Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Batavia's Former City Centre Mall


While this mall is understandably no longer open to the public, it is still worth taking the time to highlight it and show some pictures from when it was open. This mall, opening in 1976 as Gennesee Country Mall, WAS very similar to Meadville's Downtown Mall in the sense that it was a small downtown mall in a relatively rural area. The biggest difference between the two is that this mall only had a one anchor in JCPenney. The JCPenney is still open to this day even though the mall is not. The mall had room for 37 stores with an interesting diagonal layout. (See the future plans document page 37 for the layout listed at the end of this post.)

I visited the site back in 2015 when it was still open to the public. It was obvious even way back then that it wasn't doing well. I saw evidence of roof issues as very few open stores. Perhaps one of the odder things about this mall was that it was connected to Batavia's City Hall, which I suppose kind of acted as an anchor.

































Long term plans (see pages 37-39) call for the mall to be re-developed into a more attractive downtown setting. At least JCPenney should stick around, at least for now....

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Kmart and Its Ever So Slow Sinking Ship

With my comments about Kmart on my previous post, I thought it'd be interesting to do a short little post about the decline of Kmart in a few select states over the past few years. I started to keep track of locations in a few states back in 2015 for PA and NY an 2016 for a few other states. These maps can give you an idea visually of seeing how many have closed in select areas.

First off, Pennsylvania: 

January 2015
November 2016
June 2017
November 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)*
February 2019
September 2019 #
New York:

January 2015
November 2016
June 2017
November 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)*
February 2019
September 2019
West Virginia:
November 2016
June 2017 ^
November 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)

There were no changes in Feb 2019, both stores remained.
Sept 2019
Virginia:
November 2016
June 2017
November 2017

No changes in June 2018.
October 2018 (bankruptcy)
February 2019

Kmart has left the state of Virginia with the most recent closing list.
Maryland & Delaware:

November 2016

There were 4 Kmart stores in Delaware at this time.
June 2017
November 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)
February 2019
September 2019
New England states:

November 2016
June 2017

November 2017

June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)
February 2019
Sept 2019
Kentucky:

November 2016
June 2017
November 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)

These final 2 Kentucky stores would remain until the most recent closure list in August 2019. With that list, Kmart has left the state of Kentucky.
\Tennessee:
Nov 2016
June 2017
November 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)
Feb 2019

These final store would remain until the most recent closure list in August 2019. With that list, Kmart has left the state of  Tennessee.
Michigan:
Nov 2016
June 2017
Nov 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)
Feb 2019
Sept 2019

North Carolina:

Nov 2016
June 2017
Nov 2017
June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)
Feb 2019
Sept 2019
South Carolina:

Nov 2016
June 2017
Nov 2017

No changes in June 2018
October 2018 (bankruptcy)
Feb 2019

Sumter, SC would close after February, but before September 2019.

The final 3 store would remain until the most recent closure list in August 2019. With that list, Kmart has left the state of  South Carolina.
Georgia:

Nov 2016
June 2017
Nov 2017
June 2018

These final two stores would close as part of the bankruptcy, making Kmart leave the state of Georgia.

Alabama: 

Nov 2016
June 2017

Alabama was one of the first of the Continental states that Kmart exited in late 2017.

*During the bankruptcy wave of October 2018, public documents listed stores that were marked for future closure. This is represented by the orange K's. Some of these stores did close afterwards.

#At this time, Walnutport is rumored to close, but there is no official confirmation as of this post.

^A flash flood caused a bridge that connected a plaza (where this Kmart was located) to wash out. This caused Kmart to close the store for at least 2 or 3 months before it would reopen. The Question Mark was put in place as it was unknown if the store would even reopen at all at the time.