Dayton Mall has been a shopping staple since it opened in 1970 by Dayton, Ohio residents. Like many, the once pervasive mall is facing a difficult time with more seats, exacerbated by the closures of two anchors, Sears and Bonton in 2018.
As a result, the mall was placed in the receivership and remained there. However, the 162,000-square-foot former Sears space transformed the former store’s 90,000-square-foot store into a worship and community hub, which was sold to the worship and community hub with the remaining indoor entrances of the mall.
“There’s nothing to say about the death mall where the churches come in,” said Rebecca Maguire, marketing manager at Dayton Mall. “But there’s a lot of support for Crossroads and they’re community-driven, so I think we’re lucky to have any mall in the world to have such a partner.”
It’s fair to ask if the struggling mall is a suitable place for the church. And Matt Castleman, pastor of Crossroads Church in Dayton, said religious groups have their own reservations.
“People were asking, will you take yourself wisely to the mall?” Castleman said.
The church, part of the Cincinnati-based eight church network, celebrated its first service on this year’s Easter Sunday, attracting thousands of people to the former Moliban Mall. The church also decided to keep the complex open seven days a week whenever the mall is open.
“We have 400-500 pops per week without anyone else in the church,” Castleman said. Teens incite the mall after service to eat at the food court and back up at the church with a bag from the shop like Claire or Claire Dick’s sports equipmentsaid Castleman.
Of course, Claire’s bankruptcy filing this week is another indication that the difficult times for long-standing mall tenants are not gone. But filling old anchors with new niche businesses and destinations, as is the case with new church tenants at Dayton Mall, is exactly the type of type that “cross-shopping” mall landlords are looking for.
The church is an unconventional salvation at Dayton Mall, but other malls find suitors ready to use to fill in the large empty space.
The collapse of the American Mall has long been documented, but not so exaggerated. With an anchor store, a lively food court and a ridiculous mall sandwiched between a tempered, trendy fashion retailer, the mall was a post-World War II suburban centerpiece. However, changing demographics, changing shopping habits, and the rise of Amazon and e-commerce all contributed to the decline of malls.
However, recent data and industry executives have suggested that enclosed malls could be placed for regeneration.
Stephen Lebovitz, CEO of CBL Properties, one of the largest mall landowners in the United States with 155,000,000 square feet of mall space, says the trend to reuse empty anchors took a long time to lay fruit.
“We rebounded and built a lot of positive momentum. These projects to fill the anchors don’t happen overnight,” Lebovitz said. And even when the old anchors are filled relatively quickly, it can take some time to burst into the customer.
“It took several years to recover from the 2017-2018 anchor closure,” Lebovitz said. Over the past decade, I’ve seen something like a traditional anchor Macy’sJcpenney, and Sears Shutter.
Subdivided malls and “Cross Shopping”
Lebovitz said the key to success was to break down the previously vast anchor stores into niche players, and to attract everyone to cross-shopping constituencies. According to Lebovitz, the CBL portfolio has a former Sears location that generated between $7 million and $8 million a year, bringing in a newly filled, fragmented split totaling five to six times. A variety of businesses fill these blanks, from restaurants such as Cheesecake Factory to sports goods at Dick, entertainment options such as Dave & Busters, and hotels.
Lebovitz said the mall developers are also looking to add more empirical categories such as games, bowling and laser tags.
Other mall owners are taking it a step further by converting old stores into apartments and large food courts.
Another major mall landlord, Brookfield Properties, has achieved similar success from the same playbook. Brookfield’s mall portfolio is more upscale and insulated from retail disruptions, but still had to reuse anchors (or “reprogramming the boxes” in industry jargon).
“We’re looking forward to seeing you in a new business,” said Kirstenley, executive vice president of luxury leases at Brookfield Properties. Lee points to the post-Covid experience as a turning point when people seek old mall-like comfort.
“People see shopping centres as community spaces,” Lee said. For example, Tyson’s Galleria in Brookfield added a bowling entertainment complex and yoga studio to the mix.
It helped to increase the amount of crossover shopping, Lee said, a customer who may hit the lane for some games of bowling and then go looking for a new shirt.
Recent data from Placer.ai shows that positive mall vibes from owners are more than just corporate cheerleading, with traditional enclosed mall traffic being specifically increasing. RJ Hottovy, Head of Analytical Research at Placer.ai, agrees to the mall owner that changes made to anchor over the past few years have finally taken hold.
“It takes time,” Hottovy said, adding that the outdoor “lifestyle centres” “have successfully adopted a mixed use strategy.” “Now we’re beginning to see the enclosed mall do that.”
Hottovy is a mall that incorporates a variety of tenants into the mix, celebrating many of the success of non-traditional anchor selection. During the 2024 holiday season, mall visits were ahead of retailers, Hottovy said. People were planning on going to the mall for seasonal events, restaurants, cinemas, etc. for non-shop reasons.
Hottovy said the mall is experiencing the “Barnes & Noble” effect, even if the mall is not a formal anchor. At the Coronado Center Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Burns & Noble accounted for 7.9% of visits to the mall in 2024, surpassing both Macy’s and Jcpenney. Barnes & Noble has around 660 stores in the US, 107 of which are located in traditional enclosed malls.
“The mall is a place we’re interested in attending,” said Jason Striker, head of real estate development at Burns & Noble. The company is considering adding another 10 enclosed mall locations this year, actively exploring about a dozen current Forever 21 sites.
Striker says old anchors are often carved into niche retailers as bookstores aim to be in stores ranging from 18,000 to 22,000 square feet.
“We like being around shops where people cross-shop,” Stryker said.
The developers point out the intangible things that Mall captures, nostalgia and that they could be dependent on something.
“Most of X and millennials spent their adolescence making memories at the mall. They go to the food court with friends and smell all the lotions and perfumes in the store or wander around chats in general.” “For many people, going to the mall evokes those younger memories so that they can make them feel like they are,” said Binnentztock.
Meanwhile, coffee and free wifi continue to flow at Crossroads Church at Dayton Mall, while other malls turn their eyes to unconventional anchor tenants.
“We want to make sure life, business, money and energy come back to the mall,” Castleman said.
