Warren's Mall No More

 

    Although it is no longer a mall, the property previously known as the Warren Mall now serves the northwestern Pennsylvania city as a shopping center that has repurposed mall structures. As you will see, the anchors all remain and evidence of a mall can still be found in some places. Before we get to that, however; I have to share a unique perspective that I managed to capture by visiting 15 days before Bon-Ton would close forever. 

    Basically, work had begun on de-malling the former Kmart wing, but since Bon-Ton was still open, the mall corridor was still open to the public. At this point, the wing leading to the former Big Lots (now Dunham's Sports) was walled off due to Ollie's having absorbed that mall corridor. You'll see a progression of how things changed in a map picture below. 

    Personally, it seems that the property could try to attract some tenants to the former Bon-Ton and Kmart anchor stores. Hobby Lobby, Marshalls and/or Rural King feel like a good fit for the area.

The flooring of the mall corridor remains within Ollie's

As does the former mall entrance to Big Lots. 

Warren's Vintage Queen of Ice Cream

 

    Among the retail community, Warren was likely very well known for years with its dead mall that finally was redeveloped in 2018. While the de-malling of the nearby mall caused all vintage features there to be lost, the topic of this post continues to operate with them- to the best of my knowledge. We of course are talking about Dairy Queen. 

Honestly, I found the vintage features here to be quite charming.

Former Super Kmart #4939

This post comes from Ohio, just outside the blog's coverage area.

The final Super Kmart that was left after the closings of all the others, closed its doors in April of this year. The Warren, OH store now sits empty waiting for its new occupant, which is fairly likely to be a Meijer, to come to the site. This was one store that I knew I had to visit before it closed, and I'm glad I was able to visit before it was closed forever. I would of liked to have visited during its liquidation, but traveling far distances in the winter months are not ideal in this part of the country.

Anyhow, here's a tour of the store while it was still in operation.