The Dead Regency Square Mall - I Was Shocked! - So Much Mold and Water Damage 

The day after I graduated high school 1991 almost everyone from my class met up there and we felt like we were on top of the world for that moment.

Hard to believe they are allowed to remain open wit so much mold and damage, just sad

Regency Mall used to be the spot to hangout with friends back in high school when I lived in JAX - mid/late 90's. Movie theatre and the arcade next to the food court were the spots!

3:19 That's the most _1998_ entrance I've ever seen! I love it!

I used to be a food court restaurant manager when this current food court was built in the early 2000’s and my wife was a SA at the Dillard. We would walked up and down this mall daily to see each other. It was over 20 years ago and this video brought back so much memories. Now we are in our mid 40’s and living in another state, our children almost at the same age as we were during those time. Sept 11, 2001, I was at this mall preparing to open for another day, mall management closed us down shortly after the second plane hit the towers. We got sent home before noon. I still remember that like it was yesterday.

In the Early 1980s it was a good place for Shopping and Check out the Movie theaters.... Nice Memories.

I have a lot of memories of this mall and the movie theaters that were there, first the Regency Twin that closed circa 1987, and the AMC that was first inside the mall and eventually moved outside the mall into its current location. Crime and the decline of that portion of the Arlington area of Jacksonville played a huge role in the death of Regency Square Mall, but newer and less crime ridden alternatives like the Avenues Mall and the St. Johns Town Center were factors too. Really sad to see it in its current state.

So sad what has happened to that mall. I was born & raised in Jacksonville, Regency was the place to shop. My husband & I was in there over a year ago, before we moved from Jacksonville. I am surprised the City hasn't condemned it.

I was in marching band in 1991. Our band played in Jacksonville for a college football game. I remember going to the mall and bought jeans at The Gap. I wonder if it was this mall. But that was back when malls were the place to be.

When a mall's roof is in such deplorable condition as this mall it should be condemned and shut down immediately for safety reasons including (at the very least) a widespread mold and mildew infestation, not to mention an always present and distinct possibility of an electrical fire and/or roof collapse. Where is this community's building code enforcement entity and officers? How much are these people being paid off by the mall to look the other way and remain busy doing nothing?

Grew up in Orange Park in the 80s and early 90s. Mostly we'd hang around Orange Park Mall cause it was closer. But there were stores in Regency Mall that weren't they didn't have it was bigger it had more stuff, so you'd go there sometimes. I remember that it was still a nice place in the mid 90s, but by the time I moved away in 99 the area around was already turning ghetto and you were getting crime and gangs there. So by like 97-98 if you couldn't find it in Orange Park and had to go to a bigger mall to find it you went to the Avenue Mall instead.

3:51 I used work at the Secaucus, NJ headquarters of Jimmy Jazz up until the beginning of 2022, was interesting to see one of the stores being featured here for a few seconds

This mall is featured in the 2002 movie " sunshine state ". It was still in good shape back then

I live 1 minute from this mall - so I'm a regular. Now that school is back in session August 2023, the school uniform store has bolted and there are signs stating that at the entrance. For June and July, they are the one store that is actually pretty busy with lines waiting on the couple days before school. Obviously the renters decided to wait for this one last business peak, and then this was it. Can't blame them, even the mall owners want out at this point. They were located where the former Woolworth was until 1997, but they closed off the very back portion, which had one of few store outside access points. Currently, the mall is experiencing a/c issues again. They replaced a big portion of the A/C back in 2019, when the mall had about 20 more stores, but was almost as bad as now, minus the rainbarrel obstacle course just starting. This mall has been losing stores rapidly since the 2008 recession. They never recovered from it. 2009 was the first year that the mall had a ton of empty spaces. Going here over the past 5 years, has been a curiosity as to " is this my final opportunity to visit here ever again?". Now, seems imminent that the end is near. Of course, I said that a year ago lol. People will not shop in a hot mall, especially during our current heatwave There are less than 20 stores left, and most of those are closed a lot, or have very limited hours. I'm being very generous with the 20. The power went out completely for a couple days after a bad rain storm a month ago. No doubt caused by exposed wiring. I'm not sure if they fixed a transformer or whatever, or if the puddle dried up lol. When I moved to Jax over 30 years ago, this was our hangout, it's rough to see it now. They're probably waiting for one last big rainstorm, to send it off to mall heaven.

I love Jacksonville

It’s crazy that the Avenues about twenty minutes away is thriving and this one just died.

Thanks for the tour. Regency Square was a retail sensation back when I was a kid in the 70s, and huge compared to other places at the time. I pestered my poor mother into driving me there from Orange Park (other side of Jax) because I wanted a specific book that was at a bookstore there (probably Waldenbooks). The original mall had a nifty fountain (shown in the last frames of your video) that rained down from above. Anyway, that part of town is pretty horrible even today, though it seems better than maybe 10 years ago. It's quite bizarre that there's anything at all open in it. It verges on post-apocalypctic.

So surprised they hadn’t condemned the whole mall

I lived here on the weekends in the late 90s early 2000 & 2001, so many memories here, so sad to see the state its in

I remember Aladdin’s castle and before they built that cafeteria. They had a staircase. For an upper where everyone could sit to eat

I was at that mall when it opened. Brand new. All I could think of was how much progress Jacksonville was making. I worked there in the nineties. The owners sucked then too.

Oh gosh, this is sad but it's a health and safety hazard. I am afraid it's becomeing another Northridge and and needs to be put out of it's missery.

Very Sad, I used to work at RQ back in the 90s Games and Gadgets and my brother work there as well Peanut shack.

Belk department stores had a New facility built down the street on Atlantic in Kernan in a new shopping plaza development on Atlantic in Kernan Boulevard. And they relocated to their New facility in 2018. Now.. IMPACT Church occupies the former space that they used to be in. I remember because I used to be a frequent Belk customer at their former location back then at Regency Square Mall. And before it was Belk back then. It used to be originally a Gaifers department store.

Unfortunate watching this-RSM was the apex mall at it’s prime, now the bulldozers are circling above as it draws it last few breaths 😢

I had visited this mall way back in the early 2000’s and even back then it wasn’t great. I decided to check it out again last year…and my goodness has it really gone downhill. The place is a ghost town….and a mess. I hate to say it, but it needs to be demolished.

So sad to see malls in such bad shape....

I can only imagine what a failing roof means in Florida >.

Great video good info thanks.

I don't know why malls didn't anticipate roof replacement when they were built and provisions made for having the funds when the replacement came due. It has to be the largest capital expense, by far, yet roofs are allowed to deteriorate to the point that this mall is experiencing. If nothing else, roof replacement could be done in stages to spread the expense. It seems that all the dead mall videos I watch are suffering their fate largely because of badly leaking roofs.

I grew up going there.

This is crazy

Great vid!!!

I should to ride the train as a kid. One of my neighbors at the time was the train conductor.

When the area goes to shit and becomes ghetto all businesses including malls die. This is the case at most malls.

Crime is always a death nail.

It served it's time well in it's heyday but probably needs to be demolished and the property needs to be repurposed for something else.

My fiance and I went there 2 months ago and she was horrified at the conditions and felt it will close and should be closed

Footage of this mall and dialog about it too on my channel.

Talk about a liminal space

I remember going to the regency square mas a teenager in the late 1990s early 2000s. Even then the surrounding area was ALL BLACK So you can only imagine what it must be like now. I used to like the avenues mall which wasn't too far away from this period I wonder what that 1 is like? There was another mall in Jacksonville I think it was the Orange Park mall that had a giant carousel in the food court. Compared to the avenues it was kind of getting ghetto back then as well.

If you want an example of how terrible of a company Namdar Reality is, this would be a great one. It’s because they own this mall sadly.

If I may ask where do you come across all your info just Google?

glad to hear the democrat that stole jeans from belk is no longer with us