Bruno's Finer Foods

Another Birmingham-related post, this one directly affects Atlanta and that is the mention of Bruno's supermarket. Bruno's was a big player in the Atlanta market in the 1980's prior to the invasion of Publix. An upscale supermarket much like Publix, they came to Atlanta in 1987 when local chain Ogletree's was purchased. A picture of a former Ogletree's/Bruno's is found in an earlier post.

While Bruno's has long since left Atlanta (they left by 1995), they are still alive and well in their home city of Birmingham where they existed long before. While no longer an independent chain, a few of these are still around including a location at The Summit (pictured above). Bruno's was also notable for two now defunct retail ventures including a drug store chain (Big "B" Drugs), which was also in Atlanta and their Atlanta partnership with Kmart for one of the first discount superstores (American Fare) in 1989. Respectively, the Big "B" stores all became CVS and the American Fare simply Super Kmart before later closing.

While I have not found many locations, I know that they exist today in Birmingham owned by the same company that also owns Bi-Lo, Foodmax and a couple other grocery chains.

Century Plaza Mall: Birmingham, AL

My first post about Birmingham retail is Century Plaza Mall, a mall that is getting a lot of attention these days for what's happening to it. Here I will have quite a bit to say about it, though it's not all that I plan to cover in the city by far. It is even now one of the most interesting retail stories of the South, especially with its adaptation of Atlanta stores combined with homegrown favorites.


The Birmingham retail scene is a fascinating one, and a friend of mine who hosts the Eastwood Mall tribute has educated me much on this town that hopes to one day rival Atlanta, but is still trying to overcome the stigma of the surrounding state as well as the fact Birmingham has as a fairly high amount of urban decay due to its industrial history, a continuing cloud of racism and sluggish growth. The unfortunate product of this is that the city became overretailed and basically everything on the west side of Red Mountain is having trouble these days.



The story of Century Plaza is pretty much the same as its deceased neighbor Eastwood Mall (different link). It was a mall that opened in an older suburb that became more blue collar in a city with better malls closer to the wealthier areas. It is still alive, but the area around it as well as the sudden exodus of three out of four anchors has this classic 1975 mall very much in jeopardy.



Century Plaza Mall from the outside is far from pretty. It is very plain and somewhat depressing 70's modern design with dark glass, red brick and simple lines that make it hardly inviting. It is a trip back in time to see it: reminding me somewhat of Cumberland Mall prior to the first renovation. While it was a perfectly normal design for the 70's and 80's, today it looks horribly dated considering that it has never had a single exterior renovation since it opened over 30 years ago. While this maintains balance with the structure, it was never an attractive enough design to make it worth it. The interior, however, was updated in the early 90's typical of most 70's malls shaking off earthtones and disco fever.




Inside, the mall is a typical two-level four-anchor super-regional center that was meant to attract large crowds, and it seemed it would have caused the death of Eastwood Mall, but Birmingham was unique in that it had an unusually high amount of department stores for a city its size. Also significant was the fact that Eastwood Mall originally had no had anchors, and Eastwood had survived more on its novelty and location with anchors coming later.


When Century Plaza opened, its four anchors were Loveman's, Rich's, JCPenney and Sears. Loveman's was a major chain in Birmingham that was also in Chattanooga, though it is not known if they were exactly the same store. When Loveman's closed at the mall, Pizitz left Eastwood forming the eastern anchor of the mall. Pizitz itself was added to Eastwood in 1969. Pizitz did not last long, though. It was then quickly replaced by the McRae's nameplate when the Pizitz family sold their 13 store chain to what was eventually Proffitt's/Saks in 1986. Other than this, the mall saw no anchor changes for almost 30 years and existed well among a city with six other malls.

Also, Century Plaza proved to be very durable considering the competition of Riverchase Galleria in Hoover. A mall of the size and offerings of Riverchase was near impossible to compete with, and Century Plaza looked small and dumpy by comparison. Nevertheless, Crestwood Boulevard (U.S. 78) remained a strong avenue for retail, and the complimentary Eastwood Mall with its Parisian and Service Merchandise (former Yeilding's) kept the area viable even when the surrounding neighborhood was showing signs of wear and tear. The problem was, Eastwood Mall could not hold up to the ever expanding glut of malls for a city hardly large enough to support them, it began emptying out in the early 00's with Parisian closing in 2005 and the few remaining stores vacating by the end of that year. Much of the blame is probably due to the opening of The Summit in 1998.

While it might seem odd to point out a competing mall's fall, Eastwood's blight hurt Century Plaza. Eastwood was not competition. Century Plaza NEEDED Eastwood to survive, because this gave an adequate shopping area to compete with the I-459 complex (Riverchase, Summit). This was painfully obvious when Rich's closed at Century Plaza in 2004. It should be noted that when Rich's (now Macy's) closed at a mall, it was typically a death knell because Rich's stores were rarely closed in their 167 year history and these were typically very popular large traffic generators at malls in both Georgia as well as their Alabama locations.





(Rich's photos of the various lower level entrances. Note these were not sealed off. Also note the angled black glass on the wall next to the side entrance that apparently made it possible to see the mall from the escalator.)

Rich's at Century Plaza was a very fascinating store. It was literally built into the mall instead of external from the mall. Two mall entrances graced each side of the store, one faced the center court and one was on the outside, meaning that three first-level entrances were on the inside, and these all took up a lot of mall space. The upper level expanded east along the mall and presented two entrances. Rich's at Century was also one of the smallest locations, and did not carry a full line of merchandise...undoubtably a factor in why it ultimately closed. Brookwood and Riverchase were full-line Rich's stores. Century was not. In terms of the bizarre layout of Rich's, I will attempt to show some of this in the photos here.



(These photos of the JCPenney mall entrance were absolute 1970's. It is the typical sinister beauty that is still today how I picture that a mall is supposed to have.)

Of the other anchors to close, Belk followed suit after Rich's. Belk came there only as a result of the buyout of the McRae's stores in 2005 and departed quickly much in the way Pizitz had previously. When they opened there at the end of 2005, they only remained a couple months before quickly closing. Their entry resulted in the east anchor being four different department stores before finally closing for good. JCPenney started vacating their store throughout mid-2006, having their final liquidation September 30, 2006. The wave of departing department stores was an absolute blitz and those mall entrances all remain open to full view with exception to the upper level of the Rich's. The lights even remained on in the Belk.




(Belk, formerly Loveman's, Pizitz and McRae's is still open to view. You can look, but you can't touch what's left.)

The mall has made no attempt to hide these stores, suggesting that quite possibly the owners see the writing on the wall and have either given up or they have other plans. Sears is the only remaining anchor and they are also rumored to split soon. It seems to have all happened so fast even the tenants haven't caught up. Despite high vacancies, at least 50% of the stores are still occupied in the mall, most surprisingly still major chain stores as well. When I visited, the mall was still moderately busy even on a Thursday afternoon. The only obvious logic behind this is that the neighborhood has become a largely minority neighborhood and less wealthy. While this would not be enough to kill a mall overnight in Atlanta, we must remember that Birmingham is no Atlanta.


(Here are exterior shots of the Sears...the sole remaining anchor. I found it rather hard on the eyes.)

The mall itself is hardly to blame for this sudden turn of sour luck. When driving on Crestwood Boulevard, businesses are closed all over the place. Office Max recently closed. Several fast food places sit empty. It seems chain stores are fleeing from Irondale, though hope resides in the construction of a new Super Wal-Mart on the footprint of the South's second oldest enclosed mall. Other malls in Century Plaza's position have managed to survive a mass exodus of anchors such as Savannah Mall, but I fear it is instead Alabama's own version of Augusta, Georgia's massive Regency Mall.

The good news is that the mall is still owned by a strong mall company, General Growth Properties, which saved Cumberland Mall from similar extinction with a radical and, at least at the moment, wildly successful redevelopment of a struggling mall. Perhaps this is no accident and maybe such a plan is in the works for the Rich's to be replaced with a big lifestyle portion and the Loveman's/Pizitz/McRae's/Belk to be demolished for a Costco...or not. Time will tell.

UPDATE May 29, 2009

Century Plaza is on total death watch now. Two days from now, Sears plans to depart the mall after hanging on as the last anchor. The store will close for good on May 31st, 2009 leaving the mall without any anchors. Worse than that, the owner of the mall General Growth Properties is bankrupt (something not expected in 2007). The prognosis for this mall is not good. The mall is emptying out and will most likely close for good before the end of the year. The property will likely also be sold as part of GGP restructuring. Unless the city assumes the property for government offices, the mall will most likely sit vacant like Regency or be demolished. The best case scenario is a Target shopping center is built on the site (to compete with Wal-Mart) similar to what happened with Clearwater Mall in Clearwater, FL.

UPDATE May 31, 2009

Century Plaza was closed permanently to the public and thus abandoned upon the completion of Sears closing its location at the mall.  After 24 years of service, Birmingham's last mall on the Crestwood Blvd corridor shuts its doors.

Lakewood Center/Crossroads Mall: Atlanta, GA

Crossroads Mall, originally known as Lakewood Center, is by far the most forgotten mall in Atlanta. It is located at the intersection of Metropolitan Parkway (formerly Stewart Avenue) and Perkerson Road next to Langford Parkway (formerly Lakewood Freeway). For me, this was quite a find. I did not previously know of this place, and popular interest led to me finding and presenting what sketchy information I have. Feel free to make any corrections.



Lakewood Center first came into existance in 1962 as Southside Atlanta's first full shopping mall. An open-air center with covered walkways, the mall featured many of the popular mall tenants of the day, notably a Lerner's, Jacob's Pharmacy, Woolworth and the usual shoe stores. I also understand that a two-level Penney's was at the mall, though information on where the Penney's was or if it was actually two levels is sketchy. I was told the mall was two levels, so either it had a basement or the Penney's was a two-story store. My theory on the Penney's is that it was on the north end of the mall and was later closed and demolished after the location at Greenbriar Mall opened a couple years later.


Southside Atlanta has suffered from tremendous decline since the day that Lakewood Center opened. When it opened, the area was a working class neighborhood whose economy largely consisted of the GM Lakewood plant and the Ford plant down the street in Hapeville. White flight in the area began with desegregation in the late 1960's and the area around the center began to decline. Nevertheless, in that time a Woolco opened at the mall, possibly on the site of the JCPenney on the north end. The Woolco there closed with the chain in 1983, and by then the mall was in steep decline.


Fast forward to 2007, Lakewood Center looks like a phantom. The area around Stewart-Lakewood is now far from prosperous. Metropolitan Parkway is still known as a haven of crime and prostitution. What businesses operate along the road are hardly high class tenants unless you consider Church's Chicken fine dining and the Family Dollar quality merchandise. As you can see in the pics, Family Dollar is the only chain tenant even left in the mall today. The mall itself is only partially accessable with the back side completely abandoned. Almost a third of the mall was completely demolished when I arrived. Google Earth shows this is as vacant buildings that were already fenced off meaning a big part of the mall was already inaccessable. These apparently burned or were simply just demolished leaving only the front and side of the mall intact today.


Like its sister mall, Ansley, the stores had entrances outside the mall part, allowing stores to continue to operate without using the mall corridor. The Woolco has also been converted into a gym and bowling alley, which keeps the center from being completely dead. Nevertheless, it looks like a timepiece and has been modified very little since it opened over 40 years ago. It is hopeful that one day the neighborhood can support better retail and the mall can be restored to look like its cousin Ansley Mall.








Photos: Googie-style sign at corner of Perkerson and Metropolitan (Stewart), south side of mall and mall entrance, Google Earth image of main mall labeled, looking north into the only open part of the mall corridor, looking at the end of the open mall corridor through demolished buildings, demolished part facing Woolco and northeast entrance, the other open entrance, front side of the mall, detail of front court (no entrance), rear northwest side entrance (no mall here, Woolco on left), dead entrance, Woolco, demolished buildings from rear looking toward active mall.

Northlake Mall: Tucker, GA

One of the six known fully-enclosed malls of DeKalb, Northlake opened in 1971 and was the first three-anchor mall in DeKalb County. Its original anchors were Davison's, Sears and JCPenney, and Northlake was distinct in being one of only two malls to have no Rich's. I believe this happened because North DeKalb down the road was not that old at the time, and its sole survival has always depended on the Rich's there, which is still fully operational today. Northlake was also a typical two-level 70's mall with the brown tiles, fountains, skylights, a Piccadilly Cafeteria, McCrory's and an exterior design that is typical brutalist 70's modern. Northlake was also responsible for the decline and eventual closure of Columbia/Avondale Mall.


Northlake held its own in the 1970's when DeKalb County was still a prosperous and growing suburb, but it began to stagnate in the 1980's and the growth pretty much shifted to south Gwinnett. It was still the major mall for that area, however, until a major blow came with the opening of Gwinnett Place Mall in 1984. A mirror image of Town Center at Cobb Mall in Kennesaw, Gwinnett Place featured Rich's, Davison's, Sears and Mervyn's...pretty much everything Northlake had except Penney's. While there was the population to continue supporting it, Northlake fell into a time warp that it never really has escaped ever since.



The 1990's did bring some changes to the mall. New flooring, removal of some fountains and a new exterior entrance all came with the 1993 renovation.  A Parisian department was also added where the Piccadilly and McCrory's once stood, and a food court that created a second mall entrance to JCPenney was added off of the lower level.


The "dated" appearance that remained after the 1993 renovation I'm not complaining about, though. I really miss a lot of the 70's decor elements in malls these days including plants, fountains, darker interiors and the more muted skylights. Northlake has much of this, and it's refreshing. The problem is, the reason its there is because the mall is not exactly a top-tier mall, and this is evidenced by the slow departure of national stores and the previously very threadbare condition of the Davison's/Macy's at the mall, which looked to have not received a renovation in 30 years.  I had heard it was an outlet now, and there was no doubt about it that something was up.  However, the renovation around 2007 or 2008 cleaned up the store, suggesting it will eventually supplant North Dekalb's store.  Only two of three levels are currently used in the store, however.  What is also interesting and vintage is next to the entrance there is a huge lighted ball behind dark glass: high design for the early 70's. The Penney's, however, has seen extensive renovations and looked practically new inside except for the cool very 70's escalators that featured one rubber strip that was pink and the other brown. While not 70's, the former Parisian is also quite odd featuring one of the narrowest department store interiors ever encountered with part of the space filling former inline tenants and part of it extending out from the mall..  Kohl's replaced the Parisian at the mall in 2008 after it closed in 2007 due to the Belk buyout.




It will be interesting to see how Northlake fares in the long run, though. The area near the mall is not what it was, and the mall suffers a lot of competition from Stonecrest, Perimeter and to a degree Gwinnett Place, though Gwinnett Place has earned a ghetto reputation in recent years. With Parisian going to Belk, Sears on the brink in general and a glut of Macy's stores in the area, it is very iffish what will ultimately happen. It is a toss up who is more likely to close first: the Davison's/Macy's at Northlake or the Rich's-Macy's at North Dekalb, though current patterns suggest the latter. The mall is a timepiece and while it will be a big loss for the area, but it is one of five (formerly six) malls in a county that has long been overmalled.

Village Mall: Cleveland, TN (2nd Update 09/07/09)

On July 4, 2005, I was driving through Cleveland, TN and discovered what was obviously the most well-preserved specimen of a mid-1960's open-air mall that I had found. Obviously I was excited, because I did not believe any 1960's open-air malls even still existed. I soon found that was far from the truth, but Village Mall was the first I have seen that actually functioned as a major shopping mall even though it had long since retired that function by the time I had arrived.


Noticing how spectacular this little mall was, I came back to take generous photographs of this beautiful place, which I most recently did in September 2009, almost three years from when I took the original photos. While somewhat modified today with contemporary stucco touches, I realized that the mall overall was a literal living museum of 1960's architecture with numerous strips and stores surrounding the mall that also were never updated. This seems to be typical in East Tennessee while it has become extremely rare in Georgia. The remarkable amount of unaltered mid-century architecture is one of the things that really makes driving in East Tennessee enjoyable, especially Cleveland.

This store was 100% original. What was it?

Looking south along the mall towards Watson's former location. The former Parks-Belk entrance and the Swiss Alley come off to the left there somewhere. Exploring this will require another trip since I was pressed for time.

A little further down and closer to former Watson's, today the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce.

The entrance with the swiss-like roof is just before the entrance to Swiss Alley. An identical entrance to this is found in the alley, and that is also being used as office space as I found when curious workers watched me go by, camera in hand.

The mall entrance to Watson's, today the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce. It is rather fitting that they are a tenant in the mall that they undoubtably helped save.

From what I understood, Village Mall opened in the mid-1960's with anchors Miller's, Parks-Belk, SS Kresge, Watson's grocery store and an underground bowling alley located in the center of the mall. The mall features a main covered, but open-air corridor and one enclosed side wing off the east side of the mall. Parks-Belk took up one side of that wing and also part of the main mall. The mall held its own serving the small city until the late 1970's when Cleveland Mall opened with anchors Sears, JCPenney and Rose's. While the two malls competed, they also complimented each other. This was similar to what happened in Huntsville during the 1970's where small malls in the city had different anchors and different offerings to compliment each other. Both Village Mall and Clevaland Mall remained successful in the 70's and 80's, but this all came crashing to a halt when Bradley Square opened in 1991.

Former Miller's/Hess's mall entrance. Now an entrance to Jones Finance.

Former Parks-Belk entrance from main mall. This entrance made up the entire side of the mall between Miller's and the Swiss Alley entrance.

Entrance to the Swiss Alley. This portion of the mall is enclosed, but it is not known if this was always the case.

Bradley Square offered what neither could offer fully: all favorite department stores in one mall, a contemporary design, better location, climate control that Village Mall did not offer and amenities such as a food court. Village Mall had absolutely no hope of competing as 1960's architecture was drastically out-of-style in the 1990's. After Bradley Square opened, they stole all the anchors from both Cleveland and Village Malls except Rose's (Cleveland) and Parks-Belk (Village). Cleveland Mall eventually closed and became Life Care Centers of America. Village Mall, however, limped on anchorless until it was recently partially redeveloped into an office-type specialty mall. Parks-Belk held out until they were bought out in 1995, and Hess's, which bought out Miller's in 1987, quickly vacated the mall when Bradley Square opened. I'm sure Cleveland natives were not particularly happy to lose two malls to one. Ironically, Bradley Square was found recently to be in danger of failure itself. Karma?

Looking along the Swiss Alley towards the east entrance. Parks-Belk once had an entrance on the left, and today it is all part of Check Into Cash!.

The tenant on the right in Swiss Alley looks to now offer holistic medicine. This is also looking towards the east entrance.

An overview of the remaining "Swiss" facades in the corridor. Note the peaked roof entrance, which is identical to the one in the main mall previously mentioned. What did this used to be?

This was apparently a barber shop at one point, but what was last there was definitely not that. It is now vacant. I can't help but love these attempts at classic Bavarian architecture they did in the 60's and 70's.

Today, the mall hardly functions as a traditional shopping mall. The center today is part strip mall, part office space. The presence of outside entrances to all of the stores facing US 11 (Lee Highway) made it possible for some of the mall to viably function as a strip center. What didn't work is now full of white collar employees with headsets, dress shirts and monitors. It was rather uncanny looking into a "store" and having an office staff look back at me with an amused WTF look.

This closed store sits in the southwest corner in front of Watson's/C of C. It apparently had a loft or second level of some sort, which was very interesting. It looked to be the last actual clothing store in the mall. Does anybody know what it was?

This time I really looked for the bowling alley entrance, and I really do not know how I missed this before. This creepy staircase descends down to a pair of double doors, which did not look to have been used in quite a long time. When was the last time this bowling alley operated? I'd give anything to see inside of it.

The redevelopment of a lost mall was one of the most clever I have encountered. In almost any other circumstance, the mall would be demolished, but for some reason the new owners thought it was just fine the way it is. I wish they had thought of this at Cobb Center before they took a wrecking ball to it. Today, a call center known as Check Into Cash! occupies the former Parks-Belk, the Miller's is today a Jones Finance and the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce occupies the former Watson's grocery store. More office space now occupies the old Kresge, which was vacant when I visited in 2005. A gym now takes up much of the mall space on the west side, and the stores fronting US 11 are fully leased, including a Firehouse Subs. An upscale local restaurant, Bald Headed Bistro, is a popular eatery next to Jones Finance and was renovated with a log cabin facade. However, there is absolutely nothing traditional about this mall, and I very much wish I could go back in time to 1990 when the mall was alive and kicking with two two-level department stores.

Northeast corner of the mall. Note the fence like structure hiding the central power plant.

Front entrance to Miller's Department Store.

Old Parks-Belk under renovation for a call center.

This is the newly renovated back entrance to the mall. In the previous photo I took of Parks-Belk, a door was sitting in mid-air into the side of the store. Now, a staircase leads in the new entry up to the door. What was there before?

Here is a look at the front side of the mall, now fully leased and featuring some tenants otherwise not connected. The gym that is there now has windows into the mall, but no entrance.

When I first wrote about this mall, I said it had been altered very little from when it opened. That is not as much the case today as new stucco-faced entryways were placed over all the mall entrances and the Swiss Alley was largely renovated with very little actual mall feel except for a few remaining swiss-themed restaurants. The main mall itself has no real inline stores left, but still survives altered little from when it opened except along the side facing U.S. 11 (Lee Highway). There, the mall added many strip mall tenants and a more modern stucco facade with tenants including a Firehouse Subs. Despite these changes, the mall is a remarkable display of mostly unaltered 1960's architecture that make this mall very enjoyable. Thanks to your comments, I have been able to correct this post to give an accurate history of the mall.

More shots taken around the south entrance. The first shot has the mall on the left, the next is of the former Watson's on the left approaching the entrance and the last is directly underneath. The first photo on this page is looking just to the right of this into the main mall corridor.

Corner at southeastern side of mall. The vacant store was probably the Kresge.

Southeast corner looking southwest at former Kresge.

View of northeastern corner of the mall toward the north entrance. Miller's is on the right.

Looking back away from the southeast entrance to the mall.

Southwest corner of the mall. Note the very 1960's exterior on the right.

Side entrance to Miller's with detail of the one restaurant in the mall itself on the right known as Bald Headed Bistro. The second photo shows more detail of the restaurant.

This professional office building apparently has wings. This buildings sits on the southwest corner of the mall ot facing Lee Highway (US 11).

* This is the second update of the original post. *