Abandoned - Century III Mall
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- Опубліковано 1 кві 2021
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Famous for being the 3rd largest mall in America, Century 3 Mall was the product of the mall boom across the nation. Built with style and size, the shopping centre became enormously popular. But as time passed, it became famous for a completely different reason, it's unbelievable, surreal visuals of a dying mall. Join me as I look into how this happened and what the future holds for Century 3.
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Man... it is not often I have a personal attachment to a youtube video, but this one is my whole life. This was my local mall, I lived 10 minutes away. My mom took me to sit on Santa's lap at this mall, the first time I played Street Fighter II in an arcade was this mall, the first time I saw the Mortal Kombat II arcade cabinet, and saw an older kid do Liu Kang's dragon fatality for the first time. As a teenager my friend who had his license would drive us out there, and we'd smoke cigarettes in the food court. The Italian Village Pizza in the food court made my mom's (and mine) favorite hoagies, provolone cheese hoagies with their special italian dressing. All the school shopping I ever did was at Century 3, every year all through grade school and high school I bought my clothes there. This mall is entwined with my whole life. I still drive by it every now and then, there's a huge Walmart right near there, a Burlington coat factory, and the most comfortable movie theater I've ever been to, right next to its' decaying husk, and my heart aches when I see it empty and abandoned. This really was an amazing mall, I'm sorry it's owners didn't think of it like I did.
Was reading your comment here then decided to play "Deadbeat Club" by The B-52's to lighten the mood after watching this video, only to be saddened by your comment there
Y75
Boohoo 😢😭
@FaceRip I’m sorry that the place that held so many memories for you is no more. I would feel really sad if a place I’d gone to when I was growing up was no longer there. 👍👍
Dude, so cool
"Hmm how do we bring people back to this mall?"
Moonbeam: C A R O U S E L!
It is like the woodbine centre. This place is boring. But they have an old carousel. Welcome to Vaughan, Ontario in Canada. This centre is close to the airport YYZ. They have a horse race track with a casino nearby (OLG slots). Only a bunch of bus lines serve this mall. Other malls in the area, like the Square One, the Erin Mills Town Centre and Heartland Town centre in Mississauga are some kind of thriving. Relatively spoken! As the state of retail goes: This concept of commerce will die out without innovation to improve the experience: good quality, good value for the price, good customer service, good customer care (to come back!), a welcoming sight to love the place. An area you find it too shady to hang around? Not good. A place which feels safe? Good.
The retail is dying out because there is no opportunity. With covid 19, there is even less to sell. And a carousel is not entertainment for everyone!
hahahhha, best comment
In their defense it was a two story carousel.
Mall in Phoenix has amusement park with a roller coaster.. Not sure if it is still there but it was a very cool mall .Just looked it up. Closed permanently. The Christian Mall(1961) is still open. Going through some changes but the oldest mall in Phoenix is still open!
@@Canleaf08 Woodbine Centre is located in Etobicoke (north-west Toronto) NOT Vaughan.
Now I understand how my grandma felt when we passed boarded up businesses that she used to frequent in her youth.
💯💯💯 like the department stores downtown!!!
These places ruined small businesses. Now they’re being ruined. Sad.
I personally believe it will get to where entire towns abs cities will become abandoned. Idk just that feeling…,
I feel this all the time and im 18 bro everywhere i went to as a kid is now gone or boarded up. Gentrification is a terrible thing
@@notofthisworld5267 oh there's already a lot of abandoned cities. ghost towns with tall builings now getting covered in plants and stuff
Its so sad because I used to go to Century III as a little kid every week. I remember riding that double-decker carousel. They had a bungie-jumping set at one time where I learned how to do flips. The French Fry Factory was my family's favorite place to sit at the food court and eat amazing fries with cheese and ketchup. On the third floor there was a comic book store that my dad took my brother and I to on occasion before they moved to the bottom floor for more room. My mom even grew up going to this mall in the 80's and she misses it. I miss it a lot too because I made many good memories there with my dad, who had passed on in 2013, and going to the mall reminded me of him. Now that is gone and I want to cry.
All that's left now is driving past the outside, remembering all the special good times.
I used to go to the French fry factory with my dad when he’d come see me… man I miss it
Sorry to hear ):
I lost two family members in 2013 so it wasn’t a good year at all. And to have a place of your memories abandoned over time doesn’t help. My grandma’s old neighborhood was in an area that was increasingly in poor conditions and crime. We got her out of there in 2004 but it was sad to hear how the neighborhood her six children and several grandchildren spent through the 50s into the 90s just kept getting more desolate and crime ridden. Mom said the mall nearby even got demolished, and she went there with my grandma to buy baby clothes for me
Mall episodes are always a treat.
Fascinating and sad at the same time.
"Let's go to the mall! Today!" - Robin Sparkles
I know the death of malls like this is just part of the natural progression of things, but it's still kind of sad. That late '80s/early '90s interior and décor is beautiful in a way.
It's just nostalgia.
Malls were fun.
I just wish they'd do something useful with them. An 80s shopping mall would make a really cool apartment complex. Fountains, potted plants, big skylights, old neon, it would be so beautiful.
@@harrisonashley1631 Thats actually not a bad idea.
@@maximusprime3459 maybe have some vaporwave/old easy listening coming over the speakers, too.
This video awoke memories from my childhood I had completely forgotten. I had always wondered where my memories of a three-storied mall with suspended fake balloons and stars came from, and now I finally know. It had an amazing toy store inside I absolutely loved. I am elated to know what this place is, but extremely sad to know it is gone.
I love 1970 malls decoration interiors, so vintage and classy
Actually it wasn't from the 70's sweetheart
@@angelmardi4335 jesus. what's with the need of being a condescending prick? the comment was just pointing out something nice. stg people on the internet behave like bratty kids sometimes
@@angelmardi4335 you need an attitude adjustment
Hahaha I wasn't saying it to be nasty. I've lived right next to this mall for 20+ years so I know Alot about it. Sorry y'all!
@@angelmardi4335 it's all love 🖤
You know your mall is outdated when a show set in the 70s is being shot there
Let me guess: That 70’s Show?
Mindhunter
@@josepho3366The mall plays as Starcourt mall in Stranger Things.
Based in 1986.
@@lordshankracing4724 No, Starcourt from Stranger Things was filmed at Gwinnett Place Mall in Georgia. Century III was used for Mindhunter. 8:54
@@maciejrudolf sorry about that. The floor plan and outside looked like Starcourt.
I grew up going to this mall on an almost weekly basis... i worked at the pet store there. I delivered bread to the Italian Village Pizza in the food court with my father often... it was a magical place and surreal to experience it’s slow but steady decline. Weirdly, It’ll always be a part of who I am as a Pittsburgher. Happy to see it enshrined with such lore though!
I remember that pet store!!!
ayyy burgh gang
Anything happening to it now or still abandoned?
@@andrewbreiter-wu abandoned. Just rotting away.
@@bad-am3805 Do you think there is community support for its redevelopment? (Speaking as a real estate developer and long term commercial real estate investor)
I really love the “Abandoned” series. I have such a strange addiction of learning history from traveling through malls that are barely stable or left to be demolished or renovated. Seeing this is keeping me addicted.
Its absolutely fascinating to learn about abandoned retail
There is a store in the UK called MetroCentre, built at a similar time to C3, it was 300 stores and 2m sq ft of space, and 10k parking spaces. It has stayed open by reinventing itself, investing in run down areas to include a 12 screen cinema, a huge range of food places, bowling and leisure. Just shows it can be done with the right investment.
Michael,
Are you referring to the MeteroCentre in the Gateshead/Newcastle area in Northumberland.. ?
I was born in Newcastle but immigrated to the USA in 1966..
I agree with you, here in America we could do so much to revitalize these outdated abandoned Malls..
Whatever happened to that 'good old American ingenuity ' ????
HAWAY THE LADS. !!!!
@@christinecatt5391 hi, yes the metro, keeps having to reinvent itself to stay modern, but it's managed well for 35 years
Metro center in PHX,Az had the same fate. Closed finally in 2020. Now being re developed
It even survived the collapse of its parent company, Intu (though most of Intu’s malls did survive)
malls are still more popular in Europe than in the US
Malls are such awesome pieces of architecture. It''s too bad they're so big and hard to maintain because they make great decade time capsules. I personally love the 80s interiors...so warm and just make you wanna hang out and explore.
When they were OK with us intermingling, now it's all about fighting amongst ourselves and isolating watching mainstream media like netflix and being stuck in virtual community matrixes like facebook or twitter that control how we think.. Sad we had it all back in the day. Kids today will never know how it was, that there is another way.
@@larrygoldstein3481 and kids in the future will think the same about my younger generation. same as they thought the same as yours. it’s just a pattern lol
@@larrygoldstein3481 what
Too bad the Mall of America updated
And Century III was so much more than one long roofed hallway between two rows of glass front shops/stores - it had levels, angles, ramps, elevator, and a couple 'zones' lots of rock/brick wall/pillar detail. If it isn't multi-leveled and big, it's not a real mall to me - totally spoiled by my teen years in Century III mall.
Abandoned malls now feel a bit like the abandoned main streets and 1950-1960’s pre-mall shopping centers of yesteryear
It’s funny because all the “main streets” in my region are hip and the malls are dead lol
@@omarrolle3842 same. It’s all cyclical I suppose
I went to Century III quite frequently during my childhood and all the way to my adulthood. This was heartbreaking to watch. The last time I walked through the mall was about 6 or 7 years ago. It was quiet and empty. By then, most of the stores were gone. The entire food court was closed. It was like a ghost town.
I’m not really sure how long malls around the country are going to last. Pretty much every store has online shopping, not to mention Amazon, Ebay and etc.☹️
My grandparents live literally right across the street, and my stepdad’s first job was at the Italian Village Pizza at Century 3… crazy to see this. last time I was there was back in the mid 2000s since we lived in the north hills right by ross park mall so we never had to go shopping out there… just insane
Maybe he ever served me a slice when I was a kid.
i’m from pittsburgh and let me tell you how weird it was watching this mall decay. personally, i’ve never been. but i’ve driven past tons of times and heard the notorious chevrolet jingle on the radio since i can remember. however, that jingle soon haunted to mention the mall, and i think that’s when everyone realized the state of the mall. strange stuff man.
Century III! Chevrolet! Lebanon Church Road, Pittsburgh!
Me too! I used to go on the carousel when I was a kid, but by the time I was a teenager half the stores were closed and there was never anyone there. I remembered that Chevrolet jingle as soon as you said it. “Lebanon Church Road Pittsburgh-it’s by the mall!”
@@PranavPC1 Minutes from the mall!
@@PranavPC1 I remember that
@Eugene Cam How many times are you gonna copy/paste this?! Take a chill bro, ppl got it the first time...
Hard to imagine I've seen the rise and fall of the American Mall within my lifetime.
It’s strange being an American in China because there are gigantic malls seemingly on every corner.
@@AndrewBarsky Interesting. Wonder if the fall of the great mall will ever hit China
I have a lot of positive nostalgic memories of malls as a kid in the 90s. Our family went to eat at the food court every Friday night, then off to the toy store, electronics boutique for video games, spencers or a dept store. Times long gone my friends
@@Ultrad321 It’s definitely sad that a shopping experience now involves shopping on Amazon
Yeah,.....Thanks Obam-....I mean Bezos!!!
I spent so much time at this mall growing up! It was a shame to watch it eventually go away.
Took the pat bus weekly!
Me too ! Its sad to see it go, it was a big part of my childhood as well. The many weekends spent there and going there during christmas was always an event.
@@Fusa1979 55M for me!
51 C yo!
As someone who enjoys visiting malls, I remember years ago when I began to notice the slow decline with more & more stores closing & nothing replacing them in that retail space. At first I thought it was just a temporary thing but now I watch these & realize that part of consumer culture might be gone. It's bittersweet in a way but that's how the market goes.
I love the design of these 70-80s shopping malls, I find it really cozy and inviting inside.
I completely agree and feel like it may make a return in the coming years. But go back 10-15 years ago, that was viewed as the height of tacky and dated.
So do I. New malls are so white, basic and clean cut. Exactly what happened when they renovated my hometown's major mall from late 80's-90's decor, to present day boring.
I feel like the death toll for retail is when a water feature is converted to a planter....
YES!!😅
Dan Bell and Sal videos told me to look for leaking roof buckets and fountains being turned off to tell how dead the mall is.
@@thanakonpraepanich4284 and escalators and walled off portions of the mall
Here in the UK I consider if the high street has more than one nail bar to be the sign of a dying high street. They only ever seem to crop up when business is starting to decline. My old hometown had THREE, one on each end of the high street and one in the middle...I never saw them have more than one person in each.
@@luketfer
My old friends in New Zealand say hair salon serve the same function. And if the fish & chips bar, run exclusively by Chinese in NZ, leave, you are dead. Even corner stores and supermarkets run before they do.
This is even more interesting to me because I remember my older family members and others complaining that these malls killed previous shopping and gathering areas, leaving things like dead downtowns, and it definitely seemed true. When I was a young adult, that made old, half-dead city centers “cool”.
I always felt like it would be cool if dying malls would be recoded, redeveloped, and refurbished as condos/apartments.
Keep the general mall structure and facade intact, but remodel the stores as actual residential properties. It would definitely make for a unique and fun concept for those looking for something different in an apartment.
The unfortunate reality is that these buildings aren't designed to be turned into living spaces. You could renovate the building for use as office spaces by installing some cubical walls, but there's a lack of plumbing and electrical connections required for general living. Then, there's fire codes and general building codes that require windows in most living spaces. People don't do well living in rooms without natural light. You can't just turn Sears into an apartment block. Refurbishing these old commercial buildings for residential use is basically the same thing as demolishing the entire building and rebuilding it from the ground up. That's why you almost never see these old buildings being turned into living space.
build a new
Still, it's tragic to see these old malls just sit abandoned.
This mans content hasn’t changed in like 6 years
and i love it
Jake really is one of the best in the business if not the absolute best
@@joshjarnagin3161 I totally agree with you, he IS one of the absolute best channels, if not THE best that I found relating to this sort of topic so far.
He puts a lot of research and work into his videos, and it shows.
Same
It’s because there’s so much untouched content
Let's goooo this is my mall! Honored to have this get featured
Same!
pittsburgh boys!
Pittsburgh gang for the win!
Yes!
Looks like yinz are all here. How 'bout them Stillers?
Imagine converting this to one of the coolest skate park, paintball, airsoft, or laser tag locations out there.
nah imagine it turns into a map called the backrooms
@@PoIiwag I never joke about the backrooms, lest I find myself trapped in them.
Thatd be sick as an airsoft place, just a million square feet of urban warfare, itd be chaotic but awesome
Yep. We can do just about anything with these old malls. They used to serve as community centers, and they can again.
As a skater I say YES
Jake, I honestly didn’t expect you to a video on this location, nor was I expecting the information you gave on it. I had no idea this was one of the largest malls in the world, nor how much of a decline it took in the past couple of years.
Growing up, this was the go to place for me and my brother. Going to Century III mall was like going to Disneyland for us. So many stores, good priced food, and the massive size of it. Me and my family would frequent this mall all the time. But I always thought it was like any ordinary mall, I didn’t know how significant it was until watching this video. Thank you Jake, I learned a lot. Little prideful too, cause I’m from Pittsburgh. Keep up the great work, love your abandoned videos.
As a kid who grew up near pittsburgh I used to go to this mall every holiday season as a kid in the late 90's and early 2000's. It blew my mind as a kid and it's a shame to drive by it now and see what it's turned into. I went to the jcp not long before they closed to relive the memories one last time
@Eugene Cam damn, you nailed it right on the head!!
@Eugene Cam Nice analysis, Eugene. Clever man!
1978: Dawn of the Dead says go to the mall. Itll have everything you'll need for the apocalypse. 2021: Why did we ever go to malls?
Better off just go to an Amazon warehouse...
@@AaronShenghao Find the nearest Costco's, BJ's, or Sam's Club
They opened the American dream by me during the dying mall era
If I want an apocalyptic experience, I will go to the mall.
the mall from dawn of the dead (monroeville mall in pittsburgh) is one of the reasons this mall is abandoned
I live 5 minutes from this mall, we used to go all the time when I was younger. I've never hit the play button so fast after seeing a familiar place featured in one of Jake's videos!
Same!
I grew up in this area and have a multitude of memories spent at C3. It was, and still is, depressing to watch such a lively place decline into a shell of what it once was. There were times, as an adult (I'm 45 now btw), that I would go to C3 just to spend time with my son, get away from the large crowds that the Waterfront and other malls had/have. I even had my son's, as well as my own, first Santa photo there. Man, I miss that mall!
Hey Jake...Thanks for using footage from my channel!! I’m honored. Yours is the absolute finest piece of cinema ever produced on the Century iii Mall. Just outstanding.
Your pal,
Salvator with an E 🙂
A Turtle approves of your footage
I just got notified of this video and the comment says 2 weeks ago 🤔🤔🤔
@@josedcarrillo24 I think he was in Discord
@@jj_cars99 oh
Sal this is awesome and yes Jake is fantastic!
Moonbeam Capital Investments: we are experienced in turning around problematic buildings
*puts a two-story carousel and waits for the flocks of people to come*
Thaz funny..yee haul
🤣🤣🤣
....a rather out of the box, unimpressive carousel at that.
Sounds like something i do in rct when there’s not enough crowds
As someone who grew up in the south hills of Pittsburgh, no one reveals the real reason for this mall’s decline. I used to hang out here in the mid 80s when this place was in full swing. Shortly after in the late 80s Century III mall became the place in the Pittsburgh area that you were most likely to have your car stolen from. Most people I knew wouldn’t go there for this reason. This was also around the time when gangs started to invade the area. There were numerous gang fights, stabbings and even a couple shootings in the early 90s. Also around this time the Port Authority, Pittsburgh’s public transportation system made the mall a sort of junction where riders from the gang infested areas of Pittsburgh would transfer from different buses to go to different gang infested areas. So thugs would take the bus here, rob people and steal from the stores while waiting for their next bus to arrive. Certainly not attractive for people to come there to spend money on big ticket items only to be robbed of their purchases and cars at gunpoint. It would have eventually failed as most malls will eventually anyway but Century III’s decline began long before shopping malls began to decline. As far as it being located in an area with poor access to major highways, that basically describes Pittsburgh in general. This area suffers from poor, old, outdated and overcrowded roadways. The area is losing population but the traffic get worse. Pittsburgh’s unofficial transportation motto is “You can’t get there from here.”
You nailed it right on the head. I was a mallrat at that mall when I was a kid and shopped there well into adulthood but the bad element started to take over. So I like many others said screw this we are going to south hills village from now on.
THANK YOU! I was hopeful he would talk about the crime, but talking about criminals today makes you a racist.
It had nothing to do with SHV and the Waterfront. It was allowing the bus lines from the degenerate neighborhoods around the areas to come into the mall and having gang problems.
I thank you for actually saying the real reason.
I think Century III would still be thriving if they purged the cancer and put a Golden Coral in or near the mall. I go to Golden Coral once a month out at Robison Mall and that mall is packed like the pandemic never happened.
How dare you mention the REAL REASON!! 😂
I was there 3 or 4 times a week from like 1999 to 2003 and I never felt unsafe or worried about my car. I wasn't there in the late 80's or early 90's (and I do remember the urban malls near where I lived being full of shitheads) so maybe it had a brief comeback later, but it was still a nice mall until 03-ish. I remember the upper deck parking by the food court seemed like it was in massive disrepair by then and it probably had 10% vacancy or something by the time I stopped going, but most of the issues seemed like normal early 2000's mall issues with the good chain stores going under.
If crime were the main problem, Ross Park and Monroeville would have been gone a long time ago, as they've always had issues with violence and vandalism for some reason.
The second you said “moonbeam” I laughed out loud. One of my local malls, Shoppingtown in Syracuse, got bought by them. They didn’t improve on the property, and didn’t pay tax, leading to the county taking position of the mall, and the mall not reopening after Covid restrictions got lifted
Wait, so you lost both Carousel AND shoppingtown? Jeeezus. FYI most of my extended family still live up there in Lewis County. I escaped :)
@@kcindc5539 nah, carousel rebranded into Destiny USA. It’s a mega mall now, and it’s pretty nice
Such a shame to see Shoppingtown closed. My dad grew up in Manlius and my grandmother still lives there. I went to there and Carousel so much as a kid during visits. I'm glad Carousel is still open, even as a mega mall. It's a shame all these places close.
Instead of malls they're now called "Amazon distribution centers"
Amazon can't possibly bought and used all the mall sites. What will become of leftovers?
The mall of the mind.
For a while, Megachurches were scooping them up, but I always thought these old Malls, if structurally sound and with a big enough investment, could be converted into mass-residential condo communities or public colleges
THIS IS TRUE !!!!! THEY JUST TORE DOWN CRESTWOOD MALL IN BHAM AL AND AMAZON TOOK OVER
Exactly, Amazon is taking over a lot of giant buildings like this all over. At least they’re not decaying into ugly eyesores and bring more jobs to these areas!
I learned how to drive a 5-speed in the parking lot of Century III Mall. Drove laps around the building for hours and only saw 3 other cars. RIP
That's where I learned to drive in the snow ):
Now you can barely drive there at all with the buckled roads.
My dad was born in the Hills of West Mifflin PA (Jefferson Hills) in 1968, and he used to tell me stories about how big this mall was when it came out, it was “THE” hangout, and the place to shop. I still actually have quite a few memories as a kid going to this mall in the early 2000s going to visit my grandparents who lived in PA for the summer every year. We would go visit my grandmother who was at the time working at the Information booth for the mall (I actually imagine that’s her at the booth at 4:33 lol) me,my 2 brothers and my parents would go see her and she’d always get tickets to amusement parks like Kennywood or Idlewild for us from this coworker she worked with, we always would stop and throw Pennie’s into the fountains, ate at the food court and always had to stop and get an Orange Julius (because me and my dad’s name’s are “Julius” XD). At that time too the parking lots were still pretty full and Ironically I remember going through that second story parking entrance quite a few times before it got closed off. I remember also at one point in the early 2010s they had bungee jumping in the mall, that was the new thing me and my younger brother always did when we visited as the Mall slowly died. it wasn’t until about 2011 tho when they closed the Info booth down and I never asked why now I know. My last memory of that Mall was going into J.C. Pennies in June of 2018 just to see the mall (out of respect and nostalgia)with my dad,my brother, and my grandparents and it was just a ghost town the parking lots were empty, nature was growing over the parking lot, and you could just see the Vandalism and graffiti on the outside, and there must’ve been only like a handful of people there in the mall just mall walking, the rest were just in JC Pennies. It’s sad how one of the biggest Malls in the world could get that way all because a bunch of corrupt money hungry realtors didn’t care.
It’s so Awesome you guys did a Video on this! So nostalgic! If you could ever get inside the mall before it gets torn down, do you think you could film a video inside it? If possible? That would be insane!
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Pittsburgh had a lot of great mall and mall-like areas to shop. Seeing so many of them close in the last 10 years has been like watching pieces of my childhood fade away.
I’m still pissed about Ross Park Mall
I have been waiting for this for TWO YEARS
First time you hit a place I actually knew. In highschool the coolest thing you could do was skip class and go to this mall. Tons of memories there!
as someone who lives in the area, i think it’s also important to note that the simon group you mentioned also owns one of the other local malls named in the video, the south hills village mall, which is now one of the last “popular” malls to go to around here (even tho all local malls have been slowly but steadily losing attendance for years). the south hills village mall is more conveniently located as well, so my guess is that simon property’s put more money towards there instead of investing in century III, which was already starting to show early signs of becoming outdated.
insane to see a local mall on here. i used to work at the south hills village hot topic and the horror stories we would here from our sister store at century III were almost daily. in some on the last few years that the store was open they consistently faced flooding and it ruined merchandise. it's astounding that the mall was open as long as it was. it was a very long and sad death....
In the near-decade that I lived in Pittsburgh, I was privileged enough to be able to frequently visit this mall, although it was already well in decline by the time I discovered it.
Still, this was by far my favorite shopping center in the Pittsburgh area. There was a great selection of stores just before the recession, with common staples and some wonderfully offbeat stores.
I will miss it.
I lived in Wilkinsburg PA, 1996 to 2000. I went to Monroeville PA Mall mostly. I got a Panasonic Microwave oven from a Circuit City on 422.
Remember Pittsburgh Mills? I do.
@@ItzBIULD I liked the Pittsburgh Mills mall, and I wasn't aware that it was gone (it was still in operation when I moved).
I think that mall declined for a couple of reasons: It was hard to get to from downtown Pittsburgh, because Rte. 28 was perpetually under construction and always backed up, and the mall was a single level affair of monstrous size, which might have made some avoid it for the sheer amount of walking involved.
It was one of the last malls I have ever been to that had a pretzel place, a toy store, a book store, an Orange Julius, and a functional arcade (which, when I was a kid, were the metrics me and my friends judged all good malls by).
and it has 3 floors, more then king of prussia mall
Thanks for digging into the financials of the mall's parent company. The numbers are no surprise. Of course they had plenty of money.
This reminds me of two malls I’d love for you to talk about. First, Eastland Mall in Charlotte, NC, which was a huge and beautiful mall when it was built, and had the dual parking deck feature as well as an amazing ice rink in the center with really long escalators spanning over it. The area changed, large malls fell into disfavor, and ultimately a shooting in the food court sealed its fate. It was demolished a few years ago.
The other is Burnsville Center in Burnsville, MN. It was an upscale regional mall that’s still open, but it’s also on borrowed time. It was also a Simon property, and more unusually has now been purchased to be partially turned into a large Asian market from what I understand.
Both were beautiful in their day and if you hurry you can still see one of them.
Great video; great series! Thank you!
I live about half hour away from Burnsville Center, how dead is it?
You've just gained mad Pittsburgh viewership. This will definitely get waves of attention overtime!
It's that thing Pittsburgh Dad always jokes about
Oh yes!! The abandon mall episodes are my absolute favorites. I've seen your Randall Park Mall and Rolling Acres Mall videos dozens of times. Keep up the amazing work! Not all history is oil paintings and museums
When I was a kid growing up in the late 70's through the late 80's, I never considered once the demise of shopping malls. I grew up in mall culture, me and just about everyone I knew went to the mall at least once during the weekend, we LOVED it. We loved going to the mall so much around here that developers built two of them in our city. Fast forward 43 years later.......the bigger one has since been torn down and replaced with big box retail stores (like Best Buy, Burlington Coat Factory, etc), and a swath of strip malls, restaurants, and fast food joints. The other mall struggles to stay open.....I couldn't tell you the last time I went in there to actually buy anything- but I do like the restaurants attached to the mall from time to time. When I was in High school the mall itself was PACKED with people, it was full of clothing stores, book stores, it had a nice sit down restaurant inside, had the mall 'smell"....it was awesome. now you go in there it's quiet as a tomb, has 2-3 clothing stores, the food court has maybe 1-2 standard mall eats open- a pretzel maker, and a Maid-rite. The anchor restaurant with mall access is this crappy Mongolian BBQ place (used to be a Benagans', and was a Bishop's before that). Malls are dying....the internet has really done them dirty, lol.
All I can say is being alive in the 80s and 90s and experiencing malls in the peak was truly fun. Everyone can see this video and adapt the feels to their city and state and get the same effect. There will be a generation here one day that will only know amazon prime, uber eats and iPhone's and that is weird to think about.
It’s amazing how many malls are going to shutter in 1-2 years especially after covid
it'll be a sad day when freehold raceway mall or quaker bridge mall shuts down, those malls were my childhood. those malls are also managed by simon properties...
Look on the bright side; more UA-cam documentary content
I stopped shopping in malls long before COVID
@@thomasburk3205 *bright sun
The mall business model has been moribund for over 25 years now. It's honestly amazing how many are still around, things considering.
I'm noticing a trend with all of these abandoned buildings. One centered around greed, piss poor planning, and a ton of short-sightedness. Make profit now, screw the future.
“Make profit now, screw the future” is way to common in modern business... cough cough Disney
@@BrightSunFilms No TRUER words written on the state we are presently living in. I’m from the Pittsburgh area but live in Southern California aka Hell on earth, for the past 30 years. Still in the business world and watching the money grab.. everyone is “pimping and whoring”. Large companies are buying up everyone to eliminate the competition. No one is in it for the long haul.. for the good 🙁. Btw I was approached by a contractor in 2017 regarding the Queen Mary. Just watched your video on her..another sad situation. Found your channel from the Daily Mail the other day on the mansion in Canada. Glad I found your channel. Keep up the excellent work. 🙏🏼❤️ Shalom.
@@BrightSunFilms Btw, I loathe Disney!
hypercapitalism
In my fictional world, this mall never gets abandoned and still successful
Was just trying to see if the guys who got busted for trespassing and filming inside the mall got their video taken down, and came across this one 😆
So many memories. My pediatrician’s office used to be in this mall in the 80s. I remember my dad arguing with a woman over a parking space while I was laying sick in the backseat 😩 Hung out there with my friends pretty much every weekend in junior high and high school. If we couldn’t get a ride, we would walk! Then we’d walk down to Denny’s restaurant when the mall closed. One of my friends got caught smoking when her mom just happened to be there shopping… tried to tell her mom she was ‘just holding it for someone’ 😆 I bought my bedroom furniture at that Kaufmann’s in my early 20s… it’s still at my parents’ house and still in great condition!
Baldwin High School class of ‘94 😊✌🏽
They took down all of there videos except for the very first video they ever made but they have since blocked the comment section on it since they got arrested. They were really stupid. They admit to breaking in, started to vandalize the mall inside,shooting a bow and arrow at some of the mall decorations. Exploring With Brody is his channels name.
Carrick class of 1998! ❤✌🏽😂
@@aimeewank7859 nice! I work in Carrick 😊
@@ShanLH5 Small ass world, huh? 😂 very cool. My cousin was a librarian at Baldwin, Mrs. Hannah, remember her?
@@aimeewank7859 hmmm the name sounds vaguely familiar but I’m not totally sure. I didn’t spend a lot of time in the library lol
Century 3 Mall - “The ‘Rolling Acres’ of Pennsylvania.”
EDIT: Holy cow!! Thanks for all the likes.
Lord I miss Rolling Acres, I drive past it old land on the way to some of my job sites. Once Amazon bought the property it got torn down and built up fast. Seems to be a common thing with these abandoned places a company that actually cares keeps em going or the property changes ownership with “big plans” every few years
I remember playing hide and seek with some friends at Rolling Acres when I was in college back in 2005. I was still kind of new to the area and I’d never seen a mall that abandoned but still very open. It was fascinating and a little sad.
The Austin Abandoned Mall complex Highlands Mall is now the Austin Community College. Apartments are now all over the parking lot and more being added.
More like "Randall Park"
We had the dead mall of Cinderella City, here in Denver, in the early-mid 90's, when Rolling Acres was still booming. Cin-City... the original dead mall.
I've always found it strange that when a mall closes all the happy memories rush back and you feel nostalgic and miss those days and wish you could just go into the mall in its hay day, but when its still open, know one goes to it, its tired looking, out dated and just pointless being there.
Yep, everything just look old and tbh crap !
The arcade were old with broken down machine, dirty unclean, dim light
Dozen of closed kiosk that just make the open ones look even worst
It’s shocking how many of these are dying off, I guess some of it is because of the amount of overbuilding that took place, supposedly far too many malls we built for too few people. In England where I live there’s a mall in my town that still lives on and is doing quite well still, but it’s nowhere near the size of this.
Watching this I can't help but wonder what future holds for Mall of America in Minnesota? To this day, December 2022, it is still a marvelously well kept and visited building, but the same could be said about the Century III building when it was on top of its game.
Sometimes I go to that mall, it’s dead.
The Mall of America is so large & well kept that it would be hard to not go, here in Arizona we have one of our most popular malls, it’s a luxury mall that I feel like just keeps growing.
@@blackicex1622 there's enough attached to, in and around the mall of america to keep the books ticking over
I live in Pittsburgh and have so many good memories of my parents taking my siblings and I to Century III mall. It is so sad to drive by on my way to work now and see it empty and neglected.
Moonbeam: yeah, we're pretty good at this stuff, just give them a carousel.
Also Moonbeam: Why haven't they come back yet?
I don't know, maybe no one likes carousels anymore?
(i'm sorry for the gramatical mistakes, English is not my first language)
I live in Mexico, and this is kinda weird, but...here in my state, malls are still a thing. I mean, a few months ago a new really huge mall was built and even if we are still in a pandemic, many people go to that mall everyday. And I think there is just one mall that has been abandoned once, but now is functioning again.
Even the oldest malls here are still visited by so many people everyday.
So I think that's why I like watching this videos so much. Dead/ abandoned malls are my kind of aesthetic (love liminal spaces). And here in my city we don't have any of that so I'm addicted to this abandoned mall videos lol
As a Pittsburgh resident, man this mall held so many memories. Honestly malls in general have been dying a slow and agonizing death. The reason why the Waterfront was (and continues to be) a major player in the area was accessibility. It's minutes off of the Parkway (I-376). Another two malls in this very area I'd love to see a video on are the Parkway Center Mall, which definitely was doomed from the start (being built on unstable land as cheaply as humanly possible), and the most recent Pittsburgh mall, the Pittsburgh Mills (which in its short existence NEVER had every store occupied).
Pittsburgh mills is still open, isn’t it?
@@julia15221 I'm not sure. I know there was only a handful of stores when I was last there about 3 years ago, and they had listed the property after the owners defaulted on the loans. Last time I heard they were looking to potentially tear it down to redevelop the land it sits on.
Anyone who grew up in the Pittsburgh area knows and remembers the “Century 3 Chevrolet” jingle that can no longer say “MINUTES FROM THE MALL!” 😢
Now it’s something minutes from Pittsburgh
Shopped for school clothes and did most of Christmas shopping there. Sad to see it gone.
I spent hours here, playing at the arcade, sat on Santa and the Easter Bunny's lap, buying many games at the Gamestop inside, went trick or treating there with my former mother and my half brother. Will never forget this part of my childhood.
I worked in this mall in the mid to late 80's. It was like a world of it's own back then. Mainly because malls were new and people, shoppers, were enamored by it's size and it's offerings of retail options. Those days are gone now, mainly thanks to online retailers like Amazon. But, Amazon itself will suffer the same fate, someday. People tire of old and always want new. Seemingly, especially when new, was once, old.
The DeBartolo name might also be familiar if you’re a football fan, his son Edward owns the the San Francisco 49ers.
Owned.
And we all know how that went down in the late 90's.
Last I checked, Eddie D (Jr.) is enjoying life in Tampa.
AAAAHHHHH!!! NOW I get it!!!
They also owned the Pittsburgh Maulers of the United States Football League in March 1983, but folded the team after the first season (1984) when the league announced it would move to a fall schedule, the same time as the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers.
He also owned the pittsburgh penguins around the time they won their first stanley cup championship.
Tom Savini's "TerrrorMania" haunted house operated here in the 2000s. Best haunted attraction I've ever visited.
Wow. I used to hang out at Century 3. This would be the ultimate paintball arena.
I hope they don’t demolish this building. It’s a beautiful looking mall and I think restoring it would be cheaper then tearing it down and building some apartments and restaurants that probably wouldn’t have good tasting food.
until a crime occurs or it starts falling apart from the roof then i doubt they'll do anything. but what i said is somewhat likely sadly lol
It's still interesting to me how the mall still survives pretty well in Canada, but we hear so many stories of massive malls going under in the US
It is odd isn’t it?
@@BrightSunFilms cities like Barrie and London absolutely shouldn't support the malls they have, but London has two major malls, and Barrie has 1 major and two that I'm honestly shocked aren't fully abandoned
Because in Canada there is nothing else to do.
American here: went to one nice mall in London (if not so far one of my fav malls), but I did visit a dying mall in Chatham-Kent.
Speculating but, could our ‘slightly’ less hospitable weather - especially in winter, be driving more people to indoor mall spaces? and hence, more mall walkers keeping these spaces going?
That said, the pandemic and online shopping has taken a toll, my local mall has a few vacant store spaces that it never had before.
Some corporation needs to turn this malls into Art museums. Most museums are small so they have to rotate their exhibits. This way they could have permanent exhibits while maybe adding more art and doing various collections. Think Louvre.
Art Museums and movie sets.
YES!! I hadn't thought of that, and its brilliant! I had long thought abandoned malls should be converted to community center spaces for kids to have a place after school for arts and games and non-school sports. Maybe put in pools so in cold places people could still exercise by swimming in the cold months. And art museum space would be a natural fit for that sort of usage as well!!
There kind of was the same issue with a mall in a city in my country. Eventually what saved them was, they sold the mall to a major science fond, that turned the whole place from a mall to a "science museum". It wasn't as huge, but it still serves the space, and it's the biggest interactive museum, where they also have new research-related exhibitions all the time. Luckily, the government also funded it, so that made a big difference (to their advantage because it's super expensive to build new buildings from scratch). They still saved some of the interior from the mall, and they even have an exhibition of shopping in different decades, where some of the mall interior remains. It's nice to see a place like a mall, shift from materialism consumer-culture into an educating, knowledge-worthy museum. Perhaps they should also change this place from a mall to a museum, stadium, expo or something that will be useful for that amount of space. I think it would be cool for this place to become an aquarium or also even an interactive science museum, and you could even do an agreement with Penn State? I mean, there are so many opportunties, they just need to stop focusing on making it consumerist.
In Pittsburg? Really! You have to be kidding!
@@firesurfer I don't know if you've ever even been to Pittsburgh or grew up there or why you have these negative assumptions about putting museum or cultural space in that city. However, these are good ideas for a city with a thriving professional arts scene, multiple major sports teams, and more than one major university.
I have been watching your channel for a long long time and something I got to say; I love and appreciate your content. Whenever life has got me down whether it be thru several loved ones passing away, or financial hardships or eviction notices; your content however gives me a sense of escape from the World. The problems that face me no longer are on my mind when I watch these interesting educational videos you release, something that gives me the feeling of an actual virtual tour into the various abandoned and bankrupt companies never seen before. There is something different from your content that is different from others. Between the mix of the right information, as well as the music in the background that goes with the tone of the video. All of this gives me a sense of happiness and joy when watching your content. You truly are an amazing content maker.
One of my best friends worked at the Macy’s at Century III! He’s got tons of stories about this place so it’s interesting to see the history of it.
Yess Jake did another mall video! And on my birthday tooo👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Happy birthday!
i live in the area and just happened to be there on the last day that the main mall was open. just wanted to check out the old comic shop and was greeted by condemned signs everywhere but they still had the main concourse open. even from there you could see that the roof had caved in over where pennys was. when i finally made it down to the comic shop they were still cleaning up from a burst pipe that had destroyed a lot of their stock. they said they were trying to get someone down to help with repairs, they had no idea that they wouldn't be allowed to open the next day.
the mall had been in bad shape for a long time before that, even years before i remember shops with signs saying to close the doors behind you to keep the heat/ AC in since the owners wouldn't pay to control the temp for the whole mall.
its still sad though, i remember the mall from the mid 2000's was so full of life. there were always events going on during the summer. i remember a carnival would set up in the parking lot every year and pokemon even held the 2006 regional tournament at century 3. such a shame to see it go but i just don't think the mall can be salvaged at this point. hopefully the land can at least find someone willing to develop it, the local economy could really use the help right now.
What Ash says about this is all true. I'm her sister and went with her plenty of times to this mall. I also remember going to one of the bookstores that was there years ago for the selling of one of the Harry Potter books at midnight. It was soooo cool and me, Ash, and our parents went there that night.
No one never mentions the go kart track that was there called Racers. That’s where that Giant Eagle is out there now.
Trackers was the name and was on the other side of where home depot is, by the post office.
I miss this place, wish they would do something with it! Spent many days as a youth here!
Could you do an episode on the WE Charity? They’re winding down operations in Canada after a political scandal (although I think this would be better in a Bankrupt or Cancelled episode)
That could be interesting
Do enlighten me mate. This is the first time I heard of this group before...
Yes plz
Seconding this idea! I’m Canadian and heard about this all over the news when it was happening, but I have basically zero understanding of what exactly went on. A bankrupt or cancelled episode would make it a lot more interesting!
@M&H Racing, That is a great idea for a future episode.
I’m from Youngstown (where DeBartlo lived at one point)... and this happened to our mall. While still open, when Simon took over our mall...they put very little back into it. Simon was avoiding defaulting on the loan...but a few days before that several higher ups gave themselves large bonuses...even though they couldn’t “afford to pay”. Sad
What did you expect? It's Youngstown. The most exciting thing to happen in Ohio is the recent train derailment.
Adding to it's demise was also the newer malls and shopping areas like Ross Park Mall in Ross Twp. and The Point in Robinson Township (and the Robinson Mall) being two of the bigger ones along with the Waterworks like you mentioned. Areas like Washington, PA have had retail expand with Tanger Outlets (While it's own Washington Mall is also abandoned.), Greensburg Mall is also quite large as well. Refurbished malls like South Hills Village and Monroeville Mall and newer plaza type malls in Robinson where the newer Cinemark Theater is and the Foundry in Washington, PA and all the newer developments in all the surrounding areas made it where you did not need to drive all that way to Century III when you could shop at many other areas. Simon is also horrible at running these malls as they are more interested in profit than maintaining the sites and Century III shows that more than anything. Unfortunately the DeBartolo malls were all over the Pittsburgh area when Simon acquired them. The DeBartolos are ingrained in Pittsburgh sports as well being Owners of the Penguins early on and Eddie Jr also owned the San Francisco 49ers during it's championship years until it went to his sister with his fall from grace. When it opened Century III was the place to go and other area malls copied it but over time most of those malls are also gone and their sites redeveloped. This was a great piece though, glad to see it turn out well.
This was the BIG mall we used to go to once a year when I was a kid. We would all pile in the station wagon, me in the rear facing pull up seat that would never pass safety regulations now a days making faces at all the people who had the pleasure of driving behind my mom. Our normal local mall was Greengate who also went belly up years ago and sat abandoned for years. Hearing the name of either mall sling shoots me right back in time to the smoke filled food courts and fountains full of pennies and gum.
It's interesting to see different content creators offer their takes on what ultimately failed this mall. You make a really good point about how Simon didn't invest enough care and resources into the property, and about what changed around the mall. Others like Sal have pointed the finger more squarely at Moonbeam, which I think is fair too given their track record with other malls. I doubt Moonbeam could have brought Century III back, but they deliberately neglected the space and made it more unsafe so they would be forced to close it. Now they don't even want to get rid of the horrid public health hazard they left behind...if you haven't already you should watch more of Sal's videos covering different properties owned by Moonbeam.The pattern is disturbing.
This mall is 10 minutes from my house. So glad you did an episode on it.
I live the same distance also. I grew up in this mall
As someone from Pittsburgh this hits different than other abandoned videos
My local mall had clear panels on the escalators to show the mechanisms. After about 25 years, the new owners opted to over the clear panels so you couldn’t see the enormous piles of fire hazard lint stuck to the grease.
I’ve visited in 2017 to see this DeBartolo masterpiece before it officially died off.
Watching the images from the ball from the heyday of the 70s and 80s make me nostalgic for life before the Internet.
Amen!
Should be remodeled into a large self contained community with apartments, condos, retail, markets, entertainment, activity centers, health services, child care/pre-schools, open up ceilings with more natural light, convert large open areas into community park areas, etc
Agreed. Senior affordable housing community would be a great use for the space. The problem is the cost of maintenance as denoted in the video.
Man! this hits the feels button for me. I spent so much time in this mall what I was a teen. One of the last store was a Comic Book store on the small third floor.
As a resident just outside of pittsburgh, this episode pleases me.
I work at the hospital right down the street and pass this every day. Very depressing 😪
Great job yet again Jake. Always a pleasure watching ur content!
I think there should be a video of Monroeville Mall, it’s not dead yet but it’s one foot in the grave
They've still maintained their anchor stores though.
This was the closest mall to me my entire life. I did all of my school shopping and most of our Christmas shopping here, and I'm only 22. Pretty much the entire time I went here during my life I don't remember many stores being open on the top floor, aside from Cash-in Culture (RIP). The first time I really realized Century III was heading for death was when Aeropostale closed. It was wild seeing all of the stores just shut down one by one.
As a side note I went to JC Penny right before it shut down for good last year to get those sweet "going out of business" sales and I got to look into the doors that led to the interior of the mall and it looked so dead and dreary in there. Really miss this place.
This mall is an example of how big malls just don't work anymore
Big malls still work though it depends on the situation. Even though Century 3 mall was considered one of the biggest malls, there were soon other malls built to be larger than Century 3, which soon became more successful even to this day. For Century 3, I think it was a lack of redevelopment that brought its downfall; malls have to adapt to modern consumers and also be in fairly large populated areas to do well.
@@rl8429 This is true. Woodfield Mall is the largest mall in Illinois and is overflowing with people on a daily basis.
@@maciejrudolf or gurnee mills or mall of america west edmontonton mall
The King of Prussia Mall is still rockin’ & expanding, in our Philadelphia western suburbs.
Did they ever work? Just looking at the size... They took a beautiful view and put a roof on it and boxed it in... It could have been planted anywhere. Conversion to residential and office would be tricky... Even educational...not enough open space or courtyards. Sometimes I think urban planners don't plan ahead. All that space paved over. And other cities have people living in tents because property values are being driven up by campus development. Maybe this could be the future home of an Amazon or tesla campus, but I guess that solution is far too simplistic. It's just a thought (as a Beau I know loves to say😉)
growing up here in the early 2000s and seeing first hand the decline of the mall was truly the saddest
wow. i’ve been subscribed for years, and its insane seeing you make a video and talk about the mall i ran around as a child.
Last time I was this early, Six Flags New Orleans was still open
@Stella Hohenheim Plandemic from China n Dems