tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post6571032954977712581..comments2024-03-26T21:06:08.519-07:00Comments on Sky City: Retail History: Century Plaza Mall: Birmingham, ALJ.T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04208881715255029485noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-51134210802395820212018-02-10T10:28:10.506-08:002018-02-10T10:28:10.506-08:00as of December 2017 Cantury Plaza has been bought ...as of December 2017 Cantury Plaza has been bought with plans for the former Sears to be a metro mini storage facility and the rest of the malls spaces are up for rent with rates as low as $5 per square foot.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09206782077907333759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-73657748598526779742018-01-31T04:19:01.620-08:002018-01-31T04:19:01.620-08:00His name was Mayor George Siebels. The FAA approac...His name was Mayor George Siebels. The FAA approached Mayor Siebels' office and gave the City of Birmingham first refusal for a brand new International Airport Hub to be built in Birmingham.<br />Mayor Siebels office turned the offer down, and the FAA went shopping for Plan B. Plan B became the Hartsfield International Airport. What was Siebels' motivations? It's only speculative but, dating back to the 1940's the Eastlake community was home to upwardly mobile lawyers, doctors, "the yuppies" of the era and what were they doing? They were suing the City of Birmingham Airport Authority, in a constant battle to prevent the AA from condemning property for longer runways and airport property expansion. Around this time period, Birmingham and Atlanta were very similar in population and growth prospects. One city said No Thanks. Another city got to live with 40 years of constant highway constructions and upgrades. People that move to Birmingham from highly congested large cities, large metros areas, they're shocked or pleasantly surprised, that any restaurant suggestion (or a shopping experience) is roughly a 20-25 minute drive. Angry_Niqqleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14073343352535174122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-10036544841349762072017-02-26T18:01:30.485-08:002017-02-26T18:01:30.485-08:00Im reading your post about century plaza on skycit...Im reading your post about century plaza on skycity2.blogspot.com and i was wondering if you would happen to know what the free standing building out in the parking lot wasAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09206782077907333759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-20875377241925631692017-02-26T17:58:54.748-08:002017-02-26T17:58:54.748-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09206782077907333759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-33472332381099430802016-01-07T10:42:50.209-08:002016-01-07T10:42:50.209-08:00"What kind of political climate and idiot dev..."What kind of political climate and idiot developers let this happen?"<br /><br />When these things were being planned and built, the effects of globalization (eg global trade agreements, outsourcing of jobs, subsequent collapse of manufacturing in this country) had not been felt yet. This is not to even mention the digital revolution and growth of online retail. We were a more prosperous nation in 1975 with a larger, more solvent middle class. It's depressing to contemplate. I don't think it makes that much difference who is in office so much as what and how the economy is doing as regards commercial developments like Century Plaza. Think of the millions that would have been sunk into this by a very large group of investors. And it had a good run actually. Not to let the politicians off the hook though. Alabama's abysmal national rankings on all sorts of measures can be attributed in large part to its absolute sh*t leadership. The question of why this state has been cursed in this way is for another discussion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-41900721805518279962015-06-02T07:56:15.164-07:002015-06-02T07:56:15.164-07:00I absolutely despise the lifestyle center in Truss...I absolutely despise the lifestyle center in Trussville that killed this mall. The Pinnacle at Tutwiller Farm is quite possibly the most horribly and uncreatively designed lifestyle center ever built. It is basically a stuccoed up strip mall with mall tenants. the only lifestyle tenants present are Chico's, Jo's A Bank, and Portrait Innovations. Everything else are basic mall chains. It makes me mad that this place is supposed to be a good replacement Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-13890653676448196892014-04-03T18:39:30.727-07:002014-04-03T18:39:30.727-07:00I actually went inside this mall this week. The ol...I actually went inside this mall this week. The old JC Penney space is used a pretty good bit for area plant shows and the Junior League of Birmingham holds their annual rummage/garage sale in the old store space. I walked through one of the entrances to the mall to get inside and that basketball game thing is still set up in the food court. Meredithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07796009395152578440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-27733835140096092882014-04-03T18:38:29.672-07:002014-04-03T18:38:29.672-07:00I actually went inside this mall this week. The ol...I actually went inside this mall this week. The old JC Penney space is used a pretty good bit for area plant shows and the Junior League of Birmingham holds their annual rummage/garage sale in the old store space. I walked through one of the entrances to the mall to get inside and that basketball game thing is still set up in the food court. Meredithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07796009395152578440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-74419860300116242382012-11-17T12:01:12.921-08:002012-11-17T12:01:12.921-08:00Went in there today for an angel tree service proj...Went in there today for an angel tree service project they were holding in the old JCPenny. It was in suprisingly good condition, and the power and water were still working. The main central srea of the mall looked like the stores had just closed for the night. I didn't get to see<br /> as much as I would have liked, but the loading dock and 'Employees Only' parts of JCP were clean and rodent-free. It's still not too late to do something with this mall.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-3874913806209107692009-06-01T13:24:08.471-07:002009-06-01T13:24:08.471-07:00It's finished:LINK TO STORYBirmingham's Ce...It's finished:<br><a href="http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2009/06/birminghams_century_plaza_mall.html" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow">LINK TO STORY</a>Birmingham's Century Plaza Mall shuttered; <br>Sears remains open 2 more weeks for liquidation sale<br>Posted by Dawn Kent -- Birmingham News June 01, 2009 2:56 PM<br><br>Birmingham News file<br>Eastern Birmingham's Century Plaza mall, once a thriving retail hub has closed. <br>Only the Sears store will remain open until June 14. Century Plaza mall, which has <br>served shoppers in eastern Birmingham for nearly 40 years, officially closed Sunday, <br>according to mall owner General Growth Properties. <br><br> <br>While the mall's interior has been shuttered, its last anchor store, Sears, will <br>remain open until June 14 for liquidation purposes. Century Plaza used to be a <br>thriving shopping hub but it lost a number of tenants in recent years and only a <br>handful remained earlier this year. <br><br>General Growth, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April, is <br>assessing its options for the property, said Joe Janosko, senior general manager <br>with the firm.TVCasualtyhttp://tvcasualty.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-31163541157618937552009-04-16T21:46:00.000-07:002009-04-16T21:46:00.000-07:00Your comment about the mall being owned by a stron...Your comment about the mall being owned by a strong company is incorrect. General Growth Properties also known as GGP just filed for Bankruptcy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-44196794887893429942009-03-27T13:15:00.000-07:002009-03-27T13:15:00.000-07:00I wish someone would post some pics of the way Cen...I wish someone would post some pics of the way Century Plaza looked before the makeover. That's the Century Plaza I grew up hanging out in!Capt Quarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16677367433311432856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-79324857294185878902009-03-20T15:23:00.000-07:002009-03-20T15:23:00.000-07:00I stumbled onto this wonderful site by accident (t...I stumbled onto this wonderful site by accident (trying to find Century Plaza in Los Angeles) nice to remember stores and malls of days gone by! You can still the Estee Lauder counter on that one Belk picture, spooky! Sad that the mall's Sears is bailingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-24347863950598482592009-03-19T17:20:00.000-07:002009-03-19T17:20:00.000-07:00The Sears is closing on May 30th, 2009. The mall i...The Sears is closing on May 30th, 2009. The mall is even emptier than it was when you took your pictures. I was talking to some of the mall merchants and they tell me the mall management has said NOTHING about the mall closing. I have NO idea how it will stay alive with no anchors.kagami101http://kagami101.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-37028610952191129262009-03-12T07:39:00.000-07:002009-03-12T07:39:00.000-07:00Strange, but Aldi, the german chain grocery store,...Strange, but Aldi, the german chain grocery store, is BUILDING a new store just to the left of the Century Plaza Sears (on the other side of the Sears Auto Center).<br><br>Did they not realize there is space available?kmdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03035354207502855614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-10595159842802576702009-03-03T09:46:00.000-08:002009-03-03T09:46:00.000-08:00That's a beautiful Sears, with a SouthPark-esq...That's a beautiful Sears, with a SouthPark-esque quality to it. So sad that it, along with Sears at Charlotte's Eastland Mall, are closing leaving 2 malls without their final true anchor stores.cantnothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08882351454839187660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-5019940377977472082008-12-16T10:24:00.000-08:002008-12-16T10:24:00.000-08:00Thought you might be interested to know about the ...Thought you might be interested to know about the site of Century Plaza as a temporary art venue this Dec 20 / 2008- January 3/ 2009 for "Everything Must Go."<br><br>http://www.rachelhiggins.com/projects/mall/everythingmustgo/cpimg.htmlkmdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03035354207502855614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-36133342345408038212008-09-10T05:43:00.000-07:002008-09-10T05:43:00.000-07:00Just FYI on one of your comments about the future ...Just FYI on one of your comments about the future of CP - "Perhaps [...] a plan is in the works for the Rich's to be [...] demolished for a Costco...or not. Time will tell."<br><br>Plans were announced earlier this year for a Costco to be built on Gasden Highway between Roebuck and Trussville. We have friends whose properties have already been contracted to be bought out by the developer, and I believe construction is slated to begin early next year.<br><br>Love the blog - I visited many of these malls in both B'ham and ATL as a child, and it brings back lots of memories.TVCasualtyhttp://tvcasualty.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-91365529408219174422008-07-22T14:21:00.000-07:002008-07-22T14:21:00.000-07:00I went there yesterday! I am from Trussville and I...I went there yesterday! I am from Trussville and I just happened to be in the CP area. I decided to walk in (with a friend) and it was spooky for sure. There is only 1 restaurant open. I saw a bus full of 15 kids who walked in, looked puzzled, and then immediately left. To me, it was obvious that it was a dead mall from the outside.<br><br>The fountains were not on (at least no on the ends). Some store fronts were completely covered with Pepsi signs and a Pepsi machine. Also, there were only about 2 or 3 chain stores. I remember Kay Jewelers, Spencers, Foot Locker, and Champs. There might have been a Radio Shack. <br><br>There might have been 5 shoppers in this entire 750,000 sf mall. The employees (usually 1 per store) just sat there bored out of their minds.<br><br>This mall is dead.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-57081610737963895842008-05-07T10:41:00.000-07:002008-05-07T10:41:00.000-07:00I drove around it the other day just for giggles a...I drove around it the other day just for giggles and it was SPOOKY. I do need to go in and take some pics inside and out before it becomes Alabama's "Dixie Square".kagami101http://openid.aol.com/kagami101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-19832288894194394532008-04-06T18:42:00.000-07:002008-04-06T18:42:00.000-07:00To anonymous, I appreciate your comments but I ask...To anonymous, I appreciate your comments but I ask if you would cool down the rhetoric. This is not a competition to discredit any place, any city or any person. If you were referring to my blog post, I am not from Birmingham and do not know the area that well. Everybody here has a right to their opinion, and the facts are obvious that CP is dying and that the area around it is going down with it. My observation about Birmingham being over-retailed was that a city with only 1/10th of the population of Atlanta had a very large amount of malls as well as department stores with quite a few dying. Riverchase Galleria's sales are probably in part because of the death of so many malls in that area.J.T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04208881715255029485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-84575847804564776832008-03-31T11:54:00.000-07:002008-03-31T11:54:00.000-07:00You people are nuts. You don't have the sligh...You people are nuts. You don't have the slightest clue about the Birmingham area. There are so many erroneous facts and off based assumptions contained here. <br>Try researching history...looking up records and the like and you will see that Birmingham was not an is not over-retailed.<br><br>The mall(s) closing is not a contraction of the Birmingham market but a reorientation. For example, Belk and JCPenney did not actually close out those stores...they simply moved to a new lifestyle center that was constructed in Trussville to the east of CP. In fact, since that JC Penney and Belk have both open (or have under construction) two additional locations in the Birmingham market.<br><br>Another example on Birmingham not being over retailed...The national chains who have stores at the Riverchase Galleria typically report some of the highest (if not the highest) sales in their respective chains. (yes this fact did hold for Rich's, as well; which was wildly successful in Birmingham) The Summit (located 10 miles east) show similar results with many of those stores coming in just behind their Riverchase counterparts. Another interesting fact...the Riverchase Galleria is at the top of enclosed malls in the crucial Sales/per sf category. Higher than any mall in your precious Atlanta.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-5991278504400472022007-12-18T10:20:00.000-08:002007-12-18T10:20:00.000-08:00The suburbia to rural transition is precisely why ...The suburbia to rural transition is precisely why I chose Gwinnett as the comparison point, but you would have to have seen Gwinnett when the boom began in mid to late 70's. Massive development abrutly ending and dirt roads, actually red Georgia clay roads, fields and forests and a Buford that still was bemoaning the loss of Bona Allen Shoe Company, as its largest employer in an other development happy county. I don't Shelby County has a mall yet, signalling the level of growth and development that Gwinnett Place signaled back in 1984.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-24052045985382712992007-12-17T16:37:00.000-08:002007-12-17T16:37:00.000-08:00The Birmingham situation does seem like a loss in ...The Birmingham situation does seem like a loss in the battle of wits between the two cities...now Birmingham is shortchanged water as well so no big growth for them.<br><br>Your assessment of Rich's and Davison's seems pretty on target. No native Atlantan doesn't miss Rich's and Richway that remembers it, but I don't think anybody much cared when Davison's changed to Macy's, though I've at least heard Davison's was a step above Macy's (local management?).<br><br>I totally saw that Century Plaza was exactly Birmingham's Cumberland...similar in many ways and I'm suspecting built by the exact same developer. Cumberland was more spectacular, but I do admit that I was impressed with Century Plaza even seeing it in its fading state. I would have loved to have seen that Rich's when it was open...that was very interesting how it was laid out. It looks like it even had a back entrance into the second level of the mall!<br><br>No joke that B'ham is overmalled. The optomism there in the 80's and 90's must have been unquenchable for them to build the South's largest mall (at the time) as well as a new lifestyle center down the street. I don't know why they had more department stores than Atlanta, but apparently it must have been a tough market. I do know that the Belk-Parisian sales staff are still smarting over the conversion. I think it demoralized them, because rest assured that's the best customer service I've ever gotten in a Belk LOL.<br><br>Shelby County reminded me of a mix of North Fulton and Gwinnett, but sleepier. You could still drive a short ways from suburbia and be on a dirt road in the woods up to an old closed truss over Cahaba River...less likely in Atlanta.J.T.http://www.blogger.com/profile/04208881715255029485noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2047095566316955789.post-25186070811935860852007-12-17T16:11:00.000-08:002007-12-17T16:11:00.000-08:00Birmingham and Atlanta were very close population ...Birmingham and Atlanta were very close population wise at the endo of WWII. The 1950 pop of the ATL was 331k to B'ham's 326k. Jefferson County, Alabama remained more populous than Fulton until the late 80's. But Atlanta did not rely on "smokestack industry", as Atlantic Steel(site of Atlantic Station), but instead diversified-Ford in Hapeville, GM at Doraville and Lakewood, and Lockheed in Marietta. Reconstruction had resulted in Altanta being the Southeastern center for federal government operations and many corporations followed suit placing their SE divisions in Atlanta, taking advantage of Atlanta's transportation hub of railroads and highways and later Hartsfield Airport. The airport is another advantage the ATL had, Hartsfield was further from the city, enabling enlargement, the Birmingham airport's closeness to donwtown has been a limitation to the height of downtown buildings, thus the Atlanta skyline became more prominent. Lastly, Birmingham and Alabama handled the Civil Rights movement horribly during the 60's while Atlanta became "the City too Busy to Hate." Davison's had come under Macy's ownership in the 1920's, which is largely the reason Davison's expanded more beyond Atlanta. Federated didn't acquire Rich's until the mid-70's and Macy's was acquired in the mid-90's, a full decade after Davison's became Macy's. Rich's had launched Richway and was eager to expand beyond Atlanta-Birmingham and Augusta were among the first expansions for Rich's, after a fail entry to Knoxville in the 50's. <br><br>Century Plaza could be described as Birmingham's Cumberland Mall. Unfortunately, too many malls were too close together, too many department stores were chasing the same customers and the population growth stalled during the decline of the steel industry in the 70's.<br>Only now is Birmingham seeing increased growth rates, and suburban sprawl is transforming Shelby County to the south into an Alabama version of Gwinnett.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com