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| - One of the best mall's in the Greater Cleveland area, I have been going to SouthPark Mall for nearly fifteen years and even after this amount of time has past, the mall still remains the same for me as I first went on day one. The mall is a great size and with it being a double decker, it nearly doubles the amount of size that can be found on the first floor. If you didn't know this before this is actually the 45th largest mall in the United States so that is something to be proud about.
How can you find SouthPark? It's located just off of Royalton Road which is hard to miss with two entrances on the main road and several more on Howe Road and others around the area. The parking lot is massive so don't feel the need to park up front if you can't find a spot as their are plenty of open spaces around the Dick's and JCPenney entrances as well as the Macy's entrance which was formerly a Kaufmanns back in the day but that is for another review, this one is for the mall itself.
Each entrance on it's own is breathtaking on it's own with the massive circular windows that you can see from the street but up close, they are a great example of the architecture that was used to build this mall way back in the day. The main entrance was renovated about eight years ago and there are some outside stores that you can enter from the outside to get in such as...
- Five Guys
- Houlihans
- Chico's
- former Coldwater Creek outlet
In any case, you can still enter the mall through some of these stores. On any side you enter, you will be greeted with brown and black tile floors that are well maintained and are very glossy. I haven't seen a tile shine that way for a long time and it shows that the staff around here do a great job when it comes to cleaning the floors and walls of the building. Kudos to them for keeping it up to so well.
The mall is vast even on a crowded day and I have yet to feel claustrophobic at all but that can be attributed to the high and open ceilings that can be found on the first and second floors of the mall. The skylights on the second floor let in plenty of light to keep the mall's atmosphere vibrant and fresh. The openings that let you view down to the first floor help greatly take the light from the second floor down to the first floor. The main center court where the elevator is another great example of this in addition to it being one of the best areas to relax in.
The elevator is a bit rickety from it's age but it lets you view the entire food and center court on the way's up and down. It's fun ride for children but with escalators nearby, it isn't that convenient if you go on foot. They have those small store booths set up by the escalators and by the elevator but they are fewer then they were years ago. There is also a nifty coin fountain just by the elevator where you can sit at and toss coins in if you wish but if your frugal, you'll just enjoy the sounds of the water and the sights of the mall rather than waste money.
When it comes to the food court, you have plenty of popular chain restaurants to pick from that you can find in every mall which includes the ever popular McDonalds. The design is here is very different than what you will see in the rest of the mall. The guardrails have been redesigned with steel and wood instead of the typical glass with the circular pattern that you see throughout the mall. The food court was also pushed in more as the Cinemark theater was put in place of that area which did take away a good view of the outside but even with the view removed, it still feels very open and is a great place to stop by if you get hungry while walking around the mall.
The mall is home to the basic department stores you can find around the area in addition to the typical "mall stores" that are easily found just down the road. Some of the more popular stores that are worth a visit include:
- Macy's (Former Kaufmanns)
- JCPenney
- Dillard's
- Sears
- Dick's Sporting Goods
- Bath & Body Works
- American Eagle
- Abercrombie
- New York Express
- fye
and so forth. However, there are some unique stores that are worth a visit like:
- Pick of the Litter
- Charlotte Russe
- H&M
- Aveda
- Some Arcade Joint I Forget The Name Of
No matter what store you visit, the mall is a great place to shop in or just to walk around if you want to lose weight. It is a suburban mall and it does show with some of the shoppers visiting but this isn't an upscale mall so you won't find any snobby high class people looking down on you which makes the shopping experience pleasant.
It's hard to know that I left this mall behind years ago but with my most recent visit, I can more than happy to return again in the next year. I highly encourage any visitor who hasn't come here to make the trip, it will be worth another round in the coming years.
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