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    BettyRich Juzwiak
    2/18/14 12:52pm

    So to answer a few questions about these dead malls:

    1)As long as Department stores stay open, mall owners are usually legally obligated to keep the mall open even if there are no other stores open.

    2)Those department stores stay open because they own their own land and building.

    3)Chinese food court operators are indeed literally the last people to leave a dead mall. Lease negotiations without a translator can be difficult, but they will pay their rent in full and on time even in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

    4)The saddest dead mall on earth is Irondiquoit in Rochester. Beautiful, modern and dead. It looks like the rapture happened.

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      DL ThurstonBetty
      2/18/14 1:05pm

      Two malls in Northern VA have found a way around #1. Both Springfield and Landmark Malls were in a position where the anchor stores owned their locations, rather than leasing them...so they just left them standing and are tearing down the rest of the mall around them.

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      MisterHippityBetty
      2/18/14 1:06pm

      mall owners are usually legally obligated to keep the mall open even if there are no other stores open.

      Why, I wonder? What law mandates this?

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    JohnMcClanesSmirkRich Juzwiak
    2/18/14 12:26pm

    Is there a link missing in your post Mr. J? (Yes, I'm now referring to the Gawker writers as if I'm Zack Morris.)

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      MisterHippityJohnMcClanesSmirk
      2/18/14 12:27pm

      Yeah, this post just links back to the one from last week ...

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      JohnMcClanesSmirkMisterHippity
      2/18/14 12:34pm

      Maybe its POST-CEPTION

      GIF
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    DL ThurstonRich Juzwiak
    2/18/14 12:34pm

    While we're waiting for the promised more pics, the store directory for White Flint Mall:

    Dave & Buster's
    Hackley, Rochelle, DDS
    Khoury Bros, Inc.
    Lord & Taylor
    PF Chang's
    US Post Office
    White Flint Management Office

    That's not truncated. It doesn't represent one floor or wing. That's it. The entire available store directory for a three floor mall.

    It should be observed that D&B has a separate entrance from the parking garage, making it completely unnecessary to walk through the rest of the mall to get to its one still popular destination.

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      completelytotallyforgotmysigninDL Thurston
      2/18/14 1:11pm

      I posted this on the last article, yep. I live near there, and after Christmas most of the remaining stores closed, and it is spooky as hell walking around there - but technically, it is open. the dentist and the post office is near one entrance, and the D&B has its own entrance, as do Lord & Taylor and PF Changs. Khoury Brothers was a nice jewelry store, but who is visiting the sole store open in the center of the mall?

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      DL Thurstoncompletelytotallyforgotmysignin
      2/18/14 1:24pm

      I only went there occasionally, always because of the D&B. It was never a healthy mall, per se, but it never struck me as one that could die so thoroughly. Losing the big two-floor book store that anchored the center of the mall couldn't have helped. I just hope that, whatever the plan, there is a spot for the D&B to move back into. Because I would hate to not have one in the DC area, and I also don't want it to be any more convenient to get to than it already is.

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    IAmNotADamnWriterRich Juzwiak
    2/18/14 12:34pm

    Muzak is still playing? As a clarification, are these "dead malls" totally gone, no stores open in them, everything's out of business? Muzak playing must mean at least zombies are roaming the food courts!

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      BettyIAmNotADamnWriter
      2/18/14 12:55pm

      Answered in a different comment, but mall owners are usually contractually obligated to keep the mall open if department stores are still operating. Department stores tend to own their own land and buildings and therefore they stay open often long after the mall dies.

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      IAmNotADamnWriterBetty
      2/18/14 1:25pm

      Thanks for the info.

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    Taint NuttinRich Juzwiak
    2/18/14 12:36pm

    In the East Bay up through the early 90's, Bay Fair Mall in San Leandro was the place to be (Eastmont Mall- too rugged. Telegraph- all the clothes have drug references). It was slammed 24/7. The wife and I made a jaunt out there on a whim one Saturday afternoon about five years ago, and holy shit... half the spaces were vacant, and the other half were selling bootleg Nikes. San Leandro itself just keeps getting more and more depressing, but goddamn they need to just put Bay Fair out of it's misery. I think it would have more potential as a set for movies about terrorist mall attacks than it does as an actual mall.

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      MuscatoRich Juzwiak
      2/18/14 12:42pm

      Somewhere my sainted late grandmothers are sitting around over a Manhattan or three and having a good gloat. They never forgave the mall at the edge of Our Town for killing off the sweet little downtown that brought a taste of urban living (Escalators! Millinery shops! Local candy store!) to what was otherwise basically a village with a larger population. Somewhere else, someone here on earth is probably thinking up the revolutionary concept of a full-service downtown department store, complete with a notions counter and a luncheon room (with Cobb salad and maybe even chicken croquettes) as if it had never been done before...

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        CleverUsernameRich Juzwiak
        2/18/14 1:24pm
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          rudi_freudeRich Juzwiak
          2/18/14 12:38pm

          Shots? Dead? In a mall? Again? What?

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            Zabellarudi_freude
            2/19/14 11:55am

            One of the Beltway Snipers victims was killed while mowing the lawn just across the street from the White Flint Mall.

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          numaRich Juzwiak
          2/18/14 12:30pm

          shots from inside the dead White Flint Mall.
          I Can't Stop Looking at This Dead Mall's Abandoned Food Court I Can't Stop Looking at This Dead Mall's Abandoned Food Court I Can't Stop Looking at This Dead Mall's…

          Malls that were once active but have since been abandoned ("dead malls") are fascinating… Read more Read more

          I would not be shot dead inside such a mall.

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            MichaelRich Juzwiak
            2/18/14 1:34pm

            That food court looks like The Max from Saved by the Bell.

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