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 Bon Ton Closing & Mall Update

The Warren Mall is a mall I've covered here on the blog multiple times in the past few years, but I once again find myself taking another look it. This trip was made to capture the Bon-Ton here before it will be gone. An unexpected bonus occured in the form of seeing some de-malling of this dead mall in progress.

Sadly the anchor from the mall was going to be part of redevelopment plan, but things obviously didn't work out. I'm sure this has thrown a bit of a wrench into the de-malling plans.

While I'm not saying this was  the plan, I suspect the plans were to keep the mall corridor that led to Bon-Ton from the main doors as seen in the first picture. The corridors to the left for sure and possibly the right would be removed. I know the left is being removed for sure because of this:

A peek through an opening in the wall that will likely be a door. This was the corridor that would of led to Big Lots

Since I was limited on time, I did not see if there were any major changes in the corridor that led to Kmart. One thing that did change is that Label Shopper moved somewhere in this wing to make room for a new store Ollie's. Just like Dunham's, Ollie's does not have mall access which isn't a shocker given that this is transitioning into a shopping center.

Ollie's took over the Label Shopper space and went beyond it into the former mall.

Now for what actually made me to the trip, the clearly dated closing Bon Ton:

I now leave you with look into what will soon no longer be a mall from Bon-Ton: