I worked here the summer of 1976 stocking shelves for B. Dalton Bookseller before being hired part-time in the fall at the store. I spent my entire high school years working here through 1979 when the mall was at its peak capacity. K-Mart was the anchor that came in one year before the mall actually opened to other tenants. Working here at Christmas time was so busy: the parking lot was always packed. Thanks for showing it now; that last time l walked through here was in 2007 and it was pretty deserted.
I remember when the mall opened. I was a kid and it was a big deal to have another K-mart in town. I remember Christmas shopping there and my family would always meet at the fountain near K-mart. I seem to remember there being a Hudson's as an anchor store. Near the K-mart there was a Kiosk that sold leather goods. Belts and bags.
I think there is a small subset of us people who can’t help but watch dead mall videos. Maybe it’s just to remember a time back when everything didn’t suck.
I hope Art Dore is successful in bringing this place back. It's a hell of a gamble but if he pulls it off, he may be able to provide a good proven business model to jump start other dead and dying malls. I look forward to following this endeavor.
Sadly Art passed away a few years ago and the mall never came back. It has an Intermediate School District life skills type facility in one section, a welfare office in another part, but no stores. It would be great if an investor came turning it into a Dementia Village type place out of it.
been following you from the beginning bro. You are indeed on your way man. love your video's. And the 80's and 90's nostalgia you bring back with your opening scenes are awesome man!!! keep up the good work love all the work you do. 😊
Seen it in its prime as a kid and agian when the only thing left was mandarin house when I was maintenance and night security there. We had farmers who would rent the Kmart section to store potatos
ReviewsTechNow - Yeah, especially if it's not in a great location, and that's what always kills old malls. If it's too out of the way and there's no incentive to go there it'll die off fast.
I didn't even think about this factor before, interesting. I could imagine some stores might cut their losses at Bay City, in favor of keeping stores at Saginaw and/or Midland. I just wonder if Hampton Towne Centre can benefit from that whatsoever? Since I get the sense that few chains in malls are doing a lot of expansion, nowadays. I imagine the owner will have an easier time convincing mom and pop businesses to open inside here, vs. chains.
This was a cool mall growing up in the 80s and 90s... I remember it well. My then girlfriend/now wife and I ate at Mandarin House all the time in this mall (now they have their own building down the street). I remember Christmas shopping at K-Mart with my mom; running up and down the main corridor of this place- the floor actually slopes up and down a few times as you walk along. It'd be a skateboarders dream. The seating areas are all inset down into the floor by a good 3-4' with plants and fountains. It was damn cool 30 years ago. Heck, I remember going into the Radio Shack in this mall to buy electronic parts and looking at Tandy computers and Realistic audio gear! Nicely done!
I watched this video again because I super love the architecture and interior design of this mall. That would be so cool if this era of design could be restored and mall could be re-opened this way. Just dreaming, I guess. This is one of your best videos, Ace. Thanks.
Art died a few years ago. 😢 He was the very definition of self made millionaire. He didn't go to Harvard or Yale. He was a farm boy that worked hard his whole life and created many business endeavors. He was successful because he worked hard and took chances. It is still sitting half occupied by government offices and half by an Intermediate School district day school.
I first discovered this mall when I was a teenager. Kmart was going out of business at the time, so I went there to find some deals, and discovered this mall that was almost entirely abandoned even then. I even created a webpage sharing pictures and history. The manager of the mall later found the site and threatened to call the cops on me if I didn't take down the page, because I had the audacity to take pictures in "his" mall and call "his" mall "Dead".
Haha, that's interesting the manager got upset at you just for creating a dead mall photo website about this mall. What year was this mall first sealed up, and around what you if you remember, when the Kmart here closed?
Kmart closed in 2002, but the mall hung on until 2010. I actually made a few return trips after Kmart closed. The Chinese restaurant you see near the end of this video was the last remaining inline store.
Ah, that's interesting the Chinese restaurant was the last place to close inside this mall. I wonder if some kind of restaurant might try another go in that space, now that an owner is trying to reopen this mall? One last question, has the ownership changed from the 2000s(where you ran into that manager who was upset at you for posting all those pics), to the current one as of now? I wouldn't be surprised if the ownership has changed today, vs. back then.
I really hope they can breathe life back into this place-it's really nice.Like those malls in Sweden that feature repurposed stuff even would be cool.Keeping my fingers crossed for this one!Thanks Ace!
I worked at one of the major stores there, during the Disco Era. It's when malls were popping up all over N. America and was the cool place to be in Bay City. Good friends and great memories.
The theater was directly behind the mail in another building unless you are confusing it with the newer man that does have a theater. That is the mall that put this one on the decline and now it is barely hanging on itself.
Nice to see they are trying to keep the mall intact. I can't help but think a lot of these nicer malls that failed at retail could come back as business malls / office malls, especially in the cold climates such as Michigan. I've seen it done in Indiana with some small malls before they went into decay.
My allergist had an office in there in the 2000s. It was bizarre even then seeing it half-closed and walking through it. Turning it into an "office park" like you're talking about might be a better use than stores. A few restaurants sprinkled in for those working there to eat at.... There's already the Bay City mall maybe 10-15 minutes from this location so I don't see how this area is going to support two malls. It obviously didn't before and the retail landscape is shrinking not expanding for the most part.
i shopped at this mall for school clothes back in the day! it was such a nice mall. Then came the Bay City mall-everyone went there instead. i hope Mr Dore is successful in opening this lovely mall up again!
I saw a couple of pics of this place, but they were few and far between and were of lower quality (taken in the early 2000s) so it's nice to see that there's more to look at now.
great job Anthony to actually get the owner to open the place up for you and I did the music in this video as well... you need to hit Forest Fair Village Mall because you know that place is going to close anytime soon
PorygonFanatics it's already failing. With the loss of Sears and then 2 months later, Target, it was on its way out at least 2 years ago. Even the new Starbucks and Panda Express decided that building where the old Lone Star was (as stand alone businesses) was a better bet than using retail space inside the mall. Hopefully, the new Petsmart can breathe some much needed new life into it.
PorygonFanatics also, the Midland mall was looking a bit bare as well. They've lost their Sears store, and a few other shops. The only one that doesn't seem affected is the Fashion Square Malm in Saginaw. Sad, really.
People keep blaming Amazon and the internet. Internet shopping is world wide yet no other countries have this issue. People need to just admit these malls are closing because of America's screwed up economy. This isn't life after Amazon. This is life after decades of bad trade deals, bad economic and social policies and bad monetary policies. This phenomenon of stores and malls closing down everywhere isn't happening all over the world. In other countries malls are doing fine. I was watching video from inside a mall in Russia and the mall was packed. Like malls would have been here in the US during the 90's and early 2000's.
+WulfOne It's *mostly* due to over-retailing. America has approximately 7.3 square feet of retail space per person, compared to less than 2 square feet per person everywhere else (England, as I recall, has about 1.3 square feet of retail space per person). No matter what you say about bad trade deals, bad economic and social and monetary policies, the fact is that this was inevitable; it is the retail market shrinking to a more sustainable level. Malls are NOT closing down everywhere; I found a map a few days ago that I'm having trouble finding again, but it shows the vast majority of dead malls are in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, etc. (To some degree, this makes sense; the eastern states have a far higher population than, say, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, so most of the malls will be in the most populated regions. But it isn't in *every* heavily-populated state; the majority of it is focused in just a few states.) Our mall is doing just fine, despite losing Sears. The nearest competing mall is 50 miles south-southeast; then the next big mall is another 120 miles beyond that. So, to prove my point, one of the reasons our mall is still doing well is because you can't just drive 5-10 minutes to another mall, like you can in this video. (Bay City Mall is just on the other side of the river from Hampton Towne, just a few minutes away; and it is/was a far more popular destination, which is part of the reason Hampton Towne is dying.) And just because Amazon and the Internet is not the *only* cause, it's still a factor. There will always be things (like clothing and furniture) where people will prefer to actually see and feel it in person, but it is more convenient to shop from home when you can, and let's face it... some people are LAZY. This means that areas that are over-retailed with multiple shopping malls are going to feel the pinch; all those malls have to compete for the same shrinking number of shoppers.
Sadly Art Dore passed away before his dream came to pass. It is February 2024 and his efforts failed. He was a very hard working man that came from a farm family and never went to any Ivy League school. He was a farm boy, that worked briefly at an auto plant, purchased a used bulldozer with his money and started his life time in business. He is what made America great in the past. I have seen a few people talking about "doing something for low income people" DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF!!! You want things GIVEN TO YOU. He came from a farm facility and became a multimillionaire because HE WORKED HIS BUTT OFF. Work your butt off and learn about something, start a business or heck go take over another persons business! Millions of small businessmen are retiring with no children willing to take over their electric, plumbing, construction, automotive, etc. businesses.
Love it! I worked at the Radio Shack in this mall 22 years ago when I was 18 and it was already declining because of the much newer Bay City Mall on the other side of the river . The DougOut was owned and operated by this cool guy named Doug (of course) and his wife. He had a very heavy New York accent like a character in Goodfellas and we all ate there every day. Thank you for documenting this cool place.
Art died a few years ago. 😢 He was the very definition of self made millionaire. He didn't go to Harvard or Yale. He was a farm boy that worked hard his whole life and created many business endeavors. He was successful because he worked hard and took chances.
Was this the only dead mall you hit on your trip west to here, or did you stop at any others on the way? Great video! I admire the current owner of Hampton Towne Centre, for trying to revive this place. It probably won't be easy, but if others have attempted to mixed results(some which were converted to big box shopping centers, and others with mom and pop shops), this place should try. I do wonder what types of shops, he'll try to encourage to open here. Maybe he should try to encourage artist studios to set up shop here, and also mom and pop shops? I'm sure it won't be easy, particularly getting chains to open here again. Hopefully the fountain can be brought back to life, again. Nice to see it was never removed, even to the end of this mall. I wonder if it wasn't turned on, in the final years of this mall before it was first sealed for some years?
Omgee when i saw the owner in the mall when you were filming, it brought tears to my eyes. I feel so sorry for that guy. I wish this mall could find tenants.
Art died a few years ago. 😢 He was the very definition of self made millionaire. He didn't go to Harvard or Yale. He was a farm boy that worked hard his whole life and created many business endeavors. He was successful because he worked hard and took chances. A story about Art. As a young man he went to the local GM plant for a job. He worked there for not quite 90 days. The other workers got irritated and wanted him to slow down., Being a farm boy he was accustomed to working hard, but they didn't want to have their quotas for production raised so they would hold back. He was fired just before being accepted into the union. He took that money he saved working there and started a small demolition business by purchasing a used piece of construction equipment, a bulldozer I believe. He turned that into a business, started other businesses in town, bought a few bars, and built a few gas stations. He died a multi-millionaire that helped keep this city running. He was a business man that never went to Harvard or some big university. He was an example of what made America great. I don't know his personal life with family but I do know that man was a worker. 😢
Really cool place, I admire the owners ambition and generosity. It's a really big risk for both him and any prospective tenants, but he looks very confident in the place. It is in wonderful condition, you see so many of these places falling apart and just deteriorating because nobody believes in them. I really hope it works out.
What a cool vintage property. I hope the owner can get it going again even if it is not full of retail stores. The property needs to be modernized and cleaned up to have a chance.
Free Rent for the first year ??? 100 spaces?? Why in the hell didn't Sears,Bon-Ton,K-Mart move in ? Dollar General could come in,a few coffee shops,a couple book stores.the possibilities are endless ! But again you'd have to find employees and not many youngsters will work on the Weekend and they goof off too much on their phones.
Your right. They are spoiled lazy leaches. I am tired of it. Art died a few years ago. 😢 He was the very definition of self made millionaire. He didn't go to Harvard or Yale. He was a farm boy that worked hard his whole life and created many business endeavors. He was successful because he worked hard and took chances.
Everyone raves about the aesthetics at these old malls, and they really are something. It's so nostalgic and has so much character. It makes me wonder why they were changed in modern malls. I remember in the early-mid 00's when malls (at least in my area) started changing the store fronts and made them so plain and uniform. My deal breaker was when one local mall changed Hot Topic's complete theme and made it plain white and tan. So much for branding I guess? Great video, what an opportunity you had!
Art died a few years ago. 😢 He was the very definition of self made millionaire. He didn't go to Harvard or Yale. He was a farm boy that worked hard his whole life and created many business endeavors. He was successful because he worked hard and took chances.
It's getting pretty bad. The only remaining anchor is JC Penney, and it's pretty bare. Makes me sad because I grew up there. I'll be suprised if it's still open two years from now. Macy's closed in March 2016, and Sears was gone in March of this year.
The guy has ambition I will give him that. But I do not see it working. A year free rent will get some smaller, local people who want to open a retail shop. But I do not see the national retailers following as so many are dead or closing not opening stores. Now what might work is he needs to get some bar/restaurant type places to go in so people want to stop by. With a good mix of specialty, indie retail shops. But here's the thing, those places will never have the rent money the big boys had. So the mall will always look "old." I cannot think of the example in Rochester, NY at the moment, but it will come to me.
My mom helped open the Kmart (the main anchor store in this mall) and worked there until it closed...needless to say this mall was a part of my life growing up. We would go to the Radio Shack with my dad a lot. It was always a treat to stop by and get a Hot Sam's Pretzel if we went to pick my mom up from work. I took my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) to the Chinese restaurant (Mandarin House) for a couple of dates. Unfortunately, this mall's business was taken away with the building of the Bay City Mall that was just across the river (about 10-15 min away from this mall). Now the Bay City Mall is pretty much dead as well...it only has a few stores and a movie theater left. The sad part of this story is that the mall is still dead. The one year free rent promotion was a huge flop (as many of Mr. Dore's projects usually turn out). The movie theater and bowling alley that share the parking lot with this "mall" are also dead. I had a lot of good times there...this brings back a lot of good memories. Thank You for posting this.
Do you mean river? Or perhaps the Saginaw Bay? Lake Huron is nearby, but it's not exactly along a Bay City shoreline. People who visit this city typically do so to be downtown, along the rivers' edge- which consequently is full of shopping as well as the big events. It isn't a stretch to think that some may want to drive 3 miles down the road to a mall. The thing is, you'll need more people than just "some" to keep it open.
