Eastland Mall has been in a steady free fall for the last five years. With stores like Belk exiting the mall and leaving gaping holes in the shopping center, there isn’t much to be excited about at Eastland. Add to that the fact that its owners have been trying to unload the center for three years and announced recently that they aren’t going to subsidize the location anymore.
In a statement, Ohio-based owner Glimcher Realty Trust said: “We have notified the loan servicer on our Eastland Charlotte Mall that Glimcher Properties Limited Partnership will not fund any further cash deficits at the property. In addition, Glimcher Properties Limited Partnership has filed a legal action seeking the appointment of a receiver for Eastland Charlotte Mall and the liquidation of this property.”
As if that wasn’t enough, a July 26 shooting in the parking deck of Eastland brought unwanted attention to the struggling shopping center.
Is this shooting the straw that will break the camel’s back and force the struggling mall to close up shop for good?
East side activists don’t want to see the mall shut down; they want the city to make good on its promise to redevelop the mall area. And some business owners in the mall, such as Dynasty Bookstore owner James Muhammad, say uncertainty surrounding the mall makes it difficult to plan for future business expansions.
“It makes us real unsure if we should be developing things for a mall that may not be here,” said Muhammad, who has operated his business in the mall since 2000.
Muhammad said that the mall has a customer base — when people have money, they do shop there. “If the plan is to make Eastland Mall better and keep it to where it is inclusive of the people who are already here, then we’re all for it,” he said. “But some times, when we make things better, we don’t make them inclusive, we make the exclusive.”
Muhammad cited as example the revamp of the former Midtown Square, where he originally opened his bookstore, and how the multimillion-dollar revitalization of that shopping center priced him out of moving back to that area.
Last year, the city commissioned a study by the Urban Land Institute that suggested that Eastland Mall should be replaced with a mixed-use development that includes housing and retail.
Ed Garber, chairman of the East Charlotte Political Action Committee said that people in east Charlotte want to see the city find a buyer for the property that will produce development that will attract young professionals to the area.
“We need a balance in our median income,” Garber said. “We need to bring our median income up. Central Avenue is seeing a nice resurgence of investment down by Morningside. What we want is for the city to be proactive. What we’re seeing is the city is back pedaling a little on what they see Eastland Mall being redeveloped as.”
Garber said that if affordable housing is put in the current location, it will add to the woes of east Charlotte. The area’s glut of lower-priced homes was identified as a problem by the Urban Land Institute’s study.
“We understand that we have too much [affordable housing] and if you keep propagating what happened at Eastland Mall with the same living standard, you’re not going to bring retail back to the area and you’re not going to bring the median income up or the quality of life,” Garber said.
Stores like Belk, Victoria’s Secret and New York & Company haven’t waited to see what happens. They left just like many of Eastland’s shoppers. Garber said he can’t remember the last time he actually went to the mall to do some shopping.
“It was a progressive thing,” he said about stopping shopping there. “I think that’s what happened with a lot of people. I just sort of got out of the habit of going there and I think that’s what happened with a lot of people. Right around 1998, I went there one Christmas and I was like, what am I doing here? One of the main things is, there is competition from other malls that are more modern and easier to access.”
Garber said that the quality of the stores changed as more lower-income people moved around the mall; reports of violence from the mall tarnished its reputation and kept many shoppers away.
Eastland gained a violent reputation following two shootings in one week in 2005. But, said Garber, police reports show that Eastland actually has the lowest crime rate of any mall in the area.
Muhammad said the crimes associated with Eastland could as easily happen at SouthPark Mall.
“Shootings are not an Eastland Mall problem, it’s a Charlotte problem,” Muhammad said. “When two people are having a disagreement with each other, and they see each other out, where are the meeting places?”
Despite Eastland’s tarnished image, Muhammad said that there are good aspects to the mall. He said that in order to have a viable Charlotte economy, there has to be a place for small, local businesses, and right now Eastland provides that.
“I would like to see Eastland continue because of what it represents,” he said. “Not on that end, when you’re talking about the shootings. But when you start talking about independent, locally owned and operated businesses, where else are they going to have an outlet to showcase their merchandise? Where else in Charlotte?”
Garber said that as Eastland’s redevelopment drags on, some people are freaked out about it.
“East Charlotte has a history of not trusting the city and for good reason,” he said.
Garber said that community groups from the area will attend the next city council meeting in large numbers to insure that the city does right by east Charlotte.
This article appears in Aug 6-12, 2008.
