Mall of Memphis
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The Mall of Memphis was a large shopping mall in Memphis, Tennessee, containing 885,627 sq ft of retail space and 5,564 parking spaces. The mall opened in October 1981, closed December 24, 2003, and was demolished in 2004. Among other things, the mall was home to the Ice Chalet, Memphis's only ice skating rink.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, the mall gained a reputation of being unsafe due to several deadly shootings and a rash of robberies. Among many Memphians, the mall was darkly referred to as the "Mall of Murder".[1] Ultimately, that reputation, along with a shift in neighborhood demographics and the closure of anchors stores like Service Merchandise, J.C. Penney and Dillard's, led to the mall's demise. The Mall of Memphis is the largest enclosed shopping mall ever to cease operations in the United States.[2]
The mall went through an extensive renovation shortly before it closed, in an unsuccessful attempt to attract new business. This meant that when the mall was closed and demolished, many of its features, such as benches, railings, elevators and interior decor, were virtually immaculate and hardly used.
By April 2007, a newspaper report by The Commercial Appeal stated Wal-Mart's plans to build a 176,000 Supercenter location on a portion of the site. The retailer is currently under contract to purchase approximately 22 of the former mall site's 95 acres for the project, first announced in September 2006. [1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Mall of Memphis Timeline (English). The Mall of Memphis. Retrieved on September 14, 2006.
- ^ Page, Max. "Space Makers", Preservation, National Trust for Historic Preservation, March/April 2004. Retrieved on September 14, 2006. (in English)
