| rev:text
| - I honestly wonder what, if any, long term future Century III Mall has. It was built as a collaboration between Edward DeBartolo Corportation and USX on the site of what used to be a slag dump, in a remote valley named Brown's Dump. The slag piles grew until they became an artificial mountain, as hard as concrete and large enough to contain a mall.
Its most recent owener, Simon Property Group defaulted on its $78 million loan for Century III Mall in August 2011, and ownership was transferred to its lenders. Simon had been trying to sell the mall since 2006. As of September 1, 2011, the mall is being managed by Jones Lang LaSalle. The vacancy rate has grown from 20% (still high) in 2003 to approximately 40% today.
The mall's assessment value has also dropped from $128 million to $58 million in 2009. In that year, Century III Mall was named one of America's most endangered malls by U.S. News & World Report. I stopped in here recently after doing a site visit for work and believe you me, I could almost hear my footsteps as I walked. Sad to see this mall decline so badly, but you wonder what do you do with a vacant mall?
|