Posted on 01/05/2010 7:34:28 PM PST by The Magical Mischief Tour
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Channel 4 learned Tuesday that five more stores will be leaving the Hickory Hollow Mall by the end of the month.
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Chick-Fil-A, The Children's Place, New York & Company, Lane Bryant and Hot Topic will close by Jan. 23, said store managers. "We just never thought this place would collapse and go under like it has," said Antioch resident Russ Cheeks. On Tuesday, staff at the Romancing the Stone specialty store was also packing up to leave.
In the mall food court, Chick-Fil-A's last day is Friday. Subway is already boarded up after it closed two days ago. Sbarro Pizza recently left the mall as well. "It looks like the handwriting's on the wall. It looks like it's just a matter of time before the whole place goes under," said Cheeks. Most of the businesses said they are leaving because their lease is up and because bad sales turned worse when anchor stores such as Dillard's and JCPenney left.
Charles Chambers owns a barber college in the mall. With six more years left on his lease, he said he wants out now. "It's getting to a point there's no reason to come to get service by us because some of their favorite stores have gone," said Chambers.
Despite the string of stores leaving, mall management said Hickory Hollow is not closing and said they remain committed to its success, which includes a mixed-used facility. Mall managers are currently working with Nashville State Tech community college to develop a satellite campus in the mall. An official proposal is expected next month. The mall was listed last summer as one of the 10 most endangered malls in the country by U.S. News and World Report.
September 14, 2009: Outback Restaurant Closes At Hickory Hollow August 24, 2009: College Considers Opening Campus In Mall July 20, 2009: New Electronics Store Opens In Antioch July 1, 2009: Hickory Hollow Mall Listed As 'Endangered' July 17, 2008: Residents Question Local Mall's Future June 26, 2008: Area Dillard's To Close; 76 Will Lose Job
Obama economy at work!
Obamanomics at work.
The mall is in Antioch. From what I understand, that area is infested with illegals.
The property now houses One Buc Place, the football team's headquarters.
Seems like a mall never makes a comeback once it starts going down this path.
You are exactly right. The only thing that has me scratching my head is why it hasn’t happened sooner. I was positive that after Christmas 2008 there would be countless stores closing their doors.
Atlas shrugging and it started the day after election day in 2008.
Too many illegal aliens and too much crime from illegals and drugs.
Looks like they need to update its entry at Dead Malls.The current writeup is 3.5 years old.
http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/hickory_hollow_mall.html
I forget the location now, but there was a mall in Connecticut that this happened to, maybe 20 years ago. The anchor store left, then a couple of others left, and then it was the domino effect.
People come to the supermarket, and then maybe drop in at one of the neighboring shops. But they aren’t going to drive all the way to a specialty shop to begin with.
Actually, we had a wealthy summer acquaintance in Maine who started up a $25 million mall down in Texas when a recession hit. He lost everything, had to hand his houses over to his wife and kids, bought a big yacht to sink his remaining funds into and spent a couple of years off the coast of Japan dodging the IRS and his creditors until he got things worked out. Ended up losing just about everything. From a staff of 20 to living as a guest in his kids’ house.
Should have scrolled down. Several other fans beat me to the punch.
There are often major property tax arrearages on these dying malls - that's what opens the door to the non-retail occupants such as satellite police stations, community colleges and the like. The city and/or county gets cheap or free office and classroom space in exchange for their forebearance on the tax debt.
Presactly keerect. It’s “Hispanioch” now you need a passport, a translator and a firearm to go to most of that area. Same thing happened to Metro Center for similar reasons. That’s now mostly an art/design/decorating school.
This is my neighborhood. I’m one of the few people left who can claim to be a lifelong resident of Antioch. It’s a very sad place now with an awful reputation, a highly transient place that is a magnet for the illegal scum. Even Blacks moving out of the inner city are giving our neck of the woods a wide berth. Not long ago, a legal immigrant escaping the high crime of his homeland of Haiti and the crime he found in Miami relocated to Antioch, and he was promptly murdered in an adjacent Hickory Hollow restaurant by a psychotic looking to collect a drug debt, an acquaintance of mine held him as he bled to death.
My former fiancee worked at the Sears in this mall earlier in the decade. She had horror stories every day then of what she saw, the thefts, the harrassment, what the illegals let their kids do in the stores. It all used to be a desirable, decent are for the lower middle to working class, at least up until the ‘90s. No more. I’m only sorry I and my family didn’t clear out earlier, since we’re effectively trapped and couldn’t sell our house for a fraction of what it’s worth (and if we did, we’d have to sell to illegals that would destroy the property as our neighbors have).
This mall was going under before Obama. They built one of those “community and store” things in Mt. Juliet and JC Penny hit the road for there at least two years ago, maybe longer.
The area is in decline and is infested with illegals, bad schools and gangs. There are also zoning issues that allow anyone to build a condo or apartment complex with no thought to school overcrowding and traffic problems.
Plain and simple truth is there are nicer stores and areas within driving distance of the Antioch area. Adios Hickory Hollow Mall.
See post #18. I call it Ciudad Antioch. The reason this area turned into a disaster was as a direct result of Metro policy and their neglect, especially the School Board’s decision to dump the trash into our area’s schools two decades ago. Now the “problem people” that came in have been moving out, even they think it’s too dangerous to live in.
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