Chapel Hill Mall in Akron

It's a shame. It wasn't THAT long ago that CH was a viable mall. I never used to feel unsafe there, but there's no denying it's taken a turn in the last 8-10 years.

It wasn't that long ago that I used to consider CH the 'safe' mall. With the closing of the major anchors, plus Old Navy and a few others, the mall has to be on borrowed time.

I think if the city officials from the communities of Akron, Cuyahoga Falls and Tallmadge could figure out a plan to tear down the mall, they'd do so and the sooner the better.
Again, it's sad for a longtime area resident like me, and I have to believe that one day, malls will be back. .
 
I think if the city officials from the communities of Akron, Cuyahoga Falls and Tallmadge could figure out a plan to tear down the mall, they'd do so and the sooner the better.

I know that the Mayors of these cities have been meeting to figure out how to save it.

One thing that I thought but likely wouldn't work is that every time I go in to Sam's Club, I have to show a membership card. Maybe something like that would work for a Mall. I suspect they kick out a decent number of people every month but have no real way of preventing them from coming back the next day.

The number one goal is to make everyone feel safe. Growing up in the area, we were regularly dropped off there for a Movie and hanging out afterwards at the McDonald's or in the general area. Never got in to any trouble and never saw any trouble back then either.
 
The manner and speed with which the mall has declined still rightfully boggles my mind.

For anyone on here over ago 40, flash back 25 years ago to when the mall, and the area, were thriving- if someone told you Chapel Hill Mall would be on its last legs would you have believed it, then?

I'm 54. I can recall times from the 90s and 80s when around Christmastime, on a weekend afternoon, it was near impossible to find a parking spot anywhere near the mall. Back then we parked at the Sears end if we needed hardware goods and at the Macy's (nay, O'Neil's) end if we needed clothing items. Somewhere around the time they started the bus line thing is when I think the flavor of the mall changed. Hell, I can remember when they tossed around building a Walmart in the area, if I'm not mistaken (Yappi backe me up).
 
Oak Hollow Mall in my area just gasped its last breath, joining Carolina Circle Mall in the mall graveyard. Circle, which closed ~2000 had a twenty-five year life while Oak Hollow in nearby High Point was open only twenty years. (While I am no visionary, I felt both mall locations had issues and the malls would not last).

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about CC where I briefly worked in a standalone grocery. (The company offered me the management position). Sound familiar?

By 1990, Carolina Circle Mall was clearly in decline. A skateboarding park adjacent to the mall drew complaints, as incidents such as drug use increased around the mall's property. Many housing projects were popping up nearby or being converted.

A growing number of gangs combined with a perception of crime kept shoppers away from Carolina Circle Mall. The vacancy rate increased throughout the 1990s. Mainstays such as Waldenbooks, Camelot Music and Radio Shack left the mall. Belk downsized its department store, leasing the lower level to the U.S. Post Office. In 1998 Belk[1] and Dillard's (formerly Ivey's) closed their doors, with Dillard's having previously downgraded to a clearance center[2] leaving Montgomery Ward as the sole anchor and only a handful of inline tenants left. By 2002, with Montgomery Ward in bankruptcy, the closure of that chain signaled the closure of the entire mall.


Some malls are using creative measures to help save them, such as employing horse-drawn carriages to transport customers to the mall entrances. BusinessWeek magazine had a good article about the demise of malls not too, too long ago.
 
For anyone on here over ago 40, flash back 25 years ago to when the mall, and the area, were thriving- if someone told you Chapel Hill Mall would be on its last legs would you have believed it, then?

If I'd also known about the internet yes, probably.

That said, some malls are still thriving. There will always be a market for them to some degree. Easton in Columbus is always packed when I'm there.
 
The manner and speed with which the mall has declined still rightfully boggles my mind.

For anyone on here over ago 40, flash back 25 years ago to when the mall, and the area, were thriving- if someone told you Chapel Hill Mall would be on its last legs would you have believed it, then?

I'm 54. I can recall times from the 90s and 80s when around Christmastime, on a weekend afternoon, it was near impossible to find a parking spot anywhere near the mall. Back then we parked at the Sears end if we needed hardware goods and at the Macy's (nay, O'Neil's) end if we needed clothing items. Somewhere around the time they started the bus line thing is when I think the flavor of the mall changed. Hell, I can remember when they tossed around building a Walmart in the area, if I'm not mistaken (Yappi backe me up).

The Walmart was supposed to be built off of Howe Road in Tallmadge where Baker's Acres Golf Course was located (now it's condos). The problem was getting the people that lived in the houses that backed up to it didn't want it there (first time I heard of NIMBY) and Cuyahoga Falls wasn't allowing for traffic to come in and out on Howe Road in their city. So they eventually scrapped the idea.

I think another thing that hurt the area was that they never connected Chapel Hill Plaza with Chapel Hill Mall. When they developed that area in the mid 80's, they should have made an effort to connect the two areas so it was one big shopping area. Instead, it was like they competed. It's strange, everyone knew that Chapel Hill Plaza would kill Midway Plaza but no one thought it was going to kill the Mall too.
 
Since moving to this side of Akron over a year of ago, I can't count how many times I've been up to Howe Ave to go the Chipotle, Chick-Fil-A, Giant Eagle or something else on Howe Ave. I've been inside the mall once. And that was a fluke.

Does the Mall itself really matter that much for that area? Howe Ave has the meaningful stores. Who the heck still shops are Sears? I don't know that I've ever shopped at Sears.
 
Summit County set to begin foreclosure proceedings against mall

A county in Ohio is set to begin foreclosure proceedings against a mall over unpaid property taxes, the chief of staff for the county’s fiscal officer has said.

The Chapel Hill Mall in Akron owes more than $166,000 in back taxes, and a bill going out this month for just over $400,000 will include the back taxes, additional property taxes and utility assessments, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. The office of Summit County’s fiscal officer sent several property tax bills but wasn’t able to reach the mall owner, said Jack LaMonica, the office’s chief of staff.

 
Whatever happened to the NEO mall that was built on top of a dump?

Methane Mall is still vacant. Satellite "out-lots" off of the old landfill and between the strip mall and 480 are thriving. Garfield Hts residents got screwed and former Mayor Longo probably still makes trips to a safety deposit box....... :unsure::(
 
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Maybe they should have ripped the top off and downsized to strip mall as was done in turning Severance Mall into Severance Center ? Take away the climate controlled common areas, and the scum bags seem to go elsewhere.

Perhaps it serves someone tax-wise to just let it wither and die in this manner ? It may make financial sense for someone to buy it in foreclosure and take the top off, keeping stores open and revenue flowing in some measure ?

There are so many diverse, free-standing restaurant and retail spaces in the surrounding area that maybe it's just a large piece of dirt with a lot of demolition and a little scrap metal on it.
 
What is the infatuation with wanting to cling on to these outdated and inefficient things? Is it solely nostalgia?
People think it’s like church, where the community can do stuff together. Now with smartphones that stuff is dumb since we are always connected. I buy everything on amazon and use Kroger click list
 
People think it’s like church, where the community can do stuff together. Now with smartphones that stuff is dumb since we are always connected. I buy everything on amazon and use Kroger click list
Sounds like you have a very good process in place.

I love shopping on the internet. The time-saving is two-fold:
1. Much faster to search the internet to find exactly what you are looking for rather than going store-by-store, row-by-row.
2. You do not get stuck behind fat people in aisles or old people trying to pay with a check at the register.
 
Sounds like you have a very good process in place.

I love shopping on the internet. The time-saving is two-fold:
1. Much faster to search the internet to find exactly what you are looking for rather than going store-by-store, row-by-row.
2. You do not get stuck behind fat people in aisles or old people trying to pay with a check at the register.
NEO sounds awful. We have signage and express checkout in SWO.
 
Maybe they should have ripped the top off and downsized to strip mall as was done in turning Severance Mall into Severance Center ? Take away the climate controlled common areas, and the scum bags seem to go elsewhere.

Perhaps it serves someone tax-wise to just let it wither and die in this manner ? It may make financial sense for someone to buy it in foreclosure and take the top off, keeping stores open and revenue flowing in some measure ?

There are so many diverse, free-standing restaurant and retail spaces in the surrounding area that maybe it's just a large piece of dirt with a lot of demolition and a little scrap metal on it.
I'm not sure it could ever be saved. I suspect in a few years, someone will buy it and completely remove the mall. Everything has moved to the Howe Road area. First it killed Midway Plaza. Now it is slowly eating away everything on Brittain and Buchholzer.
 
Sounds like you have a very good process in place.

I love shopping on the internet. The time-saving is two-fold:
1. Much faster to search the internet to find exactly what you are looking for rather than going store-by-store, row-by-row.
2. You do not get stuck behind fat people in aisles or old people trying to pay with a check at the register.

Some things, many things, need to be at least "show-roomed" first. Amazon reviews etc only go so far. When you kiddies are the primary spenders, more and more crap will dominate the cyber marketplace.
 
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Gonna join Randall Park and Rolling Acres pretty soon in the closed department.

Is Parma Town Mall still functioning in any way?
You mean the " Shoppes at Parma."


 
You mean the " Shoppes at Parma."



Welp, RTA better change its schedules and routes........ I wonder where the plague lands next ?


I can't really see big hair re-establishing itself to it's full former glory without Parmatown Mall for teenage girls to propagate its resurgence.
 
Welp, RTA better change its schedules and routes........ I wonder where the plague lands next ?
I didn't pay much attention to it but there are plenty of people that believe that the bus routes coming to Chapel Hill were the beginning of the end for that Mall.

The one thing that I noticed about the Mall is they took out or let leave some businesses that were great attractions but probably didn't make much money for those particular businesses. The movie theater was great. Go to the Mall an hour early to hang around. Tell the parents to pick up an hour after the movie let out. It was freedom for alot of good kids that weren't troublemakers.
 
I'm skeptical that bus routes were as much of a factor as the general decline of popularity in malls.

People (not just younger people) just don't have the shopping habits of generations past.

Malls are like the new downtown department store... A relic of bygone eras... (I wish Tower City could pull in some interesting stores)
 
Once the entire mall is closed it can be like Rolling Acres and become a place for kids to ride their MX bikes.

 
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Once the entire mall is closed it can be like Rolling Acres and become a place for kids to ride their MX bikes.

I wish I had gotten into Rolling Acres before they tore it down. Hopefully I'll get the chance with Chapel Hill.
 
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