Lexington Mall

Lexington Mall is a small defunct shopping mall located in Lexington, Kentucky along US 25/US 421 (Richmond Road). The mall portion was built in 1975. [Baldwin, Amy (November 16, 1998), "Shopping center malls the competition.", Herald-Leader]

Design

Designed as a competitor to Fayette Mall along US 27 (Nicholasville Road). It originally opened with a 2 story McAlpin's, Shoppers Choice Supermarket and discount store in 1971; however, the enclosed mall portion was not completed due to the bankruptcy of its primary developers.Baldwin, Amy (May 24, 1999), "Lexington's uncrowded mall.", Herald-Leader]

Early years

In 1975, the remainder of the mall was completed and opened with 48 stores. County Market replaced Shoppers Choice Supermarket in the 1980s, eventually expanding into a new detached building in 1984.

Middle Years

The 1980's were very good to Lexington Mall. The mall was at 100% capacity and many stores were leading the nation in sales. The Karmelkorn Shoppe became the number one sales-leader in the nation for the month of December 1988 selling 16,250 pounds, or roughly eight tons, of popcorn; [Jordan, Jim. (Jan 8, 1990) 'Lexington shop pops 8 tons of holiday corn.'Herald-Leader] it was expected that it would be the number one chain again in December 1989 since same-store revenues had increased 30%. McAlpin's renovated their department store in 1993, freshening the interior with new tile, carpet and lighting fixtures, drastically updating it with its first major update since it opened in 1971. [Osbourn, Kevin. (Jan 4, 1993) 'Fayette Mall solidifies influence.' Herald-Leader]

Decline

The expansion of the Fayette Mall in 1993 with the addition of an entire wing and department store, began to erode Lexington Mall's customer base. The then-manager of the mall stated that the facility would be renovated by 1995, as it had not been renovated since its original opening; however, this was an un-kept promise.

County Market closed its operations at Lexington Mall late in 1995. Then in September 1996, another attempt to modernize came with plan to add an additional story to the main concourse; this too was never able to become reality.

Sony Theater closed its twin screen Lexington Mall operation in June 1997. Later that year, the mall suffered another hit when the Hamburg Pavilion opened at Hamburg Farms, taking more of the customer base away to the newer developments in Fayette County.

By 1999, the mall's future was in doubt with tenants leaving for newer shopping centers. The property became a victim of general deferred maintenance and neglect.

The final straw was when the mall's only remaining tenant, Dillard's left the mall in September 2005 to focus its operations at the Fayette Mall store. [ Goolsby, Jonathan (September 22, 2006), "City in the dark as Saul stonewalls.", Business Lexington]

Closed and vacant

Currently it is owned by the Saul Centers Inc., a real-estate holding firm based in Bethesda, Maryland, that has, thus far, offered no detailed plans for redevelopment or adaptive reuse. The local government has expressed interest in using eminent domain to purchase the dead mall and turn it into a small park, but no progress on this point has been made.

Anchors

McAlpin's (1971) (Became Dillard's in 1998 with purchase of the chain)
Shoppers Choice Supermarket (1971) (Became County Market in early 80's moving to detached store in 1984)

Notable Stores

*Dawahares
*General Nutrition
*Karmalcorn
*Morrison's
*Radio Shack
*Regis
*Rite AidSears Portrait Studio
The Border Line
Sunglass Works

Unique Site

It was constructed on the former grounds of the Ellerslie estate, which dated back to 1787 and was constructed by Levi Todd, grandfather of Mary Todd Lincoln. In 1946, the house was demolished, having been purchased by the water company several years prior. [Edwards, Don. (May 27, 1999) 'Ghosts of time catch up with everything, even malls.' Herald-Leader]

References

External links

* [http://www.abandonedonline.net/index.php?catid=13 Lexington Mall at Abandoned]
* [http://www.saulcenters.com/properties-us/ky/lexington/index.htm Saul Centers Inc.]
* [http://www.abandonedmidwest.net/lexingtonmall1.htm Photos of the mall in late 2007]

Wikipedia by [SERVERlocalurl:NAMESPACE:PAGENAME|action=edit expanding it] ".