Oh man. I was singing the actual lyrics to Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood as the music was playing. Oh the memories of a simpler time when mankind was just a little less cruel and divided (for me it was around 1982 as my first recollection of watching Fred Rogers. While I’m at it - Today’s Special, Zoobilee Zoo, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Shining Time Station and Square One were the shows that my grandmother allowed me to watch while my mother was at work - that, and Bonanza and Hawaii Five-O on Philadelphia’s TV 48 back in 1982 before I was old enough to go to school. Anyway, when Fred Rogers died, I cried like a baby. He was just so full of positivity.
I started humming that tune at the beginning too....a much simpler time without internet... Cell phones.... Social media. Social media back then was having a Party Line on your house rotary phone! 🤣
That opening gave me a chill and inspired me for better things to come. The quote and music and imagery was worthy of Mr. Rodgers. Thank you for reminding me at least that good things are still to come.
I live just down the street. I believe this mall started to hit hard times when the Waterfront came in. West Mifflin, especially the area around the mall, has started to go through some revitalization. There is talk of trying to salvage the area and turn it into office space surrounded by park, walking paths, etc. She was glorious and one of a kind in her day. Tough to watch what has happened to her. We were able to get in and take a last walk through before they locked her down...got a few pics to remember her. Thanks for the videos over the years.
One of the absolute HIGHLIGHTS of our summer trips to visit the grandparents in Greenfield was a sojourn to the really funky, really NEAT Century III, over the Mon and beyond the hills above Homestead. It. Was. BEAUTIFUL. I loved the quirky ramps, the absolutely-asymmetric layout, the sudden emergence of THREE floors at the east end (and that ice cream in the food court!), the glorious lighting, and that crazy-tall artwork..... "On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again."
It was built on a slag dump for decades they would dump slag here from the steel mills. Can not glorify a turd lol btw online shopping killed this mall and others as well.
@@tuckersdoghouse2018 not so sure about that. South Hills Village just a few miles away is still going strong. You can't just point to online shopping...although that was A factor.
3:20 Moonbeam Crapital = an incarnation of Premier Ventures (of Rolling Acres fame)... meaning this place will sit abandoned for years and rot away like Rolling Acres :(
This was beautiful, Anthony. To me, this seems even more post-apocalyptic than Rolling Acres. I mean there's something so eerie about such a mammoth structure, still intact with the power on and transformers humming, boarded up and dormant. Thousands of parking spaces empty other than garbage. Like it could spring to life tomorrow if only the people would come back.
Moonbeam really deserves a swift kick and that’s putting it mildly, for what they did to this once gorgeous and thriving property. This saddens me greatly.
Tax laws need to be changed so the three horsemen of the mallpocalypse -- Moonbeam, Namdar, and Kohan -- can't continue to profit from being slumlords.
I used to go to this mall pretty often many years ago. I live in Connellsville and our malls at the time was not worth going to. Even though it took us 45 minutes to get there, it was worth it. I still miss the stores from the 90’s.
It IS a beautiful city, but the area was absolutely CRUSHED by deindustrialization. Both of my parents grew up there, but they moved to Baltimore (!) in the early '70s for better opportunities. I will always think of it as my "spiritual" home, but good jobs are hard to find unless you're in healthcare (I am) or education, especially tech.
Yes it is! Plus the people, as a whole, are very friendly and inviting. Years before Google Maps (and MapQuest), I found myself lost in downtown. Nearly immediately someone recognized my deer-in-the-headlights look and offered assistance. After I failed to understand directions via landscape markers, they pulled out pen and paper and drew me a map. LOL.
@@mellowlady6976 Your comment made me smile, and instantly think of 'Pittsburgh Dad'. If your not familiar with him, go to UA-cam, and type in 'Pittsburgh Dad gives directions', second only to 'Pittsburgh Dad finding Pizza Hut'. Warning: you will laugh. He is HILARIOUS!! *Pittsburgh Dad for Mayor!!!*
When I need to get rid of a mattress or an old refrigerator I just call up the same company that picks up the regular trash. They send a guy out and pick it up next day. I cant understand loading and hauling stuff like that just to dump behind a mall or anywhere.
If you look at it from the road heading up to the WalMart above, it looks like a location you’d discover in a Fallout game. With all the weeds growing out of the cracked pavement.
Ace thanx for the extra photos of pgh. spot on.i left in 2001 great memories of pgh. only been home 2 or 3 times since . Excellent video of Century 3 Mall. I thought it was already demolished, I see this is not been done yet. Thank you for this. Keep safe.
I never would've thought this would be the end for Century III. I never thought there wouldbe an end of it back when I was a little kid visiting this mall with my mom in the late 80s and early 90s. Sad to see!
The dance moms cast performed inside the mall in late 2012. If you want to look at what the inside looked like around 2012 just look up “dance Moms century iii mall performance”
I love the introduction. I grew up in Moundsville, WV about 40 minutes from Pittsburgh and it always amazed me how you would be driving through all these mountains and all of a sudden they were gone as soon as you go though the tunnel.
C3 was my FAVORITE mall in my late teens/early 20s (in the 1990s). That was definitely the spot to hit to get our "going out" outfits for hitting the clubs in The Strip. 😁 Seeing it abandoned is so sad to me. I remember it being hard to get a good parking space on a weekend!
That bricked up “doorway” was exactly that, it was an secondary entrance for one of the anchors, I think Kaufman’s but was blocked up during the renovations back in the late 90’s
Thank you for an awesome video preserving the end of its life. The structure will be gone someday. I live close to CIII. It was a magnificent mall. DiBartolo was on his game. There was an organized walkthrough right before it closed. Very sad and eerie but cool as well.
I live about two and a half hours north of Pittsburgh. As a kid every day I'd hear on tv the Century III Chevrolet Commercial! Of course they always ended it with "Minutes From The Mall" All my life I've lived here and never made it down to that mall! As a kid I use to beg my parents to go check it out! But they never would! So I never got to see it when it was alive and doing well! So it's pretty sad for me to see this, knowing I'll never be able to shop there. I've heard as well that they want to level the place. I know it was built on top of a landfill, so there's some serious issues with that!
This is the eeriest dead mall video I've watched. The mall and the general area as it exists now, if one can call it existing, almost has a Centralia, PA feel about it. Like Centralia, it seems like something is on the verge of caving in here.
I grew up near west Mifflin, it’s a nice area. I went to century 3 mall several times Over the years... I just think malls are becoming obsolete and the waterfront being built also played into effect
I'm relieved it isn't very damaged on the outside(vs. how the exterior was like before closing), in the just over 14 months since the last inline stores moved out(February 2019). My gut feeling is that it'll probably sit abandoned for a while, until some new development plan emerges. If there was talk last year that demolition would start by March 2020 on C3 and it hasn't yet happened, I'm not holding my breath demolition will occur for a while here. Thanks for your exterior walkthrough, to show what C3 is like now.
I agree. I grew up in the area and lived there through the mid-2000's, and The Waterfront really killed C3. Add in the general shift away from indoor shopping malls and it was a death blow.
Beautiful opening and homage to my hometown of Pittsburgh! I live 2 miles from the Ross Park Mall but have been to C3 several times years ago. I attend classes at the community College that has a campus near the C3 mall. I drove past it last summer just out of curiosity after class. It was dark and not really a place I desired to linger. Sad to see this place in such disarray. The roads are absolutely trash but most of our roads in Pittsburgh are. The C3 roads are apocalyptic in nature. This was the spot to go from all around the city. If you couldn't find it here in the North Hills, you went to C3. Sad developers went ham in the region and poped these new malls out like crazy. Looking at you Pittsburgh Mills. Just a absolute waste.
So I live in West Mifflin, which is a weird borough as it is split into two sides. CIII is on the less rough side, though both sides are fairly quiet, middle class areas.
Ah good ol' Pittsburgh. My 2nd home city. I have fond memories of taking the bus from downtown Duquesne University to Ross Park Mall, Century III Mall, and Robinson Town Centre on lazy weekends as a college student. Sometimes I was afforded the generosity of free rides from fellow dormies with cars, and sometimes had the luxury of paying for a cab. I remember how big these malls, especially Century III felt to me, though I went out to Robinson a lot as I recall because of all of the restaurants. But I did shop quite a lot at Century III.
Great video- sad- but well documented. I grew up in this mall almost every summer (my grandparents lived down 51 in Clariton) when I'd visit family. It was always busy.
A lot of people will tell you that the demise of this mall was due to the opening of the nearby Waterfront in 1999. I believe the decline started years earlier. I can remember shopping in one of the mall's department stores known as 'Lazarus" in the mid 90's and noticed that the higher-end leased spaces (Claiborne, Nautica, Polo,...) had moved out. Again, several years before the Waterfront opened. The Waterfront accelerated the decline of Century 3 but you can't overlook the great loss in manufacturing and blue collar jobs nearby that lead to the lack of $$$ to support both properties plus South Hills Village. Too bad, C3 was a great mall; huge place, large food court and wide walkways. RIP.
I grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Bridgeville, PA for several years of my childhood. I remember coming to this mall every Friday night with my dad, brother, and sister and get a large pepperoni pizza at the old Italian Village Pizza. It's so sad what happened to this mall over the years. Last time I visited this place was in 2017 with a friend and the mall only had about 5-10 stores open, and a few of those were actually closed for the day. I even have a friend I've known since I was 6 years old that worked at the OLD, old Cash N' Culture that used to be up on the second floor (which eventually moved to the Annex right outside Westmoreland Mall). She goes by the name Denise if anybody might know or remember her! I had a lot of memories of this mall and it was such a huge staple of my childhood. I think what greatly contributed to the decline of this place was the competition from the Waterfront complex in Homestead that opened in the 90s. That, along with the declining of retail businesses in general as most of them are either closed or have converted to entirely online entities, really pushed this mall down the drain. Rest In Peace, Century 3! Plus, your videos are great! Keep it up
Seeing this mall in the state generally makes me sad. I remember spending much of my young childhood at this mall. I remember going to the pet store on the lower level with my mom when I was around 5. I remember making my first big buy at the GameStop there when I bought an Xbox 360. I remember always asking my parents to take the “cool way” ramp from mall dr. closest to 885. The last time I walked in the mall was when I was 18 years old, 8 years after I got my Xbox. I remember that gorgeous fountain. I was meeting my prom date there and when I was early I toured the mall. I hope something really good does come out of it. My mom always said it went downhill after the bus stop got put in there..
This part of west mifflin is not bad but east of here in Mkeesport is not a good area and what happened was that the port authority bus system had a stop here at C3 and it brought a lot of issues. Plus south hills village mall is about a half hour from C3 and is a MUCH better place and also the waterfront in homestead is about 15 minutes away. I grew up at C3 and spent many of my young years here. I was at C3 a month before it closed and it was honestly so eerie
That place you asked if it was a doorway, it was. For horne’s, lazuraus, and I believe Kaufman’s furniture. The sealed it at one point I believe since there was one not too far away. As for the decline it started when they lost the families, they were building newer complexes nearby, and Walmart coming in didn’t help. Worked in the area for 16 years, and saw the steady decline, businesses couldn’t afford the rent, the waterfront opened, Simon started the fall and moonbeam finished it.
I'm pretty sure some of those blocked up entrances were for the old anchor Montgomery Ward on that side, they had an entrance and an auto repair part. The garage was added a couple of years after opening, and the reason it is so unstable is that is was built on an old slag dump, and the whole area is undermined.
I believe those covered doors down below were from Wards/Horns/Lazarus and when Lazarus became Macy's Furniture there was ghetto remodeling and the bottom level of Macy's was just a very small show room so they most likely walled in the old outside access doors from the bigger older stores.
14:29 At Rotting Acres the guy who owned the storage company in the former Target (that storage company now resides in the former Macy's at Chapel Hill Mall which is itself dying) had installed cameras aimed toward the mall; that's how Dan Bell got caught while he was filming the mall... I wonder if someone similarly set up cameras at C3...???
Is that the storage business at Rolling Acres that set up shop inside a former anchor before it was demolished, and posted a warning sign inside the mall that if their interior entrance was damaged, that they would prosecute anyone doing so? And I think that sign said something like 'turn away now, before you are prosecuted'? Forget the exact words of that sign, but it said something to that extent during the years Rolling Acres stopped being a mall, up till its demolition. Didn't realize it was those cameras set up by that business, as to how Dan Bell got caught.
I appreciate your video. I was security there back in the mid 90s. I do not believe there is any security there now. I've remained in contact with some of the security there and know they were direct employees of the mall so I believe when it closed they were gone. Not sure if an outside company was hired or if West Mifflin Police patrols the property. Also, I believe that was an entrance that you asked about. I believe a store called Lazarus took over Hornes. If i remember correctly that entrance was removed while Lazarus was still there. Looking at those docks.. I remember each night going in and checking the corridors to the stores.
Anthony, I gotta tell ya that I was fully prepared to hate this presentation -- I mean, who wants to see the OUTSIDE of a mall? However, it was kind of cool to see the boarded-up doors and get a sense of its outside condition, and it never hurts to hear your off-the-cuff remarks about the place, either. As to the idea that it might become 'another Rolling Acres,' I tend to agree with you wholeheartedly. The funny thing is, I'd rather not see that happen, yet there's a part of me that really wishes that it might actually DO that, if only because I never got around to seeing Rolling Acres firsthand. Anyhow, Anthony, thanks for this "cozy" outdoor mall walk, and it is with all sincerity that I say that I hope you make it in again someday.
Wikipedia weirdly enough, did not have a list of former DeBartolo malls. But I did find a partial list of ex-DeBartolo malls, including some that no longer are open and demolished(i.e. Woodville Mall): debartolodevelopment.com/about-us/legacy/ Some history on DeBartolo Corportation: www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/the-edward-j-debartolo-corporation-history/
It already has been. Go to the West Mifflin police department website and there are pictures and videos of looks like 5 20 some year olds skateboarding by Sears. I guess that was what the $5 million was spent on video cameras. The police are asking for help in identifying them.
People say that when Simon took over this mall and South Hills Village that they let C3 fall by the wayside because SHV was more desirable to them. And, of course, the Waterfront in Homestead didn’t help.
Plus down the road a little bit behind Southland shopping center behind Panera bread used to be a movie theater they finally tore that on after years of being empty
i used to go to this mall because i got my braces on and maintained in the old sears before it moved. it was in decline back then and that was maybe 10-ish years ago? also you know it’s sad when you go to the dead malls wiki page and a photo of this mall is one of the first photos in the article.
What's the business case for owning an abandoned mall? Even at a fire sale price the owners spent a lot of money to buy the mall and there's recurring costs to own the thing - even if its boarded up.
Great video! Question though, how is Moonbeam (or any landlord/owner) collecting taxes on a dead mall? Here in Canada the landlord would be paying taxes every year on it. Property taxes among other things. Also wish you had a selfie stick to possibly see over those boarded up entrances. Nice video!
Reason why these properties sit and rot is because it's expensive to demolish them. Life after people documentary live in its natural progression. Too bad as the mall looked nice inside when it was open and lively.
Those steel beams are here at the Trumbull Mall (Trumbull Connecticut) outside the Target anchor store. SONO Collection is the newest mall off exit 15 in Norwalk CT. Trumbull and CT Post Mall in Milford are slowly becoming empty malls. There's making the empty anchor parts of the mall apartments?
I always wonder what these giant developers must end up making on these malls (rents) over the years to make it worth just letting them rot away.. i imagine they make money back and a profit long before these malls die. Definitely creepy as hell tho.
That vehicle reminds me of the security vehicle at Cincinnati mall that Sal from the Expedition Log and Ron and Kristin from Unicomm Productions filmed in their videos.
It certainly shows a mall just rotting away. Said it before, Moonbeam have a lot to be accountable for, but they won't and this will turn into another Rolling Acres. It'll be sad to see the slow vandalism/destruction of the mall.
I'm sure the reason why it closed on they opened up the waterfront down in homestead and just changing all the times you can buy online anymore so it's a shame that place was about abandoned it was a cool place to go to
OK, that opening was world-class. Bravo!
Oh man. I was singing the actual lyrics to Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood as the music was playing. Oh the memories of a simpler time when mankind was just a little less cruel and divided (for me it was around 1982 as my first recollection of watching Fred Rogers.
While I’m at it - Today’s Special, Zoobilee Zoo, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Shining Time Station and Square One were the shows that my grandmother allowed me to watch while my mother was at work - that, and Bonanza and Hawaii Five-O on Philadelphia’s TV 48 back in 1982 before I was old enough to go to school.
Anyway, when Fred Rogers died, I cried like a baby. He was just so full of positivity.
Anyone that didn't cry when Mr. Rogers passed away belongs in a locked cell.
I started humming that tune at the beginning too....a much simpler time without internet... Cell phones.... Social media. Social media back then was having a Party Line on your house rotary phone! 🤣
I watched these same exact shows! Hardly anyone remembers Zoobilee Zoo!
@@colinsdad1 -- To THINK that was "truly sophisticated" back then -- and possibly MORE-social than our current "smartass" phones.
Had no idea what tune that was.
That opening gave me a chill and inspired me for better things to come. The quote and music and imagery was worthy of Mr. Rodgers. Thank you for reminding me at least that good things are still to come.
I live just down the street. I believe this mall started to hit hard times when the Waterfront came in. West Mifflin, especially the area around the mall, has started to go through some revitalization. There is talk of trying to salvage the area and turn it into office space surrounded by park, walking paths, etc. She was glorious and one of a kind in her day. Tough to watch what has happened to her. We were able to get in and take a last walk through before they locked her down...got a few pics to remember her. Thanks for the videos over the years.
One of the absolute HIGHLIGHTS of our summer trips to visit the grandparents in Greenfield was a sojourn to the really funky, really NEAT Century III, over the Mon and beyond the hills above Homestead. It. Was. BEAUTIFUL. I loved the quirky ramps, the absolutely-asymmetric layout, the sudden emergence of THREE floors at the east end (and that ice cream in the food court!), the glorious lighting, and that crazy-tall artwork..... "On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again."
It was built on a slag dump for decades they would dump slag here from the steel mills. Can not glorify a turd lol btw online shopping killed this mall and others as well.
@@tuckersdoghouse2018 not so sure about that. South Hills Village just a few miles away is still going strong. You can't just point to online shopping...although that was A factor.
Sears loading dock. A place to enter. The owners didn't think about that.
3:20 Moonbeam Crapital = an incarnation of Premier Ventures (of Rolling Acres fame)... meaning this place will sit abandoned for years and rot away like Rolling Acres :(
Don't they still pay taxes on this?
This was beautiful, Anthony. To me, this seems even more post-apocalyptic than Rolling Acres. I mean there's something so eerie about such a mammoth structure, still intact with the power on and transformers humming, boarded up and dormant. Thousands of parking spaces empty other than garbage. Like it could spring to life tomorrow if only the people would come back.
Moonbeam really deserves a swift kick and that’s putting it mildly, for what they did to this once gorgeous and thriving property. This saddens me greatly.
snomans Do you think it had to do with NAFTA? North American Free Trade Agreement.
Moonbeam need to be launched to the moon for their shady, karma Houdini nonsense.
JCPenney: Well I have survived another mall closing once again I see.
Tyler Gantert And they will still be there until 2022 at least.
I worked there 8 +years ago in the portrait studio... JCP
is probably the spookiest part of this video.
Tax laws need to be changed so the three horsemen of the mallpocalypse -- Moonbeam, Namdar, and Kohan -- can't continue to profit from being slumlords.
Especially Kohan.
Amen, do not forget Mills
I used to go to this mall pretty often many years ago. I live in Connellsville and our malls at the time was not worth going to. Even though it took us 45 minutes to get there, it was worth it. I still miss the stores from the 90’s.
Dead Malls are so relaxing 😌
You're so right.
Amazon…..
A lot of people knock on Pittsburgh, but I think it is a beautiful city
I beg to differ. I'm from Pittsburgh and I don't even live that far from this mall.
It IS a beautiful city, but the area was absolutely CRUSHED by deindustrialization. Both of my parents grew up there, but they moved to Baltimore (!) in the early '70s for better opportunities. I will always think of it as my "spiritual" home, but good jobs are hard to find unless you're in healthcare (I am) or education, especially tech.
One of the best views of the city is coming inbound out of the Fort Pitt Tunnels. Amazing view of the 'burgh, and the Point/North Shore to the left.
Yes it is! Plus the people, as a whole, are very friendly and inviting. Years before Google Maps (and MapQuest), I found myself lost in downtown. Nearly immediately someone recognized my deer-in-the-headlights look and offered assistance. After I failed to understand directions via landscape markers, they pulled out pen and paper and drew me a map. LOL.
@@mellowlady6976 Your comment made me smile, and instantly think of 'Pittsburgh Dad'. If your not familiar with him, go to UA-cam, and type in 'Pittsburgh Dad gives directions', second only to 'Pittsburgh Dad finding Pizza Hut'. Warning: you will laugh. He is HILARIOUS!!
*Pittsburgh Dad for Mayor!!!*
When I need to get rid of a mattress or an old refrigerator I just call up the same company that picks up the regular trash. They send a guy out and pick it up next day. I cant understand loading and hauling stuff like that just to dump behind a mall or anywhere.
If you look at it from the road heading up to the WalMart above, it looks like a location you’d discover in a Fallout game. With all the weeds growing out of the cracked pavement.
Ace thanx for the extra photos of pgh. spot on.i left in 2001 great memories of pgh. only been
home 2 or 3 times since . Excellent video of Century 3 Mall. I thought it was already demolished,
I see this is not been done yet. Thank you for this. Keep safe.
I think that the bricked up doorway at 9:20 may have been the entrance to the Montgomery Wards auto center.
This place looks pretty bad already. Very eerie feeling. You did a very thorough job showing us the outside. Thank you for sharing this video.
I never would've thought this would be the end for Century III. I never thought there wouldbe an end of it back when I was a little kid visiting this mall with my mom in the late 80s and early 90s. Sad to see!
The dance moms cast performed inside the mall in late 2012. If you want to look at what the inside looked like around 2012 just look up “dance Moms century iii mall performance”
I love the introduction. I grew up in Moundsville, WV about 40 minutes from Pittsburgh and it always amazed me how you would be driving through all these mountains and all of a sudden they were gone as soon as you go though the tunnel.
C3 was my FAVORITE mall in my late teens/early 20s (in the 1990s). That was definitely the spot to hit to get our "going out" outfits for hitting the clubs in The Strip. 😁 Seeing it abandoned is so sad to me. I remember it being hard to get a good parking space on a weekend!
Seriously so sad. Remember trying to find a seat at the food court?!
You aren't kidding!!! The covered parking was INSANE! We usually parked outside of Kaufmann's and hoofed it.
@@asdfghjen -- YES!!! Always a challenge. This place was FULL of people then.
That bricked up “doorway” was exactly that, it was an secondary entrance for one of the anchors, I think Kaufman’s but was blocked up during the renovations back in the late 90’s
That doorway is near Sears not Kaufman's
It may have been into sears then...it has been a long time...😉
0:56 Ah yes... The good ol' Kaufmann's clock. Does it even STILL WORK. Sad though because that was MOST FAVORITE department store I have EVER BEEN TO.
Thank you for an awesome video preserving the end of its life. The structure will be gone someday. I live close to CIII. It was a magnificent mall. DiBartolo was on his game. There was an organized walkthrough right before it closed. Very sad and eerie but cool as well.
Amazing video. Thanks for the tour.
I live about two and a half hours north of Pittsburgh. As a kid every day I'd hear on tv the Century III Chevrolet Commercial! Of course they always ended it with "Minutes From The Mall" All my life I've lived here and never made it down to that mall! As a kid I use to beg my parents to go check it out! But they never would! So I never got to see it when it was alive and doing well! So it's pretty sad for me to see this, knowing I'll never be able to shop there. I've heard as well that they want to level the place. I know it was built on top of a landfill, so there's some serious issues with that!
This is the eeriest dead mall video I've watched. The mall and the general area as it exists now, if one can call it existing, almost has a Centralia, PA feel about it. Like Centralia, it seems like something is on the verge of caving in here.
I grew up near west Mifflin, it’s a nice area. I went to century 3 mall several times Over the years... I just think malls are becoming obsolete and the waterfront being built also played into effect
The doors marked with a "X" means it is sealed from the inside
Mall looks so eerie. Sad what a lot of malls have become. Amazing footage 👍
I'm relieved it isn't very damaged on the outside(vs. how the exterior was like before closing), in the just over 14 months since the last inline stores moved out(February 2019). My gut feeling is that it'll probably sit abandoned for a while, until some new development plan emerges. If there was talk last year that demolition would start by March 2020 on C3 and it hasn't yet happened, I'm not holding my breath demolition will occur for a while here. Thanks for your exterior walkthrough, to show what C3 is like now.
I agree. I grew up in the area and lived there through the mid-2000's, and The Waterfront really killed C3. Add in the general shift away from indoor shopping malls and it was a death blow.
Heard upmc was interested. Probably don't want the headache though.
That one bench right before you saw the blue van I used to sit there at lunch when I used to work in the coffman's right there
Beautiful opening and homage to my hometown of Pittsburgh! I live 2 miles from the Ross Park Mall but have been to C3 several times years ago. I attend classes at the community College that has a campus near the C3 mall. I drove past it last summer just out of curiosity after class. It was dark and not really a place I desired to linger. Sad to see this place in such disarray. The roads are absolutely trash but most of our roads in Pittsburgh are. The C3 roads are apocalyptic in nature. This was the spot to go from all around the city. If you couldn't find it here in the North Hills, you went to C3. Sad developers went ham in the region and poped these new malls out like crazy. Looking at you Pittsburgh Mills. Just a absolute waste.
PGH is my city...best city..steel city!
So I live in West Mifflin, which is a weird borough as it is split into two sides. CIII is on the less rough side, though both sides are fairly quiet, middle class areas.
Ah good ol' Pittsburgh. My 2nd home city. I have fond memories of taking the bus from downtown Duquesne University to Ross Park Mall, Century III Mall, and Robinson Town Centre on lazy weekends as a college student. Sometimes I was afforded the generosity of free rides from fellow dormies with cars, and sometimes had the luxury of paying for a cab. I remember how big these malls, especially Century III felt to me, though I went out to Robinson a lot as I recall because of all of the restaurants. But I did shop quite a lot at Century III.
Great video- sad- but well documented. I grew up in this mall almost every summer (my grandparents lived down 51 in Clariton) when I'd visit family. It was always busy.
A lot of people will tell you that the demise of this mall was due to the opening of the nearby Waterfront in 1999. I believe the decline started years earlier. I can remember shopping in one of the mall's department stores known as 'Lazarus" in the mid 90's and noticed that the higher-end leased spaces (Claiborne, Nautica, Polo,...) had moved out. Again, several years before the Waterfront opened. The Waterfront accelerated the decline of Century 3 but you can't overlook the great loss in manufacturing and blue collar jobs nearby that lead to the lack of $$$ to support both properties plus South Hills Village. Too bad, C3 was a great mall; huge place, large food court and wide walkways. RIP.
Great work very much enjoyed your video
I grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Bridgeville, PA for several years of my childhood. I remember coming to this mall every Friday night with my dad, brother, and sister and get a large pepperoni pizza at the old Italian Village Pizza. It's so sad what happened to this mall over the years. Last time I visited this place was in 2017 with a friend and the mall only had about 5-10 stores open, and a few of those were actually closed for the day. I even have a friend I've known since I was 6 years old that worked at the OLD, old Cash N' Culture that used to be up on the second floor (which eventually moved to the Annex right outside Westmoreland Mall). She goes by the name Denise if anybody might know or remember her! I had a lot of memories of this mall and it was such a huge staple of my childhood. I think what greatly contributed to the decline of this place was the competition from the Waterfront complex in Homestead that opened in the 90s. That, along with the declining of retail businesses in general as most of them are either closed or have converted to entirely online entities, really pushed this mall down the drain. Rest In Peace, Century 3! Plus, your videos are great! Keep it up
The Zombies own this mall now. It's theirs , they took it ! 😨
i was a just going to say something similar , this is a good location for a zombie apocalypses movie.......
For some reason I thought members of the rock band The Zombies bought the place.
Great great great video Ace. I strongly agree with you 100% that this mall/property is going to rot.
Seeing this mall in the state generally makes me sad. I remember spending much of my young childhood at this mall. I remember going to the pet store on the lower level with my mom when I was around 5. I remember making my first big buy at the GameStop there when I bought an Xbox 360. I remember always asking my parents to take the “cool way” ramp from mall dr. closest to 885. The last time I walked in the mall was when I was 18 years old, 8 years after I got my Xbox. I remember that gorgeous fountain. I was meeting my prom date there and when I was early I toured the mall. I hope something really good does come out of it. My mom always said it went downhill after the bus stop got put in there..
This looks like another good one!
This part of west mifflin is not bad but east of here in Mkeesport is not a good area and what happened was that the port authority bus system had a stop here at C3 and it brought a lot of issues. Plus south hills village mall is about a half hour from C3 and is a MUCH better place and also the waterfront in homestead is about 15 minutes away. I grew up at C3 and spent many of my young years here. I was at C3 a month before it closed and it was honestly so eerie
LOVE the opening!!!
Did you do Burlington Center in NJ... i live up the road from there.... JW.
Sad the state of the Kaufmann’s building
Great video loved how the inside looked from other youtube videos
I used to go to that mall a lot. Used to boom back in the day. Sooo sad to see it’s gone !!!
That place you asked if it was a doorway, it was. For horne’s, lazuraus, and I believe Kaufman’s furniture. The sealed it at one point I believe since there was one not too far away. As for the decline it started when they lost the families, they were building newer complexes nearby, and Walmart coming in didn’t help. Worked in the area for 16 years, and saw the steady decline, businesses couldn’t afford the rent, the waterfront opened, Simon started the fall and moonbeam finished it.
Thanks for doing this. I was an 80s kid Mall Rat growing up!
Thank you for sharing! I’m new to the channel. I’m hoping to see the inside someday hopefully but nonetheless great footage.
Good video.Thanks!
I'm pretty sure some of those blocked up entrances were for the old anchor Montgomery Ward on that side, they had an entrance and an auto repair part. The garage was added a couple of years after opening, and the reason it is so unstable is that is was built on an old slag dump, and the whole area is undermined.
I believe those covered doors down below were from Wards/Horns/Lazarus and when Lazarus became Macy's Furniture there was ghetto remodeling and the bottom level of Macy's was just a very small show room so they most likely walled in the old outside access doors from the bigger older stores.
The Waterfront was the final nail in a very large coffin
14:29 At Rotting Acres the guy who owned the storage company in the former Target (that storage company now resides in the former Macy's at Chapel Hill Mall which is itself dying) had installed cameras aimed toward the mall; that's how Dan Bell got caught while he was filming the mall... I wonder if someone similarly set up cameras at C3...???
Is that the storage business at Rolling Acres that set up shop inside a former anchor before it was demolished, and posted a warning sign inside the mall that if their interior entrance was damaged, that they would prosecute anyone doing so? And I think that sign said something like 'turn away now, before you are prosecuted'? Forget the exact words of that sign, but it said something to that extent during the years Rolling Acres stopped being a mall, up till its demolition. Didn't realize it was those cameras set up by that business, as to how Dan Bell got caught.
Unfortunately ace I believe it will probably be the next rolling acres. Moonbeam will find a way to weasel their way out of this one to.
I appreciate your video. I was security there back in the mid 90s. I do not believe there is any security there now. I've remained in contact with some of the security there and know they were direct employees of the mall so I believe when it closed they were gone. Not sure if an outside company was hired or if West Mifflin Police patrols the property. Also, I believe that was an entrance that you asked about. I believe a store called Lazarus took over Hornes. If i remember correctly that entrance was removed while Lazarus was still there. Looking at those docks.. I remember each night going in and checking the corridors to the stores.
Brian Shoaf thanks Brian, I wish more security were like you, it’s important work we’re doing
This is a great write off for Simon Property Group. Not only are they mall slumlords but they own the Indiana Pacers too!
Anthony, I gotta tell ya that I was fully prepared to hate this presentation -- I mean, who wants to see the OUTSIDE of a mall? However, it was kind of cool to see the boarded-up doors and get a sense of its outside condition, and it never hurts to hear your off-the-cuff remarks about the place, either. As to the idea that it might become 'another Rolling Acres,' I tend to agree with you wholeheartedly. The funny thing is, I'd rather not see that happen, yet there's a part of me that really wishes that it might actually DO that, if only because I never got around to seeing Rolling Acres firsthand. Anyhow, Anthony, thanks for this "cozy" outdoor mall walk, and it is with all sincerity that I say that I hope you make it in again someday.
Mortuus Praesepultus i know, i hate being the outside guy, but I am trying to provide content while staying safe, i will get in soon
I remember when that was built. The slag heaps were practically still warm.
My memories with this mall go back as far as I've been coherent. It's really upsetting to see it like this!
Would love to see a site that lists all of the malls developed by DeBartolo and whether they are still open. The closed list must be massive!
Wikipedia weirdly enough, did not have a list of former DeBartolo malls. But I did find a partial list of ex-DeBartolo malls, including some that no longer are open and demolished(i.e. Woodville Mall): debartolodevelopment.com/about-us/legacy/ Some history on DeBartolo Corportation: www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/the-edward-j-debartolo-corporation-history/
I used to work in that mall years ago. I could tell you every entrance what I would go to
It's gonna be broken into within the year. Book it.
It already has been. Go to the West Mifflin police department website and there are pictures and videos of looks like 5 20 some year olds skateboarding by Sears. I guess that was what the $5 million was spent on video cameras. The police are asking for help in identifying them.
People say that when Simon took over this mall and South Hills Village that they let C3 fall by the wayside because SHV was more desirable to them. And, of course, the Waterfront in Homestead didn’t help.
Plus down the road a little bit behind Southland shopping center behind Panera bread used to be a movie theater they finally tore that on after years of being empty
i used to go to this mall because i got my braces on and maintained in the old sears before it moved. it was in decline back then and that was maybe 10-ish years ago? also you know it’s sad when you go to the dead malls wiki page and a photo of this mall is one of the first photos in the article.
Even in the daytime it has that creepy vibe. I sure don't want to be there at night.
I'll tell you another thing that mall may have been closed for over a year but Moonbeam corporate has been letting it rot for many years
What's the business case for owning an abandoned mall? Even at a fire sale price the owners spent a lot of money to buy the mall and there's recurring costs to own the thing - even if its boarded up.
Cool Mr Rodgers
This was my home mall I'm hyped for this video
Thanks Geno, please note this is an exterior tour only, but still a fun one!
Thank you for the distraction!! All is welcomed!!
Why are the homeless all the same? Scissors, broken lighters, phone chargers and Velcro shoes left behind everywhere.
Is that’s all they can afford and that’s all they do
I was just there yesterday. some of the wood boards are gone. i think people have been breaking in
also someone was in the blue van when I was there. so they might work there?
Great video! Question though, how is Moonbeam (or any landlord/owner) collecting taxes on a dead mall?
Here in Canada the landlord would be paying taxes every year on it. Property taxes among other things.
Also wish you had a selfie stick to possibly see over those boarded up entrances. Nice video!
Good vid. But how is this the biggest when you did randall park mall? Which was far bigger as far as retail space.
JCPenneys just closed. also what camera do you use?
Reason why these properties sit and rot is because it's expensive to demolish them. Life after people documentary live in its natural progression. Too bad as the mall looked nice inside when it was open and lively.
I agree. Unless there is a verifiable replacement project ready to go, no one will spend the money to demolish that place now.
Moonbeam Capital is the reason I am scared for the fate of Gwinnett Place Mall in Georgia.
@@joshuacorley7095 Yeah I was there the other day checking out some of the sets they have built for various movies inside the mall.
Those steel beams are here at the Trumbull Mall (Trumbull Connecticut) outside the Target anchor store.
SONO Collection is the newest mall off exit 15 in Norwalk CT.
Trumbull and CT Post Mall in Milford are slowly becoming empty malls. There's making the empty anchor parts of the mall apartments?
I always wonder what these giant developers must end up making on these malls (rents) over the years to make it worth just letting them rot away.. i imagine they make money back and a profit long before these malls die. Definitely creepy as hell tho.
Moonbeam - "A pipe broke all by itself!"
Cool 😀
/nice camera - what are you using?
That vehicle reminds me of the security vehicle at Cincinnati mall that Sal from the Expedition Log and Ron and Kristin from Unicomm Productions filmed in their videos.
Grew up in West Mifflin..my mom and sisters worked there.built on a slag dump
We are at the end of an era
It certainly shows a mall just rotting away. Said it before, Moonbeam have a lot to be accountable for, but they won't and this will turn into another Rolling Acres. It'll be sad to see the slow vandalism/destruction of the mall.
This place must keep the local fire chief up at night!
What were they doing in the jeep, bro?? :) Hey, thanks for doing this. Very much thankful. Have a great day. :)
its so sad there used to be so many malls now most malls are abandoned today or demolished or look like a horror movie setting
I'm sure the reason why it closed on they opened up the waterfront down in homestead and just changing all the times you can buy online anymore so it's a shame that place was about abandoned it was a cool place to go to
I wish someone could get inside and get a vid of it
I really hope this mall don't decay like rolling acers did.
Howdy, Neighbor!😁😍😁😍
At 5:45 that is the only current way into the mall!! It is bad inside I have seen pics and videos!! Such a shame what that mall has become