Ross Park Mall

Our shopping malls, a thing of the past, they're under threat from online shopping and disappearing customers and many are facing the wrecking ball. KDK lead investigator Andy Sheehan looks at one local mall that seems to be bucking that trend and whether others have hope. Across the region you see the empty promenades, the closed gated stores, the leaky roofs and the cracking facades. Century three has gone under, the Pittsburgh Mills is teetering. The mall at Robinson is shedding tenants and shoppers a By some accounts the whole idea of a shopping mall is dead but others say reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. We are evidence that malls are doing well, they're surviving, they're thriving, people are coming here in droves. Ross Park Mall is the region's biggest exception to the dying mall. While other malls have suffered from online shopping and disinvestment, its parent company Simon has aggressively reinvested in its properties, managing to stay ahead of the curve assembling cutting edge stores. We have stores Allo Yoga, they were brand new. We have Rowan where they have nurses that actually do all of the piercings. It's important that And the mall continues to evolve, aspiring to be more than a shopping destination but an experience. Dick's House of Sport offers hands-on tee shots and a climbing wall. The mall currently updated and expanded its food court and added new restaurants They've got the right location and they've done very well on bringing in some of those additional amenities to make it a place for people to have experiences and not just shopping. And that seems to be some of the secret sauce for the malls that are doing well. But while others may do well to emulate Ross Park, it's not clear the region will support them, according to real estate attorney Kirk Berkeley. I think that you're going to see more losers than winners. On the large traditional mall, it's just not what people are building today because it's not what the cons It may be that malls need to throw out the old model and start anew. That's the plan here in Monroeville where Walmart and its development partner want to tear the mall down and create what's called the Urban Retail Center. Monroeville, the granddaddy of local malls, has also hit hard times. And a stroll through it reveals a n In other parts of the country, malls like it are being replaced by urban retail centers like Easton outside of Col Walmart is asking the state for $7. 5 million to help take down the 186-acre site and transform it. The application envisions a mixed-use campus setting of, quote, new retail, restaurant, and entertainment space supported by new landscaping, pedestrian-friendly design, and public open spaces for community use. That is exactly the model. That's what these are going to start to turn into is truly a mixed-use environment. But the proposal here is controversial among the existing tenants and those who believe it's not a proper use of public money. Still, the alternative may be more dead and dying malls scarring our landscape. In Monroeville, Andy Sheehan, KTKTV News.