Riverbend Mall: Rome, GA

Arial view of the mall in its final days.

It was Northwest Georgia's first shopping mall, and now it is merely a memory. Faced with nothing more than limestone brick and a simple, yet classy 70's modernist exterior, Riverbend Mall opened to the public on September 18, 1975. Original anchor tenants included Belk Rhodes, Miller's of Knoxville, Lay's Variety Store of Cleveland, TN and Morrison's Cafeteria. Most of the stores in the mall, however, were local merchants, most of whom had also previously operated downtown, and it took over a year to completely fill the mall. Morrison's Cafeteria, one of the first, opened at the mall almost a month after the mall did. Costing $10 million in 1975 dollars, the mall was one story, rather small at 330,000 square feet and was typical of the era with a very dark interior including dark brown floor tiles, a dark brown lattice ceiling and the only light in the mall coming from the shops. It was also a basic I-shaped design.


Riverbend was unique in that it was built by a small, local developer in lieu of a large conglomerate. The local Ledbetter family built the mall, and it was designed by architectural firm Stevens & Wilkinson. Stevens & Wilkinson are best known in Georgia for designing all of the Rich's and Richway stores. The mall was built across the street from East Rome High School in what was at the time a largely undeveloped area near the end of a short freeway that formed part of the Rome Connector (U.S. 27 and S.R. 53).

A collection of logos from the original mall. Two Miller's logos are shown here. The second is from after the Allied acquisition. The Lay's logo is original from 1975.

Riverbend Mall was in a strange geographic location, yet very highly visible, where it rested in the 100 year floodplain of the Etowah River wedged on a rather narrow strip of land between Turner McCall Blvd. (U.S. 27) and the river, divided from the river by Riverbend Drive. The original developer owned most of the land around the mall, and the mall was located at the end of a major expressway with high visibility. However, most of the retail development was actually closer to the Garden Lakes area northwest of the city due to the more abundant buildable land outside of the natural floodplain.

This photo of Belk Rhodes from the Rome News-Tribune was one of several taken for the mall's 10th anniversary on September 17, 1985.

Another shot of the exterior taken for the mall's 10th anniversary on September 17, 1985.

Rome was neither an extremely large nor extremely fast growing city. The location was just right, and not surprisingly, the mall was a raging success. Unfortunately, however, it resulted in the continued decline of downtown Rome. While that was not the intention of the Ledbetter's, the mall was built very close to downtown in a time when downtown was not exactly in vogue. Belk Rhodes, which had operated downtown since 1936, moved to the mall when it opened and closed the downtown store in early 1976. Like most Belk stores of the era, local residents Thelma and Cecil Rhodes ran the stores selling Belk merchandise with the Belk family sharing expenses, so the decision to move was that of the Rhodes family and not of the Belk company at that point. Sears oddly did not anchor the mall, however, but was located on the opposite end of Riverbend Drive as an existing free-standing store. That Sears building still exists today, but the Sears moved from there in 1991 to Mount Berry Square.

Interior shot of the mall taken for the only renovation. Photo by Angela Turner for the Rome News-Tribune from March 20, 1989.

In the first 15 years, the mall saw a few changes. A movie theater was added to the mall next to Miller's in 1979. Of course, 1979 was also the year of the first of two major floods in Rome that affected the mall. According to a Rome News-Tribune article from September 17, 1985, the flood of 1979 put three feet of water in the mall for six hours. Nevertheless, the flood did not affect the mall businesswise at that point in a city accustomed to flooding problems. The mall just got cleaned up and everything got back to business.

Belk ad from the mall's 10th anniversary. Note the mall logo and no mention of "Belk Rhodes". Only the 1975 ads showed the full name.

The next event to happen at the mall came in late 1985 when junior mall anchor Lay's Variety Store liquidated along with its 20 other locations. JCPenney later filled the location in April 1987, moving from its location downtown. Also in 1987, Miller's parent company Allied Stores, was bought out by Hess's of Allentown, PA. This move resulted in the rebranding of the store as Hess's. In early 1989, the mall underwent an extensive interior renovation. New skylights were added to brighten up the previously cavernous mall, floor tiles were replaced, two hand-made Italian fountains were installed and a new food court was added known as "Food Fair", connecting where a previous rear entrance had existed. The new food court was elevated higher than the rest of the mall out of the flood plain, likely to keep at least some of the mall from re-living the 1979 flood event. It also brought Rome its first Chick-Fil-A. This food court expanded the mall by another 19,000 square feet.

Arial view of the mall with the new food court along with a couple shots of the newly completed Food Fair. Photo by Angela Turner for the Rome News-Tribune from March 20, 1989.

Unfortunately, the rest of the mall was not prepared for the next event and it came only a year later. In early 1990, North Georgia was dealing with its worst flooding in years. In both January and March of that year, the mall was severely flooded damaging stores and damaging the reputation of the mall as well. The Ledbetters took a gamble building the mall in a major flood plain. Unfortunately, they did this because the town itself was always flood prone and had no real ordinances about this. If the mall had somehow been built elevated or the ground under it elevated over the flood plain, perhaps it would still be here today. While the mall mopped up and replaced carpets for continued operation into 1991, the flooding pretty much dashed long-term hopes for the future. A new mall was opening north of the city near Berry College. It would be larger, newer, on high ground and was being developed by the then new owners of Hess's department store, Crown America.

View of mall prior to the first renovation. Notice the Belk Rhodes sign in the background. These photos were from the Rome News-Tribune for the September 18, 1985 10th anniversary.

When Mount Berry Square opened in 1991 and was hardly a replacement for Riverbend. Isolated far from all other development, it seemed that Riverbend could have survived. The problem was, the anchors did not see the merit in remaining in an a small, aging mall where they might be flooded again. Belk Rhodes had promised in 1990 to keep two locations, but this was only a half-kept promise. JCPenney did not hesitate to leave the mall, but Hess's was in a lease at the mall into the late 1990's, so it stayed along with Belk Rhodes.

Grainy photo of the original construction of the mall from 1975 (Rome News-Tribune).

1993 was the beginning of the end for Riverbend. The new mall was having a very real effect on Riverbend by this time. Belk Rhodes hung on a couple years before replacing the Riverbend store with an outlet in late 1993. Also, early in the year Hess's was sold off in pieces with the northern division going to Bon-Ton and the southern stores mostly to Proffitt's...except one. Yes, a Bon-Ton found its way into the old Hess's at the mall. This was the ONLY Bon-Ton store in the entire chain to be located in Georgia, and it was indeed looked like an afterthought from the day it opened. Indeed, the store opening there was due to Proffitt's lack of interest in the location, but most likely due to the lease requirements.

Over the next several years the once successful mall began to empty out. Unfortunately, the only real reason that Belk Rhodes and Hess's/Bon-Ton were even there was that they were bound to their leases. While the renovation helped to keep a two-mall scenario in a town with less than 150,000, the mall itself was in the midst of a mass exodus that left only a couple store in operation after 2000. In 1995, the Belk Rhodes outlet closed at the mall when their lease expired. In 1998, Bon-Ton also left the mall once their lease also expired. The store was a financial strain on the company with a location extremely far from its home base.

In 1998, the owners considered options of what to do with the empty mall. A medical mall idea was proposed, and Coosa Medical Group then opened in half of the old Belk Rhodes. Morrison's Cafeteria was one of the last tenants there, and left the mall that year for a free-standing location. CVS pharmacy, located in the former Revco, also hung on to the end. CVS had an outside entrance in front of the mall, so they were not dependent on a mall with no traffic for business. The former JCPenney also saw continued life as Heilig-Meyers furniture, which eventually failed with the entire chain by 2000. Ford's Furniture replaced Bon-Ton, and it remained at the mall until it was closed for demolition. By 2002, the 27 year old mall was sent to the retail graveyard.

Demolition began in 2002 of the mall, by then a sad sight. The mall without any real anchors or interest looked bland and forelorn. In its place is a bustling strip center that oddly carries much of the same tenants that could have been modern tenants in the mall. Oddly enough, though, the ghost of Riverbend lives on as Coosa Medical Group refused to give up their offices in the back half of the Belk Rhodes. As a result, that one part of the mall was allowed to remain. It is all particularly strange to me, because this is the exact way we entered the mall years ago. It is also strange to see a strip mall there today that draws crowds like Riverbend once did...and built by none other than the original developers of Riverbend Mall.

Photo from late 2002 of front view of Belk Rhodes at Riverbend Mall during demolition. A Kroger now stands at this site above the flood plain.

Today, Riverbend's replacement is as successful as the mall the day it opened in 1975. Likewise, the city itself that Riverbend replaced has revived. Meanwhile, the mall that replaced it, Mount Berry Square, is struggling. Today, simply "Riverbend" features a Kroger, Barnes and Noble, Ross Dress for Less, Pier 1 Imports and mall tenants such as Hibbett's Sports and others. The "brown mall" lives on: just not as a mall.

Note: Rome News-Tribune archives were used for much of the information and all but one of the photos provided here.

Note: original post dated February 21, 2007.

Westgate Shopping Center: Macon, GA

KA Turner alerted me and sent me all the information for this post, so everything here is quoting or rephrasing what he already sent me. After an almost three year delay, I am finally doing a post on this place, which was a very significant yet overlooked piece of Georgia retail history. The information below was submitted to me by him on September 27, 2006, and I have rewritten and paraphrased much of the information for clarity purposes. The last paragraph is my addendum to what he said.

This photo is from the 1971 Southwest High School annual (KA Turner: image).

Westgate Shopping Center (aka Westgate Mall) was the first fully enclosed shopping mall in Georgia. It opened in 1961, which was a year after Eastwood opened in Birmingham. Like Eastwood, Westgate had no department store anchors, though the mall was prominently anchored by JJ Newberry's (much like Eastwood). Like most of the earliest malls, they did not affect downtown shopping since they had few anchors and a smaller selection of choices. They were essentially strip malls turned facing each other with a central corridor. Downtown actually continued to thrive throughout the 1960's until Macon Mall came later on.

This photo is from the 1971 Southwest High School annual (KA Turner: image).

Like Eastwood Mall, Westgate was anchored by two grocery stores in addition to Newberry's. In the early 70's Piggly Wiggly, Newberry's, and Colonial Stores were the anchors. Woolworth's and Gilberg's cloth store, both replaced by Cloth World, took up the Colonial court. Fickling and Walker operated for years in the center. Also, a locksmith was located next to Newberry's in a large kiosk. Next to this were, not in order, a clothing store, Sherwin-Williams, and a sweet store. Westgate Triple Cinemas set up shop in an outparcel. Finally, Eckerd Drugs and a few other stores, including Household Finance and a Coin and Trick Shop, sat in the north court by Piggly Wiggly.

Back when EVERY mall had a cafeteria, apparently Westgate's was G&M. They were supposedly in Atlanta, too. I have never heard of them, assuming S&S must have bought them out (KA Turner: image).

Macon Mall killed Westgate Mall in 1975, which caused it to become a ghetto mall. This likely would not have happened if the mall had been able to attract any downtown department stores beforehand. According to the Macon Telegraph, the mall was completely empty by 1978. When this happened, an attempt was first made to make it an outlet mall. Later, Wal-Mart was tacked onto the side in 1988 and a pedestrian hall made onto the side of the old Colonial store. Scotty's Home Improvement Center, a now-defunct Florida staple, replaced the Piggly Wiggly on the north side. Burlington Coat Factory replaced Key Wholesale Distributors where Newberry's originally stood. All of these efforts proved futile to save a mall with no real department store anchors just down the street from huge Macon Mall. In 1994, the wrecking ball hit all but Wal-Mart and Home Depot with work completed the following year. Later, the theater was dozed.

The strip mall that replaced Westgate Mall included, in addition to Burlington and Wal-Mart, Media Play, Petsmart, Stacy's and Home Depot, which apparently replaced Scotty's. Today, Westgate Mall is dying again. The strip mall that replaced it is now emptied out as the area around it declines and retail chains that came into the redeveloped center failed from bankruptcy. Now, the strip mall that was built to replace it is facing difficulties of its own. Unfortunately, it looks like that after three tries that nothing could really save the ailing fortunes of Westgate, which today has nothing left other than last chance merchant Burlington Coat Factory. This time, though, local leaders are left in a dilemma on a mall that has died three times, but the fortunes once again look bleak for Westgate. As one of the first to be built and one of the first to die in the state, the mall had a short life and rocky history.

LaGrange Mall/West Georgia Commons Mall: LaGrange, GA

The fact that LaGrange even has a mall is fascinating in its own right. If not for a local college out of downtown, the LaGrange Mall would likely have never been constructed. The thing is, LaGrange is like many towns south of Atlanta in that it at the time it was built, it was quite far from other regional shopping centers. Because of that, it has a decent market to draw from ranging multiple counties in Georgia and Alabama. It is a small mall, and this smallness likely was reflected in the fact that LaGrange could never sustain a large shopping center like those in Atlanta or Columbus. Shannon Mall to the north, while small by Atlanta standards, dwarfs this mall. Peachtree Mall in Columbus is a monolith in comparison. Somehow, though, this mall remains modestly successful and was quite busy when I visited on a weekday!

Looking from the main entrance to center court. Sock Shoppe in the background was formerly Goody's. Note the standalone Chick-Fil-A

Built in 1979, the mall was situated to take advantage of recently completed I-85. I-85 was completed in the area in 1976. It is located on SR 109 east of the city, which has an interchange with I-85 and leads directly to downtown. Other retail is found on this road, but it is actually not the dominant retail center of the city. Most of the shopping is actually north of town on US 27, including Wal-Mart. Still, the mall is in a good position if the town ever grows larger.

The first photo is looking back at the main entrance from the first photo. The second takes another look back at center court from a different angle. The last is a view of the mall corridor approaching JCPenney.

The original tenants of LaGrange Mall were Belk, JCPenney and Columbus-based Kirven's. Belk is almost in common as Wal-Mart in rural Georgia, which has actually hurt their reputation in their attempt to expand into Atlanta proper. To my knowledge, this was never a hyphenated Belk, but a company store. It would have been a Belk Gallant, but the Gallant name disappeared by the end of the 1960's and all remaining Belk Gallant stores converted to company stores. The mall also had a Goody's prior to bankruptcy in 2009, which opened originally as Kirven's. However, the mall has quickly filled the former Goody's/Kirven's with a local store known as the "Sock Shoppe", a local clothing store that has apparently been in existance since 1934. It is nice to see that a local tenant happens to be one with a history instead of an upstart, and I wish the best of luck to Sock Shoppe.

Three angles of the Penney's mall entrance. The mirrors on top make the mall appear to go on further than it does. Note the 70's fake wood style on the second shot. The style there is identical to that used at the closed Century Plaza store. Third photo is full court. The last photo is looking back towards the main mall from the Penney's entrance.

The mall itself is actually one of the most drab malls I've been to. There is not too much appealing about it aside from the distinct period mall entrances to the anchors. What might have been appealing such as planters, sunken seating areas or fountains were removed and replaced with a flat surface covered in bluish carpet squares that looked rather loud and ugly with the pale yellow trim. The rest of the mall looks to have original flooring, but some modest renovations between the store entrances and ceiling, all completed in 2001. I am betting they were attempting to work with that flooring. The ceiling has mostly the drab tiles so popular in the era, but has some more distinct period lattice work and skylights. These are found in center court and in front of the two main department stores. Also, none of the mall is over one level: typical for mid-1970's small town malls. For those looking for cutting edge architecture and multiple levels and corridors to explore, keep driving to Atlanta. In all, I would have enjoyed the center more if they had retained all of its 1970's appearance.

Approaching Belk from the east mall then right in front of Belk. The shiny coppertone entrances were a very interesting style used in stores of this era. Note the similarities to Belk entrance at Georgia Square.

The first photo is leaving Belk court. The last is looking down the east mall, which is the remainder of the mall photographed back to center court.

Outside, the mall is not terribly inviting but not terribly ugly either. The mall entrance was, of course, upgraded recently but otherwise its your standard 70's fare. A vast parking lot sits in front of the mall with some parking in the back. There are no mall entrances in the rear, but there are entrances to Sock Shoppe and JCPenney. The Belk entrance is apparently sealed off in the back, but there is a peculiar employee entrance off to the left of it. In all, this makes it a mostly forward-facing mall.

Now, looking at the outside we see the main entrance to the mall, sign on SR 109 and overview shot of the mall (except Penney's).

LaGrange Mall's fortunes, however, might change for the dramatically better when the Kia plant is completed south of the city. This plant is expected to bring thousands of jobs and significant growth to the city. This will likely dramatically increase traffic at the mall. If the plant brings the promised growth, then quite possibly the mall would also expand or redevelop. There will very likely be new competition that could derail this, though. Much like Cookeville Mall in a previous post, a large power center would be enough to empty out and create cause to demall this mall. While adjacent city competition (such as Newnan) is not likely for a mall this size this far from the nearest mid-sized city, it will be very interesting to see if the future of this mall actually remains as an enclosed shopping center.

Outside entrances to Penney's and former Goody's, now Sock Shoppe. The Penney's entrance is on the north side of the mall. Note its very stark modernist design.

Belk east entrance and detail of the replica south entrance. This Belk entrance is definitely in the post-arch era.

Overall, these mini-malls are still found in a few of the more remote parts of the state, and LaGrange Mall has bragging rights in that it has retained both of its original anchors and appears to have been quite successful for around 30 years. However, it is a bit of a disappointment in comparison with the absolutely beautiful downtown it replaced, and it is showing its age. Regardless, while this is not the best or nicest small mall I've seen, I still want to recognize and admire its continued success for its size and market and hope it is still here 10 years from now.

From 2008: Story of Belk's Growth

An article I found from 2008 describes much of the Belk story today. Detailed are the acquisitions of Proffitt's, much beloved in East Tennessee and Parisian, Birmingham's own version of Nordstrom. There is no doubt about it that Atlanta got "Belked" since Rich's fell by the wayside 4 1/2 years ago. Amazingly, it is actually the largest market for the company considering that it is headquartered in Charlotte. Nevertheless, it is not the first time Belk has come to the market, nor is it the first time they've felt the nasty bite of the fickle Atlanta market. It's poorly planned North Point Mall store closing is sure proof that they still do not understand the market well enough, and they paid the price for not giving the store a more upscale offering. Perhaps if they had kept the more attractive and smaller Parisian they would have done much better, but that's hardly a criticism of the whole company, which is the last and most successful privately-owned department store in the history of the nation.

Photo from Atlanta Time Machine of the Belk Gallant store in Buckhead in 1954. It took over 30-40 years for Belk to return to Buckhead, and today it is the Georgia flagship located in Phipps Plaza.

When Belk was last in Atlanta, Belk was under a partnership known as Belk Gallant. Located across the city and extending as far south as LaGrange and as far north as Dalton, it was the dominant Belk merchant in the city up until the 1970's. The backlash back then against what was viewed then as shoddy merchandise led to the complete pulling out of the core Atlanta market, dissolution of the Belk Gallant company and the changeover of remaining stores to Belk corporate: perhaps the only corporate Belk stores prior to 1998. However, most of the outlying Belk stores remained. References can still be found in web archives of much legal trouble that Belk Gallant faced years ago.

Belk Rhodes logo taken from a 1975 ad in the Rome News-Tribune.

Outside of Atlanta, other families dominated the Belk market. In most of South Georgia, Belk Matthews dominated. In Americus, it was Belk Hagin. In Savannah, it was Belk Beery. In Rome, Cedartown and Carrollton it was Belk Rhodes. All but Belk Matthews disappeared after 1998. Belk Matthews was still very much in existance as late as 2005, and is rumored to remain today at the Houston County Galleria. Belk Rhodes, however is long gone.

Today, much larger and streamlined Belk is pretty much dominating department store retailing in Georgia and seems to be poised as being the dark horse that is slowly dominating the department store industry in the South. Macy's is groaning under the weight of trying to be the Wal-Mart of department stores with locations equivalent to Kmart by modern retail standards. Dillard's is ailing in its own attempts to be like Belk, but target a more upscale demographic. This leaves America's very last family-owned department store in a very good position if the economic situation does not wreck them all. If alive today, Mr. Rich would indeed be envious.

Shannon Mall/Union Station: Union City, GA

If any mall could ever completely defy expectations, it's Shannon Mall, today known as Union Station. Shannon Mall is a mall that throughout its existence always seem to have the odds against it, and never was a strong performer compared to the other malls across Atlanta. Rumors of eminent demise have swirled around since the beginning of the decade, but the fact is that the mall is about to make it 30 years intact and in business. However, that success remaining will likely mean tough choices.

Center court with a small fountain.

My earliest memories of Shannon Mall are of a mall that I saw often, but never visited. Its original name most likely referred to the original developer's daughter. There is nothing named Shannon anywhere near the mall. In the 80's, me and my family would be driving south on I-85 from the northside of Atlanta down to Callaway Gardens. On our way down there, the options for dining were severely limited past the Jonesboro Road exit, so we would make our way down Jonesboro Road to eat, usually at Del Taco.

Main mall entrance facing I-85. The sign was changed to "Union Station" in 2007. The two-way mirror glass area on the left covers the food court.

This mall I kept passing intrigued me, but I never saw it in that time. Shannon Mall during those years was in a strange position: flanked by then-declining suburbs on the north and east and overall wilderness dotted with farms to the south and west. At the time, it was pure optimism of guaranteed growth that led the mall to business: much riskier on the slow-growing southside. The reason it worked was because it drew from such a large area. Shoppers in fast-growing Peachtree City, Douglasville, Fayetteville and College Park flocked to the mall in addition to Union City, where the mall is located. Unlike other Atlanta malls built in that time, this was a bit smaller than the others with only one level (except Davison's) and the smallest Rich's in the entire chain. Its only strong competition at the time was Southlake Mall, and with only three malls on the southside, this was a plus. White flight had left older Greenbriar behind by that time, further fueling the initial success of the mall.

All photos above are looking down the Rich's (Macy's) wing of the mall. In the first, the hallway extending to the left on the north court goes to Maxx Fun, originally Mervyn's and later JCPenney. The second is the Macy's (Rich's) mall entrance. The last is looking back towards center court. Original interior and exterior Rich's photos are available at the end of this article.

When Shannon Mall opened in 1980, the mall featured three anchors: Rich's, Davison's and Sears. A Morrison's Cafeteria was also included in the original mall. The mall was built with two additional anchor pads which both served as additional mall entrances. In 1985, it was announced that Mervyn's, along with a new wing, would be added to the mall. The following year, Davison's was converted to its parent company's moniker Macy's and the new Mervyn's wing was completed. Likewise, improvements began to be made to Jonesboro Road (SR 138) including interchange reconstruction at I-85, widening of Jonesboro Road and realignment of SR 138 to better connect to nearby SR 92 and US 29. By then, strip shopping centers soon grew around the mall including two movie theaters, fast food joints, grocery stores and eventually Wal-Mart all in place by the mid-1980's. The Wal-Mart was one of the first in Georgia not part of the former Big K chain. Upon completion of the addition, the mall was renamed Shannon Southpark Mall.

Looking down the Maxx Fun (Mervyn's) wing. This wing of the mall is the most vacant part of the mall. The first is of the corridor, the second is the obscure mall entrance to Maxx Fun (with a climbing wall) and the third is looking towards the parking lot entrance from this wing.

Of course, the fact I was walking through the Mervyn's wing was a sure sign of somewhat improved fortunes for the mall. This section was sealed off in late 2004, as this picture shows. I accidently had the camera on "night focus" setting, which is what created this spooky shot.

The lack of options in Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Douglasville were the largest factor in why Shannon Mall was successful throughout the 80's. Getting to the mall from those places involved long expanses of two lane roads that were eventually widened to handle the increasing traffic. For awhile, all was well but the honeymoon would soon be over. By the late 1990's, Shannon was being hit on two fronts. The first was that a ghetto/white flight element that was present in the Greenbriar area years before finally moved into the Union City area. Second, the growth of Douglas and Fayette Counties resulted in both building their own shopping venues. In Douglasville, humongous two-story Arbor Place Mall opened in 1999 taking much of the traffic from Shannon. Also, to the south, a massive big box shopping complex north of Fayetteville seized business from the other end. Peachtree City was also beginning to build its own retail, reducing the need for those whose incomes depended on the Atlanta Airport having to drive so far to shop. Also, the decline of College Park along Old National Highway was drawing away shoppers that would also frequent Shannon Mall.

Now for much happier scenes, the bright and airy center court (taken in 2009). The first photo is approaching the court with the closed Davison's (Macy's) mall entrance visible on the right. The flag apparently is covering the Macy's labelscar or something. The second is a more detailed view of the court with the fountain visible.

These two photos are both from Christmas-time 2004. The first shows more detail of the beautiful skylights, and the second is taken from the main entrance corridor towards the court with the most detail of the old Davison's entrance.

1999 was a bad year for Shannon Mall. Despite new renovations completed that year and a renaming back to Shannon Mall, trouble was brewing. Davison's, which became Macy's in 1986 closed their location at the mall. It was the first Davison's mall location to shutter in Georgia since the Columbia Mall location closed in 1992. Tenants started bleeding out of the mall as identical stores appeared at Arbor Place. The movie theater on the mall outlot also closed. While the renovation was successful in maintaining tenants and traffic initially, it was not enough. With an older smaller mall and an increasing crime problem, JCPenney, which replaced Mervyn's in 1996, left the following year relocating to Fayetteville Pavilion. JCPenney would reappear also at Arbor Place after bankrupt Upton's vacated its location 1-2 years later. The entire JCPenney wing that opened 15 years earlier was sealed off and it seemed the bleeding would not stop. Over the next five years, it seemed the mall's demise was eminent and redevelopment plans began to be considered.

The Sears wing has remained the most vibrant and successful part of the mall. Most of the chain stores that remain in the mall are on this wing, which has a direct outside entrance on an unbuilt anchor pad that crosses over to the still very successful food court. The first photo is looking down the wing. The second is at the court with the food court entrance on the left and outside entrance on the right. The third is a view of the outside entrance and the last is the Sears mall entrance. Note the unmanned kiosk for Maxx Fun in the third photo. All photos taken in 2009.

But alas, the resilient little mall may have been kicked down a notch but it was still very much alive. In fact, long dormant South Fulton became a new powerhouse for growth in its own right as part of the housing boom in the mid-2000's. New middle to upper middle class subdivisions began to spring up all over the area stretching from Red Oak down to Palmetto. South Fulton Parkway, then completed all the way to SR 154, was also drawing new interest in the area. Traffic began to increase again on Jonesboro Road and vacant businesses found new interest. It was a total shot in the arm for the mall, which actually found itself holding on for awhile longer.

View of the food court entrance from the Sears wing followed by a view of the food court from the main entrance wing. Photos of the food court were difficult because of concentrated mall security.

In late 2005, Maxx Fun would join the mall in the old JCPenney. This new anchor reopened the sealed off wing. In 2006, plans for redeveloping the mall were announced that included a 16 screen movie theater (in the old Davison's?). By 2007, Shannon Mall was given enough fuel to survive. What it was also given was a new name, Union Station. While the mall even now is still looking in the death throws, the fact is that the mall did not deteriorate nearly as noticeably from 2005-2009 and the parking lots seemed to be fuller in 2009 than they were five years ago. Handled just right, Shannon Mall might just spring back to life and join the ranks of other successful Atlanta area malls. 

Photos of the active anchors at Shannon: Macy's (former Rich's), Sears (original) and Maxx Fun (former Mervyn's and Penney's). The Sears is very drab and plain on the outside. Note the typical Mervyn's style doors on the entrance. Later, you will see how it looked before.

Today is different, though. The economy is much worse and foreclosures across Atlanta are high. Macy's (in the former Rich's since merging in 2005) and Sears remain the only major anchors at Shannon Mall. Maxx Fun did help fill an empty anchor, but overall it does nothing for that part of the mall with only about two stores operating on that wing: one with two entrances. Most chain stores have left the mall, but local stores continue to fill many of the voids in the center. The bright side is the Food Court, which remains very successful with almost no vacancies at all. Even better is Gladys Knight's Chicken & Waffles will soon be opening in the former Buffalo's Cafe. Piccadilly Cafeteria remains in the former Morrison's as well. From this, it is fairly apparent that redevelopment is not as sure as before, but interest in the mall has not waned at all. However, it still remains one of the weakest malls in the area similar to struggling North Dekalb Mall. Let's just hope that community and owner interest remains high in the mall's future.

Two views of the closed Davison's (Macy's) on the outside. The first is a closeup of the north entrance. The second is a more broad shot taken in 2004 from the south side. The south entrance pictured in the second photo has had all of its black glass destroyed since the last time photographed.

The future of Shannon Mall is that it may still be around awhile, but it is apparent that something needs to be done drastic soon to remove the tarnish. Simply renaming the mall is not going to change its fortunes. It didn't work for either Cobb Center or Columbia Malls, and the owners should study what they did and why it did not work. Demolition of parts of the mall with a lifestyle wing is almost essential, because it is not an attractive structure on the outside. Since March 2007, the mall must also compete with newcomer suburb Newnan...now with a beautiful outdoor mall offering far more than the entire retail strip of Union City.

While Maxx Fun does not look like the most promising anchor, it gives life to this end of the mall. Shannon really looked in trouble when this photo was taken in early 2004. This photo shows the original name and abandoned Mervyn's with the JCPenney modifications. The mall entrance here was also sealed off, since this entire wing described above was sealed off as well. This photo I originally distributed to deadmalls.com during that time, but I asked to have my description and photos from that site to keep bad press from the mall. The photos remained, unfortunately. I regret that entry, because I blame it on the stupid renaming. This is why this is not another "dead malls" blog, and I want this mall to succeed.

While Shannon Mall's 30 years of success and survival is impressive, it is past time to try something new with the mall. Moving Macy's back into the old Davison's (IOW, instead of a theater) and demolishing the entire Rich's wing would be a start. Don't forget that a failed multiplex was put in Columbia Mall in the old Davison's when considering that move. Providing a larger store that can be renovated cheaply in an existing structure is essential to keep Macy's at the mall since this is one of the smallest stores in the chain and may ultimately leave the mall if the economy does not recover. Maxx Fun could also be freestanding or moved into a new building at the mall since that wing of the mall never recovered. A lifestyle addition to the mall, including big box tenants, is desperately needed there, and preferably within view of I-85, which is why the Rich's/Mervyn's wing is the best choice for demolition. A Target would also be a great addition since the old Target/Richway location on Old National closed over a decade ago. In all, Shannon Mall is overall a success story, but if it does not make significant changes that aren't just band-aids, 2010 will be the end of that story.

Rich's photos below from 2004 and 2005:

Night shot, mall entrance and two exterior photos. This is the smallest of all the Rich's stores and built under Federated. All but the third photo taken in early 2005. The third photo was taken December 26, 2004.

April 2010 Addendum: Apparently I was far too optimistic on the future prospects of this mall when I wrote this post.  I will have further information about the troubled mall in the near future.  I want to add that Maxx Fun closed since this last post.