FOREST FAIR MALL: The Mall That Should Have Never Been? (Unicomm 1k Sub Special)
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- Опубліковано 6 лют 2025
- Welcome back to where it all started, FOREST FAIR MALL, to celebrate 1,000 subscribers with a newly re-rerecorded, re-shot, re-mastered, re-booted edition. Also, pop in with a flashback to Pop Up Video
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Music credits:
HOME-Resonance (from “Odyssey”)
Labyrinth Zone Remix: • Labyrinth Zone Remix -...
S U R F I N G-Sky High (From “Deep Fantasy”)
憂鬱 - Slow: • 憂鬱 - Slow
Was MY SPOT BACK IN THE DAY! I AM SALTY BUT LOVE THIS & ALL OF YOUR CINCINNATI & NORTHERN KENTUCKY CONTENT. IN GEORGIA NOW & HOMESICK. THIS DID THE TRICK!👏🏻🥰👏🏿🥰👏🏾🥰👏🏻🥰👏🏿🥰👏🏾🥰😍THANK YOU ENDLESSLY! Thanks EVERMORE!
great job, happy 1000!!! videos keep getting better!! we are the mall generation this was our life, they were social meca, a place to eat and see all the coolest stuff in one, kinda like the internet is now. but at the mall you talked to people face to face. food didn't come by grubhub or uber eats, you made a spur of the moment chose, by smell or taste or who else was in there. you could see the newest movies! it is good to see these malls, you do a great job!! so I guess were all along to hang out at the mall with you! the 1980s you just had to be there to get how wonderful it was!!!!
Indeed it was our life! I even worked in the mall until my early 20s. Thanks for coming along with us.
This mall was my entire childhood, and seeing it now just wows me. The playground, theater, and food court give me SOOO much nostalgia but that playground had screens. And I remember watching Nickelodeon on those screens, they ran those screens from 1998 - 2011 I believe
It did! The little TV was still in there until about a year ago when I think it may have gotten damaged and was removed.
I wish I could have dropped out of school, and just shopped and worked there. I wish my Masters in Technology Management degree could fix it.
Cocaine is a hell of a drug.
its 1990. mall is at 55 percent occupancy. repeat after me....Amazon did not kill this mall lol love that quote Kristin
Thank you for watching! I get the "it's online shopping!" reasoning for malls dying but sometimes it isn't that simple. this mall was just one lousy business decision after the next.
It’s closing at the end of July. It amazes me it has lasted to now.
@@Randomthenightguard I have so many regions on my radar, and Texas is among them. I'm trying to map out some various plans for the next year or so. Looks like rental car prices are headed down, so that's good news!
It WAS dying. But Amazon struck a death blow!
I honestly feel like remolding it to mills from forest fair killed it. Took away a lot of fun from the area. On top of heavy security chasing out kids. Not sure why they thought this was a good idea to make it modern when it was just fine. Kids nowadays have nothing to do.
I live near Cincinnati Mills and remember the big sand box from when I was young. Now, it's an ideal place to listen to vaporwave/lofi and feel like you were alive in the 80's lol
Do you know of any videos or pictures of the sandbox?
I had prominent recurring dreams about it until my friend showed me the state of this mall in 2016, and I realized the giant sandbox must have been there! But I still haven't seen any photographic evidence of its existence.
It absolutely existed. I remember my mom taking my then-infant sister to play in it a few times. It was gone by 1994 and the sand was moved into the haunted house that year as set dressing for Michael Myers lake house. I don’t have any photos of it but I can confirm you are absolutely not imagining it
@@UniCommProductions okay, thank you for confirming :)
I wish I could find a picture of it somewhere, I must have been 3 or 4 at the time and I have such a strong memory of it. Thanks for putting up this video!
Another great upload. Your channel has come so far. The title is also very fitting. The owners would have been better off literally flushing millions of dollars down the toilet.
Thank you so much--the fact that there were so many bad ideas thrown at this place, over and over, is stunning. Perhaps the only owner that got the place steered in the right direction was Gator but I don't think the growth was sustainable. It was just a terrible location to try such a thing. It's a case of trying to tell the market what it wanted instead of listening.
Wow, just... wow! Amazing video, cinematic would be an understatement lol
Thank you very much! I put a lot of myself into this one--I really love this place and wanted to give it the treatment it deserved the first time. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
This was a proper, Proper 1k special edition vid!
I live a mile from here. When I moved to Cincinnati in 2015 I was SO looking forward to visiting Cincinnati Mills. That was my first heartbreak when I moved to town. GREAT video! Every time I pass by I think about what it must have been like and hope it has a future.
Someone needs to do something with it that will be beneficial to the people who live around it. It’s too prime of a location to have a rotting mall sitting on it.
great history description Kristin! This is the best!
I have so many fond memories of that mall back in the late 80s and early 90s going to time out on the court for a good chunk of the day. I’m so glad that you are making these types of documentaries. I’ve always loved looking at how things used to be in our town. I had no idea that so many malls were built in really a short amount of time.
The custodian deserves some kind of award for how nice those floors look.
It's great to see an actual Cincinnatian review this mall! Seen many others, but your perspective is unique. As a fellow Cincinnati resident, it never made sense to build this mall!
It really didn’t but those of us of a certain age who only remember the spectacle are heartbroken just the same 😐 it hasn’t been “our mall” since around 2001 but we still love it so.
@@UniCommProductions I live very near the Kenwood Towne Centre now, the only mall really thriving in Cincinnati. But I had frequented Northgate Mall, TriCounty Mall, and Eastgate Mall during my time here. Hard to believe there was even a proposal to build the Springdale Towne Centre Mall years ago. Talk about over malled!
Thank you for uploading! I watched your first video about Forest Fair and your quality is way better than the first one, I definitely agree. This mall is such a nostalgia trip for me. I used to be in a dance group that would perform at the stage that they would put in the center area (both before and after the mall was remodeled) for Christmas/holidays so this is such a throwback for me. Thank you for posting!
Oh wow! You’re one of the people who remember old school brass and marble FFM too! (I probably watched your group perform when I was a kid lol...I went there a lot at Christmas). Thanks so much for watching!
@@UniCommProductions I definitely remember the old school brass and marble! My family used to buy all of our groceries at that Biggs and I loved going there to ride the merry-go-round and play in the "beach". I swear there used to be a book store near the Biggs wing and I'm pretty sure I bought one of the first Harry Potter novels there. I think the book store had green awning and like...street lamps? Idk that mall was so crazy.
R S Little Professor! That was before Barnes and Noble was everywhere and it seemed sooo fancy!
@@UniCommProductions The Little Professor Bookstores! I haven't heard that name in decades. I remember those bookstores in Columbus, Ohio back in the 80's and 90's.
@@felixpeelix5155 I remember the one at Forest Fair being about the size of a Barnes and Noble and going there to buy American Girl paper dolls because I couldn't afford a real one. Little Professor was awesome!
Also, I'd love to see some local news footage when it was new. Jerry Springer was one of the main anchors on WLWT in 1989 (no joke), I bet he did some coverage there
I’ve looked high and low for that sort of thing and other than some local public access footage from Forest Park, I’ve never managed to find anything.
Yeah I'm surprised there's literally nothing (unless its buried in another video, or doesn't have a good title?). I bet some exists but people who have it just might not care about digitizing and posting it, but I'll keep an eye out for any
@@xennial80sxberner I haven't found any with local anchors from a major news station, just the one from Waycross Media which is a local Forest Park thing
I loved the arcade area and the parachute rides. Omg I’d even would be addicted staring at the pool ball machine. That was so cool to see that machine. I loved going into the little professor bookstore to browse and when you’d walk out you’d 🤤 at the smell of Cinnabon.
Great new video. I've watched every video on this and every damn dead mall TBH, and you showed some new shoes I haven't seen before.
Michael Ranieri That’s why I never worry about malls we cover being done by other people-one person’s take on it and another’s will almost always be very different! Thank you for checking it out.
That was supposed to be new angles* not new shoes haha.
@@michaelranieri4481 I knew what you meant :) I speak fluent autocorrect!
2 years after your film. I've seen countless "dead mall" videos on YT and a film. This mall is my favorite! Love the pstels, the shapes, the mobils, the fantasy it evokes, the saccharin of this place! Location and competition must have killed it. A shame-I love it. Nice work showing this unique mall.
Thank you very much!
Nice video! I had my first real date here back in 1992! We saw Lawnmower Man! 🍿
That's what we lose when these places close--a repository of first dates, first jobs, and other memories.
Fantastic! Congratulations on 1000! Well-deserved. Thanks for helping document such a huge part of our culture. Being from north of the border, dead malls are here but harder to find. Many many years ago as a kid, my parents often took us on road trips through the US. The only Ohio mall I can say for sure that I went to, though, is Randall Park Mall.... RIP.... Looking forward to following you on the way to 2000+!
Thank you, Doug! Ohio was way, way overmalled which unfortunately has given us a lot of material to cover...I wish I had been into this hobby early enough to have visited Randall Park.
@@UniCommProductions Yes, I hear you, Kristen. The couple of times I've been to Akron, had I even known about it, Rolling Acres was probably in its prime (no, we're not going to get into how old I am!) but even if "dead malls" were a thing back then, they were not even on my radar....
We had a few notoriously dead ones in our part of the state that I’m now really wishing I had photos of because they are now just sort of lost to the ages...back before camera phones it was considered a waste of film/tape to document such things.
Awesome video!!!!! Great job. Congrats on 1000 subscribers.
Recently tried to visit on a sunday evening. We were asked to leave unless we were visiting the arcade. We walked in next to kohl's...got to the food court when security asked us to leave. So we said oh okay and headed to the car. We stopped to use the bathroom as we had about a 2 hour drive home. Security followed us to the bathroom, then followed us the rest of the way down corridor to the car. As we exited the mall, we were followed all the way to the doors, watched as we got in the car before he turned away. Out of the numerous times I've visited, this was the first time I felt as if we were being treated like criminals.
Since Amazon has started their presence there, the whole vibe with security has completely changed. I’m concerned that with as unwelcome as some people have been made to feel in there (including some other dead mall folks I know) that it’s going to start to hurt Arcade Legacy’s business.
@@UniCommProductions I can see that. I can kind of see where the guy was coming from. It was a late Sunday night, but if you have your doors unlocked and no barricade of where people shouldn't go after certain hours I see that as the entire mall is open outside of what store fronts are closed up.
@@christophermichael4251 with the arcade having different hours than the rest of the mall, evenings are a bit of a gray area as far as whether they are "open" or not. It's a situation they are handling inconsistently and IMO, poorly. The mall is either open or it isn't. If they don't want people running around the rest of the place they need to have it marked or something.
@@UniCommProductions completely agree. I know back in the day my local mall had these rolling gates in that they'd put across corridors that were closed. Now that would require the owners of Forest Fair (which idk who it even is) to invest.
Congrats on 1,000!!! I'm still amazed by the size of this place, how empty it is, and how it remains open for all of what, 5 businesses? Glad I could see all of this at the summit! :)
Thank you!!! 5 is correct, including the gym that when I walked by didn't appear to be open that day (and isn't accepting new members anymore). It was so nice to meet you and your BF at the summit!
@@UniCommProductions It was great meeting everyone at the summit! Hope to be able to do it again next year!
😎 it was nice to hear about the community that was using the mall and see more of the hanging fish 🐟
Spent so much time at that mall.....I worked at Metropolis...I was a dj in the country bar Rodeo..............An early 90s worked at finish line...But the best part of that mall was Cheyenne Cattle Co.....Thanks for the memories...........love it
I remember seeing Toy Story and the phantom menace there when I was little.
She was talking about seeing the Little Mermaid 10 times.♏
Such a beautiful mall compared to the other dead malls out there. Shame it never worked out for this mall. Congrats on 1000 subscribers!
This one is somewhat unusual that it was remodeled more recently than a lot of the other more prominent dead malls (2004)...most of the others it was the mid 90s or earlier. Thank you very much!
Agreed. This mall pops with a lot of color and interesting touches, but obviously it didn't save it.
Congratulations on 1,000+ subs!
Lived in the Forest Park area all my life - safe to say that it was built in the wrong place at the wrong time.
As a film student at the University of Cincinnati, I figured that this could be ample space for a full-fledged studio, with soundstages and such!
Maybe one day... I'm gonna be up for it.
I would gladly come out and use that studio! I've been in a few other malls that have makerspaces or other "workshop" type spaces. That's a pretty novel idea--the old Guitar Center space at the end would be perfect for that.
@@UniCommProductions Yeah, it would be! Just have to figure out what I'd use that space for. Same goes for the other ones. I'm gonna have to go back one more time...
I live right down Winton Rd. I was going to go walking in there to get out of the summer heat. I’m glad I watched to see there is no AC!
I worked in the mall in 89 & 90. It’s sad to find out that it was struggling even then.
Thanks for the re-do and Congrats on 1000!
It’s a great place to walk when the weather is nice but yes, it’s very hot right now. I did the interior shots this last Tuesday and during the 45 minutes or so I was there I about passed out from the heat. (The AC is nice and cool at Tri County Mall two exits away, though!)
The scary thing is when I was there I knew the old Biggs would be boarded up but you could see the lights on from the other side from looking under the boarded up area.
Wonderful video! Great commentary! I love UniComm and congrats to you Kristen and Glitterbomb too!
Congrats on 1k, Liked the video
I don't know how I managed to not watch this video. Ah Resonance inspires such great feels, great intro song
Thank you! I can’t ever not listen to it when it comes on my playlist, it’s just such a mood
It closed about a year ago. Very sad. I never got to go, but I’ve seen enough videos to know that this was my favorite mall!
The Proper People and Dan Bell have explored this mall, very good video.
Both channels I am a fan of! I grew up going to this mall, and when I saw Dan’s video it just captivated me. I started making my own a few months later.
The fact that this mall used to be the place to go on weekends never ceases to amaze me. If you were a teen/young adult from 1990/1991 - the late 90’s you came here for one of three things:
Time Out
The Super Saver Cinema (despite the seizure inducing lights😂)
Bourbon Street/Metropolis
It’s weird looking at this place now and remembering what it used to be. I spent God knows how many hours there between the three. I remember by 2008...this place was on it’s last legs. Bourbon street was long gone, Metropolis was dying if not gone by then and the cinemas were in crappy shape. I even remember Showcase was basically dead at this point. I seen a few movies there and pretty much had it to myself.
Which brings us to now...the place is a tomb ☠️ Nothing but empty store fronts and memories of what it used to be.
Oh me too. Or the absolutely HUGE Sam Goody and Little Professor going back toward the mid-90s....you’re not wrong about the lights at Super Saver. I wish someone had video of what they looked like in their heyday. They really needed to be seen to be believed.
@@UniCommProductions I spent I don't know how much $ in that Sam Goody on CD's. My favorite was Time Out during the days. I was a permanent fixture in front of the TMNT arcade machine there until they got MK that is...lol. Good memories:)
Ran across you from other Dead Mall channels and I have to say "your a great cruise director". Keep up the good work. Movin' Mark
Thank you for joining us on our voyage :)
CONGRATS ON 1000 SUBSCRIBERS!!!
Couldn’t have done it without our HYPE MAN 🐍🆒
@@UniCommProductions 👍👍!!!!
I also remember the current Jungles Jims in Eastgate being a Biggs. They also had a dope Hello Kitty Store when I was little and a Rainbow Shop when I was a teen.
Kristen should be a News Anchor. 👍🏼
They had a great entertainment area there with several bars including a country bar a sports bar and 2 dance clubs. Putt putt golf inside by the food court. Wish it would have been saved in some way. Plus Steve and Barry’s. Bought several $2 tee shirts lol it was good stuff. Good video thanks for sharing
I am fascinated with the Forest Fair Mall. I remember visiting when it first opened. I didn't know it was originally supposed to have stores like TJ Maxx and Marshalls. I really like your outdoor aeriel shots - very eye catching.
Thank you! It's a really fascinating story because of how many hubris-filled missteps they made along the way, and kept making them. I think it may have fared better had they stuck with the "value mall" plan.
@@UniCommProductions it's a weird point of pride to see how much attention Forest Fair has gotten from dead mall enthusiasts. The history is certainly a cautionary tale.
Congratulations. Loving home resonance too!!
Thanks! I had been waiting for the right time to use it! It’s one of my favorite tracks ever!
Congrats on the milestone, the first 1000 are the hardest.
Here’s hoping! You’ve been around since very early on our way here. Thanks for sticking with us!
@@UniCommProductions you guys are great. I love the shots in the car.
mike mcgregor they’re all candid; most of the time Ron doesn’t realize I’m rolling until afterward! :D
I think I was old enough to understand that this was one of the least-anticipated constructions in the area. Anyone around me who was into business saw "flop" when they saw the boasts made about it. But I did spend a lot of time wandering around, mostly because it wasn't as crowded as Kenwood Towne Center. Even with Metropolis up there, I didn't bother going. I haven't been up there since 2004, when I moved from the area to south of the river. Interesting to see it now.
My office overlooked this mall.
It was built as a huge, upscale mall in a very middle class neighborhood - within a few miles of two other malls.
A total mistake.
Congrats on 1k, Great mall tour
Love your videos and also make me sad such a weird cocktail of feelings it's the nostalgia old people used to talk about that now we feel for the obvious changes in our lifetime on the up side if FEMA use them as holding centres we can live there lol
dr Clements I wouldn’t come here for protection from a disaster...too much glass in the ceilings, too many holes in it already! Thanks for watching-hopefully it doesn’t come to that!
love that shot from the outside..show how massive that place is..wow
It is a truly imposing structure. You can’t really imagine how big it is until you’ve seen it in person but the drone footage helps
Its kinda surreal to see two kids running thru a mall and no one cares. Also! I love the pop up video style tags! Ron got he spikes to go with those line boots?
He indeed does! (He doesn't climb anymore as he's moved into another area of the industry but still has all his gear!)
Congrats on exceeding 1,000 subscribers. That really is a failing mall. Didn’t see vending machines and massage chairs like in most dead malls but could see the neglect setting in. Dollar stores and deflated fish, wow times are hard. I’ve been Subscribed to you since you had about 30 subscribers, you’ve come along way fast, here’s to the next 1,000 subscribers.
Wow, thank you for your very early support! This mall has maybe one vending machine and as far as I know, no massage chairs. It's on its last legs.
Ha! I saw Bill & Ted's Excellent adventure at That Cinema 🎥!
just discovered you through watching Sal. your video is hot i cant wait to watch your series. im from the UK i dont know of many large scale malls here that are dead. i find it fascinating. thank you
Thank you! I hope to continue to impress.
I came to this mall as a college student a handful of times. I believe originally it was supposed to be an upscale mall. But then Tri-County was right down the road.
It was originally, before Mills got ahold of it and tried to turn it into a Family Fun Center. Three of the original department store anchors were VERY high end, in the vein of perhaps Nordstrom, and Parisian/Elder Beerman would have a similar merchandise mix to Macy's. Unfortunately most of the people in town with that kind of money had to pass at least two other malls to get there.
Awesome video... I would like to ask tho have you gotten in any legal troubles? I have a few short clips but am to scared to share any
Never have, and I don’t know of anyone else who has when it’s a place like this that is open to the public. The guards can tell you to stop filming or leave, which has happened to me a few times, but they’re not cops so that’s really all they can do.
@@UniCommProductions thank you
Saw Jason goes to Hell at the Super Saver Cinemas. It was the best experience of my 12 year old life. Also, they had a really good Haunted House in the mall for a few years!.. Miss that place
I remember the Haunted House! It was actually put on by the same people who were set up at the Dent schoolhouse a few years later. It was pretty scary.
I live in Fairfield and go to this mall pretty often, mostly to play at the arcade legacy and reminisce about what this mall used to be.
Question: do you have a list of the original tenants? I have searched and can’t find anything.
I do, and if you have access to the Cincinnati Enquirer's archives (you can get access through the Hamilton County library's for free if you have a library card), it appeared on page B-13 of the January 12, 1989 issue of the Enquirer.
Original anchors:
Biggs
B. Altman
Sakowitz
Bonwit Teller
Parisian
Elder Beerman
Original tenants: (Page B-13 of January 12, 1989 Enquirer has list)
Gantos
AGACI
Rave
Petite Sophisticate
Ups N Downs
Casual Corner
Caren Charles
579
Fredericks of Hollywood
DEB
August Max
Combinations
J Riggins
JW’s
Bennetton
County Seat
Windsor Shirt Co
Oak Tree
Merksarners
Getz Jewelers
Eldridge Jewelers
Gordons
JB Robinson
Michaels Hairstyling and Skincare
Bankhardts
Lenscrafters
On Stage
Sunglass World
Better Home Products
Sunglass Hut
Silk Greenhouse
K&K Toys
Beauty Fair USA
Hair Club
Spencers Gifts
Electronics Boutique
Cut it Out
Marketvision Research
USA Sports
Cabaret
Claire’s
Merle Harmon Fan Fair
After Thoughts
Earring Tree
Knots & Socks
Hallmark
Fiesta Hair Salon
Amnews Newsstand
Record Bar
Everythings $1
CPI Photo
Time Out
Super Saver Cinemas
Koala Klubhouse
Restaurants
Wallaby Bobs
Heartthrob Cafe
Athens Gyro
Hawaiian Sno
Skolniks Bagel Bakery and Deli
Philly USA
Sadies Buffet Cafeteria
Pizza Hut
Jade Garden
BW-3
Taco Bell
Hot Dog on a Stick
Ruby Tuesday
Sbarro
Great American Cookie Company
Gold Star Chili
Chili Supreme
Great American Steak and Fry
Munchies
Moms Cinnamon Roll
Steves ice Cream
Blue Chip Cookies
Popcorn and Pretzel Fest
Marcilles Hot Dogs
@@UniCommProductions thank you! I do have a library card and will make a trip to the nearest branch soon!
@@UniCommProductions Frederick's of Hollywood.! and they still are in business (elsewhere!)
I remember when forest fair mall had the Ferris wheel and carousel and putt putt golf course inside and the 2 movie theaters that showed good movies now that mall looks more like a ghost mall maybe Patrick swayzy from the movie ghost might be haunting that mall
Sources say if you stand on the parking deck in a breezy day you can hear "She's like the wind" whistling through the broken skylights.
I remember going to the Katy Mills mall after the 2009 housing crash, and they had a bunch of dollar stores. It seems like they actually bounced back though... at least before COVID
The majority of the Mills properties have done very well; they had 3 significant failures out of 17 of the “Landmark Mills” malls.
Awesome hitting 1000! On to 10,000! I remember always going to Bigg's on the second level. It took almost the entire wing on 1 side!
Biggs was such a huge store to all of us back in 1988 when Meijer and Walmart Supercenter weren’t a thing yet (and when they opened they sold name brand stuff like Reebok and Jordache Jeans). Thanks so much-we are doubling down on the content so hopefully it doesn’t take as long as it seems like it could!
We once had a game show celebrity and a big time fun even at forest fair mall! For those who remember “Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego” we had that game show going on at forest fair mall and everyone got to meet the chief!
I LOVED that game show...I would have been there if I'd known about it, I was the right age!
Nice choice of music!
LOVE the retro decor and I have some early memories there, but it's a shame not only did they waste so much effort building this mall, but it really never had any glory days. But yeah putting an upscale expensive mall in a middle-class area not even located near any freeways didn't help lol
It’s got full frontage on I-275 (that’s what road you can see cars backed up on in the intro) but I guess it’s kind of far from 75 which would be a more “major” freeway. It definitely has never been prosperous for any significant length of time.
Yeah it was just way overambitious, even for the time when malls were popping up constantly. It's kind of sad that unlike other dead malls, it never had 10-20 years of a heyday, but declined almost instantly.
Have you seen the mannequin hands someone threw up in the fabric sling which hangs from the ceiling in the Kohl's wing? LOL
No! I feel bad I missed that!
A great place for a university and a few restaurants and affordable apartments.no other idea will stand a “ ghost “ of a chance.
Literally anything that’s useful to the community would be better than an empty mall
Putting Bonwit Teller and B. Altman’s, two upscale New York retailers in a working class market in Forest Park and Fairlfield makes about as much sense as putting a Nordstrom’s in Compton or the Chesterfield Square section of South Los Angeles..
Maybe not quite to that extreme but agreed...but at the time Cincinnati was quite fond of the Lazarus' and McAlpins we already had.
I remember coming here a few years ago and that shoe at the end was still there.
Interestingly no one in the comments here mentions the iconic kinematic sculpture the place had in the 1990s before it was renovated to what we see today. Most people just think it was a fever dream because there is no evidence of it, not a single picture exists. I was able to find out a reference to the piece. The only paper evidence that it exists is a citation in a catalog by the person who created it, George Rhoads and the sculpture was entitled "Ball Game". The catalog of Mr. Rhoads work was published in 2011, which I believe the piece had been taken out of the mall by then. No one actually knows what happened to the piece but it was assumed to be auctioned off. Mr. Rhoads is still alive to my knowledge but he's 94 with failing health.
Interestingly the Pyramid Management Group bought out Forest Fair mall for about a month in 1990 before reselling it. Pyramid also owns a very similar looking kinematic machine by George Rhoads made in 1986 (2 years before forest fair opened) located at Salmon Run Mall, NY, which may have been a correlation for them buying the dying mall in the first place. Unfortunately the renovations in the 2000s made the mall look so much worse and there are little photos from the 1990s period so this video doesn't do justice to what the mall once was.
I remember the sculpture well! I have had no luck finding photos or video of it over the last few years I've been looking...but I spent many hours in my childhood watching it go around and around. It moved a few times throughout the mall's life, I remember it being in the arcade area then later it moved into a spot off the center court There's so much great information in your comment! I didn't know about the Pyramid connection, that's very interesting!
Excellent documentation of this once thriving mall. It's soon to become a giant parking lot. My guess is too many malls and too many shopping choices. All have to compete with on line sales.
During this era in Cincinnati there were WAY too many malls--there are literally 3 other malls within 10 minutes of this place and only one of them is doing even remotely well (and by "remotely well" I mean "not on its last legs and in danger of closing"). The greater Cincinnati area as a whole had 10 malls in 1986 when this project was greenlit, way way oversaturated.
@@UniCommProductions On a side note, Century 3 Mall, the doors are boarded up and there was a fire in the food court area yesterday. Sad.
@@bertram_oredrock That poor place. They need to either tear it down or fix it up. Having it sit there and rot is a shame, and I have a million questions about that fire.
@@UniCommProductions They later announced it was in the maintenance area not the food court so even though there's not much going on there that part would probably have utilities on still and some traffic.
Love the unicorn
Gorgeous mall! A lot of cool areas! Such a shame.
You know. If they followed protocol, with barriers and social distancing that food court could be a banging work area for those who have to work at home during the pandemic.
That's actually been suggested by a few people. I know a local blogger/photographer who has posted from there that is using it as a work space.
I walked the whole thing when down on business 9/2018.
"Amazon didnt kill this mall" 6:29
I repeat these words far too many times
SAME! I feel like I'm constantly explaining that there is way, way more to the modern retail world than "Amazon did it!" (Quite literally responding to comments of that nature on other videos as we speak, in fact!)
We were just up there. My nephew and I. Look under Pkace 2B. The ceiling is gone. And some guy,who goes by the n.v ame,Buck Wild50,was driving around inside the parking garage!!!! It is tagged up bad
To add,he has a video on You tube. Buck Wild50. It was done about a month ago.
Oh it’s so bad-the ceiling under the nightclub in the garage has been gone since at least last summer which was the last time I felt ballsy enough to sneak up there.
Is this Buckwild person someone you know? They have stolen thumbnails on their videos from two people I know personally. That’s not an ok thing to do.
@@UniCommProductions Nope. I found it on UA-cam. I watched it,and I was like,wth?? He's not even from here. You have to check it out.
@@angeloakes3192 I watched a couple of them and they're...interesting. We all start somewhere.
Great video! I would have loved to have seen this place in its better days
The Mills remodel was such a downgrade. I miss the "old" Forest Fair.
What stores are even still open?
Kohl's, Bass Pro, a little kids' bouncy house place, and Arcade Legacy, a retro arcade and game store.
I hope there are sincere plans for forest village and Tri county mall as well.I would like them to “ try” something new.
Tri County is toast when Macy’s leaves, it may even close before Forest Fair does
@@UniCommProductions you’re right.not even the few restaurants will save it.I wasn’t aware that forest village had a closing date.
It doesn’t. It could close tomorrow or it could never close. It’s such an enigma.
It just screams 90's.
Who needs the stinkin Mall when you have Bass Pro Shops? They are a mall all by themselves
That’s no joke. If they’d left there would probably be no mall
You didn't mention Bourbon Street!!!???
So sad to see another one go. It closed on December 2, 2022. All future developers should know this: Never build a mall too close to another mall.
It went out with a whimper, which doesn’t seem fair. I really wanted to go in there one last time and have no closure now! :(
This mall in it’s original form never would have made it even in the right area of town. The anchors were far too upscale for the market. Cincinnatians are notoriously cheap. Personally though, it was right up my alley. I drove to it from Kentucky. My little brother loved Time Out.
We loved it, but we weren't from the neighborhood (I grew up closer to Eastgate Mall). I think it was great for kids but the retailers in the "original configuration" were way too upscale for the city in general (and the wealthier people in town had a brand-spankin'-new Kenwood Towne Centre to go to).
They had a biggs at one point too.
They did, and that was mentioned. The Bigg's actually outlasted most of the other anchors. I have another video that's Jungle Jim's Part II that covers the Eastgate Bigg's and the small mall that it was attached to.
Thanks for Acd adventures to help you to get 1000 subscribers
Indeed! He most definitely helped us get over the final hill
You wonder about this 'cause it definitely falls into the category of:"Why would they built it in the first place."The other two malls could've been made more accommodating instead of building this place.
It was way way too much shopping within a 10 mile radius especially considering how large all 3 of those malls are. They’re all over a million square feet.
Sorry to make a lot of comments on this but I even got to meet the chief from where in the world is Carmen San Diego there.
It warms my heart to hear from someone who loves this stuff as much as I do!
Good video but wish you wouldnt change the color as youre filming certain mall areas.
The areas shown in the color filters are the same but from 18 months earlier in our first video...so the “new” footage is of the same parts of the mall, just newer and shot with a better camera. (That’s not something we will repeat going forward, it was just for the 1k special to contrast the difference between where we started and where we are now.)
@@UniCommProductions I just watched this again and now see your comment. Sorry, i didnt realize this the first time but did the second time lol.
Is this mall still open? Im hoping to make the trip to see it before its to late.
Is this where Mark Summers filmed Slime Time Live?
Oh Yes. The Nickelodeon mall. No that still happened in Florida though.
This place looks and feels very strange!!! How ominous it would be to walk around this place with the music in the video you chose blaring....
I purposely picked stuff that was a little spacey and otherworldly...the actual intercom system has been off in there for a long time.
Steve and Barry’s, lol. I loved that store, but I knew they’d go out of business. You’d see racks stuffed with hoodies and shirts from dinky schools located in other parts of the country. I inventory control at all.
Steve and Barry’s always seemed like they were on shaky ground. I can’t imagine their profit margins were exactly high considering how cheap they were.
Does anyone think MOA should have this creative design to their stores? It would make it feel less modern and more nostalgic! (I mean the original design of course)
It's like Pittsburgh Mills, never should have been built in the first place. I always say PM was built as a dead mall. Those coin funnels are a for profit business. Everyone assumes they're for charity. But I roll pennies in them too.
Hopefully nobody buys it an turn it into a Megachurch.
Oh god, I hope not, if there’s anything we have too many of in Cincinnati besides malls it’s those
@@UniCommProductionsSeen it happen alot in Cincy. Past this place alot last summer on my way to work and never went in.
Yelloweyeball It’s a pretty common reuse for big empty mall spaces I agree, partially because they can usually get them for next to nothing.
@@UniCommProductions In my opinion, they should have just made something like the Eastgate mall in Glen Este but for Forrest Park. 1 story and economical. That one has suffered a little but isn't quite dead. They have decent gaming stores and i'm surprised they still have an FYE.
Ew, that'd be the last thing we'd want. I'm gonna make sure that it doesn't happen.
I heard something about Kohl's leaving
I keep hearing that in general chatter but I don't know how much truth is in it. For whatever it's worth that Kohl's is perhaps the largest in the city and always seems to be busy, and there isn't another one very close by.
@@UniCommProductions Maybe contact someone there about it?
I’m in town today maybe I’ll go do some “investigative reporting” :)
@@UniCommProductions Ok
I went to this mall for the first time in 1998. It was half full then. It was incredible how lifeless it was considering how bustling Tri-County and Northgate were.
So you got to see it in its pre-Mills glory days, too! I miss that look so much.
UniComm Productions, it was super glamorous. I always felt like I was missing the point because I was poor. Apparently I was not.
My mom and dad went to the grand opening of the mall private party Marge shot owner of the Cincinnati Reds Carl ventner Carl litner owner of Ud f many other high profiles.
May spent they spent $250000 for the grand opening party, according to my mom.
That man should have a stayed and Australia.
That man should stayed and Australia.
He certainly took the people of Forest Park and Fairfield for a ride, and now we've got a big empty building we didn't need that we have to figure out something to do with.
Herscu was an idiot. He purchased Bonwit Teller, B Altman, Sakowitz and a part of Parisian with no retail experience. The location of the mall and anchoring it with luxury retailers unknown to the Cincinnati market was foolish. As one commenter already said they saw the writing on the wall before ground even broke. The discount mall vision may have had the chance to survive but never the luxury version. Sakowitz was only in the Southwest - Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. Parisian was primarily in the Southeast with Bonwits and Altman's primarily in the Northeast. Bonwit Teller had the most national presence of any of them.
The decisions on the anchors may be the worst decision they made, I agree. As a local I can confirm no one in my family was stoked to shop at any of them and don’t remember even going in there much.
Hubris and greed killed the mall. LJ Hooker did not take the market into consideration.
You are 100% correct with that assessment! They thought they could tell people what they wanted and not the other way around.
This mall has one of the worst aestetics i've ever seen. When it was renovated to look like this? It's 100% certain it looked nicer in it's original look.
You are absolutely correct and I agree with you, having seen it back when it was a late 80's marble paradise. It was remodeled between 2003-2004 and reopened with the "new" look in August 2004.
@@UniCommProductions They absolutely butchered it. From marble to plastic. Jesus fucking christ! Early 2000's American mall design looks absolutely hideous and dated. I just watched a video of Pittsburg Galleria Mall which was built in 2005 and it happens to look even worse. This mall looks like it could have been a movie set for an Olsen twins movie back in 1998.
ua-cam.com/video/vgHnPhVjATM/v-deo.html just found this