijer), Babages, all of the cool games and rides, the movie theater and they had this neat obstacle course type thing that billiards balls would roll through there where the food court was.
I know a lot of the older folks are fond of the 1970s/80s mall decor, but as a Millennial there's something about the over-the-top 2000s mall aesthetics that just brings me fond memories as a teenager. Forest Fair Village is the perfect 2000s looking mall only Pittsburgh Mills comes close to it!
When we first moved to the Cincinnati area in 1996 this mall was semi-thriving. Although I never got to see it in it's original glory (I heard there was a huge carousel in the middle), there was a Bigg's store (combo grocery & department store) as an anchor and many other retail stores and food court restaurants. but there was always vacant stores dotted around the mall. I remember my husband and I going there on Tuesday nights which was " wing night" at Buffalo Wild Wings on the lower food court level and the line would be OUT THE DOOR with people waiting to get in to be seated or pick up to-go orders. I was born and raised about 30 minutes north of here but during the time this mall was built and opened I wasn't living in Ohio because my husband was in the military. I remember family and friends telling me about the huge Forest Fair Mall (named for the 2 surrounding cities Forest Park & Fairfield) being built that was going to have many high-end retail stores we didn't have in the Cincinnati area - many of these stores are now gone into bankruptcy - Lord & Taylor, Bonwit Teller, Nordstrom and other high-end stores were to come to the mall. From what I understand the mall never lived up to the hype and it never took completely off they way it was anticipated. One of the reasons is this mall that was supposed to bring high end shopping to Cincinnati was built in a majority blue collar area! Even though it's right off the highway, the demographic in the area couldn't and wouldn't shop and those types of stores and the wealthy neighborhoods were too far of a drive for them to come all the way out to this northern suburb. There is a very popular mall - Kenwood Mall - that caters to the wealthier southern and western suburbs. The last time I remember this mall having any type of popularity was in the late 1990's / early 2000's when there was a huge nightclub called Metropolis that had 4 different levels and types of music in each area (Techno, R&B, Country, dance music). I went there with a group of co-workers around 2001 or 2002 and it was always a popular place. If I remember correctly around 2004 or 2005 they turned the mall into an outlet mall with the usual outlet retail stores and I went a few times to the Bath & Body Works outlet but it was always like a ghost town inside the mall and finally around 2008/2009 there was hardly any open stores left. Last I heard Amazon (of course!) was going to use part of it for a distribution center. Thanks WallieB26 for giving me a peek inside this mall that I haven't been in since around 2008 or 2009!
This used to be the place to go to on weekends in the early/mid 90’s if you lived in the area. Time Out and The Super Saver Cinemas 8 were something else. Then you had Bourbon Street and Metropolis etc. I had a lot of good times there. They should have just made this place a huge entertainment complex and it may have had a better chance of surviving.
At the 12:46 mark, to the right looks like that is where Biggs used to be! I was there...I walked those floors when I lived in Cincinnati from 1986 to 1995....I loved that mall...even back then, just walking around wore me out and I was only in my early 20s.....
The higher end stores are in places like Kenwood which is doing well even with this Covid stuff. It seemed like this mall was located in the wrong place
Yeah, this mall's been videoed to death, so much so that I feel like I know every corner of it! (Including the never ending fire alarm in the theater.) That said, your simple drive around truly gave a feel for just how massive it is. I don't think there's another video like it. I just will never understand how they're keeping the lights on and keeping the building clean. Rent from the arcade? Get outta here. It's like the place is holding it's breath, waiting for a crowd of shoppers that will never return.
It's been awhile since I've seen this place, I still remember the vid ya did with Anthony, Liked vid, it's a real shame the way the malls continue to die
Wow... one of these "Forest Fair Is A Dead Mall" videos, except it actually acknowledged Arcade Legacy. I'm impressed by that, because AL is legitimately a major attraction if you're a gamer.
Love seeing videos on this mall, despite there being so many of them by mall creators. It never gets old. I hope I can see this place in the flesh one day.
Hi WallieB I have so much great feedback for this vid I may have to put my ‘novel’ on Facebook but this video was great. Always enjoy your music choices, really enjoyed the commentary and detail in the middle. You kept sending us to other YT channels for more details and that’s very admirable to support your fellow YT channels but wanted to tell you you’re ranked up there too. This was excellent. I’m going over to Patreon to support. I’m a fairly new subscriber here. Probably a year or so, but I’m sold. Your vids are getting better and better and I didn’t realize how much I missed your viewpoint of a dead mall. Again great vid!
Awesome video wallie and Kayla thx again for the time you spend! That beeping has been going off since at least the proper people did there video you think they would silence it 😆
Meanwhile Kenwood Town Center in another part of Cincinnati has everything from basic mall stores all the way up to Louis Vuitton and Tiffany and Co. It almost instantly became feast or famine for indoor malls over the last 10 years or so.
This is just so sad. Alot of malls just dying out. Myself guilty of doing mostly online shopping. I used to come from southeastern Indiana just to go to this mall. Going to all of the popular stores as a late teen. Abercrombie and Fitch, Debs, Bath and Body works. And then spending every single Friday and Saturday night at Borubon street, then turned Metropolis. 2000 to 2022. So much fun and so many memories. Hope someone can do something with this place and bring it back to life.
Cincinnati Mills mall is one of the biggest Mills failures. Great video ranks up there with the best. We still got Grapevine Mills here in Dallas still making it!
Empty malls are great places to ride bikes like BMX. I used to do that on summer break as a kid in the early morning hours of a mall that was not empty or abandoned, after the doors were unlocked for employees to enter but before stores were open or customers were allowed to enter.
Excellent, your the Cecil b. Demille of urban archeology; malls were such a large part of popular culture for half a century; now they are reduced to this. Sad.
I worked maintenance and grounds here from '90 til '94 and it was losing stores from the day I started. It was originally Forrest Fair Mall. I still have one of my uniform shirts with the logo on it. Last time I went in there was a couple years ago. The silence and the shut off escalators were really weird. Building this place between two already established malls, Northgate and Tricounty, was a HUGE factor in it failing. It traded ownership a couple times while I was there.
@@bh2236 I know of a couple other malls in the Dayton area, including Dayton Mall near Centerville (which I haven’t been to but I think is doing fine) and Upper Valley Mall in Springfield which isn’t doing so hot. As for other Cincinnati-area malls, I have visited Liberty Center in Liberty Township and Kenwood Town Center in Kenwood, both of which are also doing well!
I've watched a similar video from The Propee People ....but I felt like their video was short 🙃 I miss watching dead malls In my country, there is a mall that's like this [huge with some stores that have entrances outside] and American backpackers had took videos of going to that mall.
I'll never understand why security Freaks out over photographs. Taking photos doesn't break anything. It makes no sense. Especially in the context of the owner actively not wanting the place closed. What other purpose does it serve than to be a Photography and tourist hunting ground?
That is an attractive mall inside. I wonder if you have offered some well edited clips of this to the mall management as marketing material. It would help pay some of your cost to shoot it.
I explored this Mall I have great photoshots of this mall. From 2019. back in 2019 the security guards was not even there when I did it in the summertime of 2019. That I even went to the security guard hallway in the food court area.
Kohls is still open as of this writing. I talked to the guard a while ago. He said they had 3 years left on their lease. So it doesn't look like they are leaving anytime soon. It would be stupid to pack up and leave after being there 27 years!!!
Went here in 2012 and looks exactly the same as it did back then pretty much. We went and saw a movie for $6. They said back then that the Bass Pro Shop was supposed to move but I can see by this video it is still there🤷🏼♀️ Only things open when I went here were Burlington, babies r us, Payless, Kohls, and Bass Pro Shop
Hey Wallie I’ve been watching your videos for a while now and I love all of them. If you’re ever in western New York, I don’t know if it would be worth it but there is a building here in Lockport, NY that used to have a save a lot and a Salvation Army thrift store that closed but if you’re ever in the area maybe you could check it out
The real reason the mall failed so many time is the Taxes. forrest park's taxes on small businesses are so high its outragous. they even ran off the walmart across the highway.
I've seen at least two people now say Khols will relocate in early 2021 yet I can't seem to find any info on that. Does anyone have like an article or anything that proves it? Also if I can recall one of the main reasons this mall is still open is in the early 2000s somehow they did a thing to not have to pay property taxes for like 30 years.
5:32 Yeah seriously... WTF; and how is this bathroom even open to the general public when you don't even have ANY DOORS on the stalls whenever you are trying to take a shit!
