St. Johns Town Center: Nordstrom comes to town

Rolling reminder: as I was going into work for my Saturday shift 

at the bank branch in Palm Valley (south of Jacksonville Beach),

I saw this truck-doubled-as-a-billboard. 

Palm Valley/Ponte Vedra are several miles southeast of Jacksonville,

but the anticipation of the new addition to the town center is widespread.

Friday, October 10 was the grand opening of a new portion of
St. Johns Town Center known as “Phase 3”.
Eight new stores and a fresh modern outdoor lounge area are anchored by
The first Nordstrom to come to northeast Florida.

Nordstrom was proposed to come to Jacksonville in 2012.
Who better to bring it on board than SJTC?
A fenced lot has had a banner on it since at least early 2013.
The company decided putting a store in this town center was
A great move because of the amazing success rate of the outlet store
Nordstrom Rack, which opened on the outside lot of SJTC in 2012.

St. Johns Town Center was built in 2004,
The first open-air “mall” to grace Jacksonville with it’s retail presence
Since before the era of the enclosed malls.
“Phase 1” was the only part available to shop
when I arrived in north Florida in fall 2005.
The large L-shaped strip-mall that includes Old Navy,
JoAnne Fabrics, Target and Pier 1 was there.
DSW Shoe Warehouse was sitting across from it.
There was a row of shops and restaurants with a roundabout
And Cheesecake Factory was at the end next to Barnes and Noble.
At the other end, Dicks Sporting Goods sat in front of its bahai turf quad
With its rows of shops on either side including Gap, Express, J. Crew and more.
Apple was across from it with several other stores.
And Dillard’s, with its little run of shops like Hollister and Brighton on either side,
Was on the far end.
And that is where it stopped.
After that was nothing but open, dusty lots and construction equipment.

In 2007, “Phase 2” began to unfold.
Urban Outfitters went up,
And so did some higher-end specialty stores like Betsey Johnson 
Louis Vuitton, Puma and LuluLemon,
As well as a large Pottery Barn.
Within a few years, several more stores
including Forever XXI, West Elm
and some new restaurants opened their doors.

Most of what has been added to SJTC has come to stay.
Only a few changes were made over the past decade.
The Sharper Image went bankrupt and was later replaced by
California Pizza Kitchen.
A Microsoft store opened in place of
A failed Puma store,
Sperry overtook a failed LaCoste.
A video store related to Game Stop closed and became a Jos A Bank.
The space next to Starbucks was home to a health food cafe,
then an ice-cream shop, and now a Teavanna.
Cold Water Creek is gone, boards over the front with banners 
for a women's fashion store called "Altar'd State" 
that is coming soon.
Drills and saws can be heard inside.
Shopping seasons change, but most of SJTC stays the same.

My tour of Nordstrom and “phase 3” happened today,
Saturday 10/11 because of my work schedule.
It was a beautiful, sunny day today but unseasonably warm.
Between the heat and the phase three strip that greeted me,
I felt like I'd just walked into some ritzy part of south Florida.
It makes the great shiny white Nordstrom look right at home.
With its palm trees, white fabric canopies over white and blue outdoor furniture,
and "endless" fountains (the water pours over the edges for a modern look),
It seems like you could be in either Miami 
or a resort. 
As I walked through, I heard a girl say to her friend
"This looks like that shopping center in Naples!"
(note to self: go visit Naples some day soon).

This is different from the rest of SJTC.
While all of it looks fairly modern, 
most of phase 1 and 2 don earthier colors 
like dark wood and stone that make them look like
they could actually be somewhere further north.
And there aren't any other fountains like that.

Phase 3 sports such retail goodies as:
Boston Proper, Yankee Candle,
a new Disney store and a huge upscale 
two-story home goods store called "Arhaus". 
That's "our house" cleverly spelled out to look like German.
There are a few other shops and an "E-bar"
which is Nordstrom's own version of Starbucks.
It's on the outside but connected to the building.

And now for the main event: The very first and only Nordstrom in north Florida.

Modern, cutting edge and couture with its shining white walls and hard wood ceilings,

the Seattle-based department store boasts a wide range of goods for the whole family

at a higher price point and a few steps up from Dillard's,

but not at such a high tier as Saks Fifth Avenue.

    

Dining in?: Nordstrom even has its own grille called Bazille,

located upstairs.

I'm no expert economist.
I'm not actually an economist at all.
Just someone who took a shine to sociology in college.
I like to observe things, especially trends.
And in my (humble) opinion.... Nordstrom is perfect for 
St. Johns Town Center.

SJTC is situated in the "nicer" part of Jacksonville,
where there is a little more affluence. 
It is also easily accessible from J. Turner Butler Blvd (AKA "the 202")
and JTB goes east, over the inter coastal, dropping you off about 10 miles later
right by Ponte Vedra.
If anyone knows Ponte Vedra, they know it has some of the most affluent people
in the area, thanks to the golf scene.
There is also a steady flow of tourism.
That being said,
SJTC can host some everyday stores like Target and Old Navy,
some middle-tier national chains like Dillard's,
Express, Abercrombie and J. Crew,
and some high-tier, high-fashion names like Louis Vuitton,
Michael Kors and Coach all in the same sprawling outdoor mall
and they can hold their own for season after season.
If you could turn the stores into math,
averaging together everything there from the JoAnne Fabrics
to the Pottery Barn to the Michael Kors,
the median would probably be a store like Nordstrom.
Bloomingdale's or Saks Fifth Avenue would be a bit too high end,
ultimately unable to draw enough affluent shoppers to stay afloat in Jacksonville...
But Nordstrom is that step up for everyone else looking for what's next after
being in a city full of Dillard's, JcPenney and Belk.

Welcome to the St. Johns Town Center, Nordstrom!

To celebrate the new retail attractions,
a gala event was set up for this weekend.
Placing all their faith in the sunny weather to stay constant,
people were already putting together a fashion show runway,
seating, tables and a bar in a blocked-off part of the street.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102077830#.

Yin-Yang: The curious case of Regency Square

Remember those little symbols, so popular in the 90's? 
Half light, half dark.
If you could stretch those circles out into a longer shape,
That is essentially what the Regency Square Mall looks like right now.

When it opened in 1967, it only existed as what is now the "east wing"
part between JcPenney and Belk,
where the food court is now.
In 1981, the long west wing was added on.
What is ironic is that present day, the original part is what is populated.
The west wing is not.

The mall has been falling into decline for years now,
but a new owner has high hopes of giving it another chance.
It went into this new ownership in February of this year.
So far, there has been success.... in just the east wing.

Here are most of the national chains that still exist in Regency Square:
anchors JcPenney, Belk and a Dillard's Clearance store.
smaller inline stores Champs, foot locker, journey's, claire's boutique, Aeropostale,
Rainbow fashions, Kay Jeweler, Victoria's Secret, Torrid...

The other empty spaces have been mostly filled in with family-owned ventures in retail such
as Modern Furnishings by Matisse, Stag (menswear), Brow Art, a discount store not unlike a Dollar Tree (but with wine for sale up front), several cheap fashion stores, health foods, vitamins and an art class studio and glow-in-the-dark mini golf.

This shows creative use of vacant space, much like the Orlando Fashion Square.
Lunar Golf took over the large Old Navy space that vacated around 2008 or 2009.

There are still other spaces that belonged very recently to well-known national brands like
American Eagle (the "A" and "E" still on the old doors) and Express (identifiable by its red trim)
that reside in the east wing that need something to come and fill them in so
that portion of the mall can go from about 75% occupied to more like 90%.
The food court, which has room for about 10 restaurants was down to only
a handful but is now gaining some new ones.

What makes this mall such a bizarre case, however, is the dead West wing.
I remember it from 2006 when I visited the first time.
and at that point, it was suffering but there were still stores taking up
about half of it.
I would visit this mall maybe twice a year.
One by one, the lights went out.
When I stopped in for a visit of its Forever XXI store in 2010
(just before Avenues Mall got their massive two-story one)
There were considerably less stores open by then.
Many family owned stores offering discount
men's, ladies and juniors hip-hop fashions had given up.
A shoe store was down to its last few days,
so I got a pair very inexpensively.
Some furniture stores were going out of business.
A store that sold African-American home furnishings
and art was leaving or had left by then.
I remember my friend renting a tuxedo for a formal work event at
a tiny prom rentals store that is now vacant.
The other west wing anchor store has been empty for awhile.
It's creepy to walk into.
You come out of the bright, noisy and perfumed Belk and walk
into a "ghost town".

 
The only light comes from the skylights.
Somehow, there has been no luck filling this side at all.
Possibly because for one to make it,
there need to be several more to draw a crowd there.
The Dillard's Clearance can be accessed from outside,
so being at the far end of the vacant corridor hasn't
brought on it's demise yet.
Despite there being nothing but a clearance department store
at the other end,
there were plenty of mall walkers in the darkened corridor.
Walking fast, laughing with their friends.
Maybe it is good exercise.

There has been talk of the owners finding a way to fill that half
with clinics and law offices.
At least they will be making use of a pre-eqisting facility!
It may not be shopaholic heaven right now,
but it is a somewhat historic structure.
If they don't tear it down and replace it with a Wal-Mart,
that will be very "green" of them.

Trouble ahead:
There is talk that Belk may vacate it's middle-mall space
because of a new Belk being constructed nearby.
This could occur early next year.
What will the owners do with this new
very large vacancy?
Will Dillard's move up?
Or will someone else move in?

Updates as I find them,
coming 2015.

A little bit about the author....

This post really belonged at the beginning of the blog, 
but here it is.

Malltopia blog was created by a legitimate mall enthusiast.
It puts in words and photos one of the things I enjoy most.

How long will I be a mall enthusiast?
Well I can tell you what being a mall enthusiast isn't.
It wasn't some hot new trend that I bought into.
In fact, with economists saying that indoor shopping mall numbers are shrinking,
it's about the exact opposite.
I also didn't decide to love malls to hop on some popularity bandwagon.
It is true that when I was in high school, my teenage friends and I
did hang out at the mall the most.
Because it was something to do.
But present day, none of my married 20-something friends
have the time or the energy to keep up with my enthusiasm.
So let me tell you what it is.
It's a legitimate passion.
It began when I was very small, almost too small to remember.
The mall was just a happy place and a sign of a good time.
Even before I could appreciate fashion and marketing,
It was a place to go with my parents when we wanted to relax
or accomplish something positive, like redecorating the house.
For me as a child, it meant candy shops and toy shops.
It also meant quality bonding time with mom and dad.
As a teenager, it meant quality bonding time more with mom
who enjoyed shopping more than dad
and also with friends.
It meant shopping for cute clothes to wear to high school.
It meant somewhere to hang out with new boyfriends.
It meant picking out my prom and homecoming dresses.
As a young adult, it still meant many of those same things-
A place to buy cute clothes to wear to events,
a place to shop for a date-night dress,
a place to hang out with someone special,
a place to take my friends on a day off.
It also became my sanctuary.
I went to the mall to get away from the stresses of everyday life.
Even when I had to reign in the spending and learn more financial responsibility,
it was still somewhere to go to get away.
It was a place of good vibes-
happy families and friends and couples,
people buying gifts and having a good time,
colorful things to distract me from my anxieties,
sweet smells,
herbal tea and coffee,
cute pets for sale.
I have very few bad memories tied to a mall, if any.
Even a sad, struggling mall has still served me pretty well at times.

The one I called "home" in Lakeland, FL was decent enough
but the one I call "home" hear near Jacksonville is a perfect setting.
It is the bright, wide open, double-decker classic with many skylights.
Built in 1990, it is the epitome of "the American mall experience".
It has 5 anchors, a bustling food court and all sorts of treats for
middle class young ladies like myself.
I spent so much time there in the nine years I've lived here.
Sometimes my visits made no sense at all.
I had no money to spend and no legitimate purpose for
making the 26 mile trek from St. Augustine.
I didn't need anything, and no one was going to meet me there.
It was later that I realized I was drawn to the place because
it felt like a sanctuary.
I could go there no matter what the weather
and there were freebies and things to do even if there was no cash in my purse.
I became so much of a regular there that mall employees thought I was one of them.
And then I got discounts.

One day I finally realized, sadly, that though it might have brought me comfort
to spend my free time there,
since I didn't really have a purpose to go there and spend all that gas money,
I needed to find other hobbies.
For awhile, I had gotten heavily involved in my church
so I was being given volunteer work to do
and that kept me out of the mall.
When it all slowed down,
the mall started to "call" to me again.
Finally, I found my happy medium.

I started this blog.
And the very first entry I put in it
was "The Avenues Mall"... which is the nice two-story middle class beauty I call home.
I have even used its giant center court skylight as a Facebook cover photo.
Then I added my other favorite- my fair weather friend St. Johns Town Center.
They go hand-in-hand on a nice day that's not too hot or cold.
If you are going to drive nearly 30 miles to one indoor mall,
why not go visit the more upscale stores and get some fresh air too at the other one?
(Well, technically SJTC isn't a mall).
Then I went to the others that were within reach.
There's one in Orange Park, one in Daytona,
one mostly dead mall in Arlington (a subdivision of Jacksonville).
There's another dying mall within an entertainment complex
on the river front in downtown Jacksonville.
There's a tiny dead mall here in St. Augustine.
There's two outlet malls. One is more of a strip mall though.
Then I had a week off of work and I decided to make a trip
to my hometown (Lakeland)
and make a tour on the way.
So I hit seven shopping hotspots on the way down,
out in Tampa Bay,
and on the way back.
This year I got married and spent time on the gulf coast
and added a few more.
I even added one from a day trip over the Georgia Border.
Throw in some case studies about things that used to be malls-
used to be someone else's day off sanctuary in another life.
Update the mall's progress or ailments so they don't wind up forgotten.
Tell a story about one that got resurrected as a church.
You have a blog.

Boom.
A constructive outlet for an otherwise non-constructive obsession.
Shopping is fun, but it takes away from all that financial responsibility.
Studying a mall teaches you valuable lessons about economics and marketing.

And that brings me to my other purpose for the blog.
Besides indulging myself on a bit of an unusual passion,
I have dreams of the time and effort poured into the project creating a bit of a portfolio.
I went to Flagler College for Public Relations.
Though I work at a bank now and have not yet used the PR degree, I haven't given up hope.
While I was there, I dabbled a bit in writing for news.
Politics were never my cup of tea, so I shied away from writing about government issues
and economy crisis and instead enjoyed populating the entertainment column
of the college's paper "The Gargoyle".
I went to movies and wrote about them.
Occasionally I wrote about something else like an art walk or a fundraiser.
It was something I believe I did for credit in a class,
but I enjoyed it.
I got a summer internship (also for school credit) writing media kits
for a restaurant association.
I may not have risen to fame or gotten hired to write for the city newspaper,
but I took what I learned and logged it away
and now it helps me write my blogs-
blogs where I can write any amount about anything and promote it
on social networking all I want.

I don't abuse the privilege.
I could spend hours writing bad poetry or misguided song lyrics.
I could rant about celebrities or I could rant about ex's.
I could post images from reddit all day.
Instead, I try to stick to an agenda and a format.
My goal is to someday use all of this mall talk
plus my newest blog about St. Augustine attractions
as a couple of portfolios that will get me hired.
Hired to blog from home, write for an entertainment magazine,
help manage a website like Tripadvisor,
or maybe even travel the country doing valuable research
like the men who wrote Labelscar.

My husband hates shopping.
He doesn't like to be at the mall because he is more of an introvert.
He likes his quiet office in our condo.
But he has similar dreams of launching a web design business from home
and has passions that I don't understand 100%-
one of them is to possibly write video games.
If he could get paid to play video games,
I could get paid to love the mall.
I thank him for inadvertently inspiring me.

For the future of Malltopia:

Coming this fall:
-The birth of a Nordstrom
-An update on the curious case of Regency Square
-A possible addition of Gainesville's mall to the list

Coming this Christmas:
-Lakeland's case study
-The first enclosed mall built since 2006?

(Hopefully) Coming in 2015:
-Miami Malls
-Florida pan-handle Malls
-A tour for the outlet malls of Orlando and Tampa

What's Happening to The Florida Mall?

An expert will have to tell me if the mall is evolving.... or in danger.

I was shocked to recently find out, when researching updates

about malls I toured last year for the blog,

that the Florida Mall may have suffered two massive blows this year.

Or is it just undergoing change?

First, at the beginning of this year, it lost its SAKS!

I'm surprised that I didn't realize this change.

In June of this year, I got married

and my new husband and I stopped at the mall

on the way over to the gulf coast as part of our honeymoon.

We stopped to have sushi at that establishment in the center

where the sushi cruises by on a conveyor belt and you choose at will.

We were only there for lunch,

my husband doesn't really enjoy shopping,

so we didn't walk around really.

Somehow the vacant SAKS didn't even come to my attention.

Why did SAKS close and fire its 74 employees?

It could be many factors, but most likely issues in the economy are to blame.

In June the mall was probably only beginning its renovation

to make a new food court.

The old food court was open and fully functional when we were there.

What I probably wouldn't have known unless I read the Orlando Sentinel

a little more often 

Is that the Nordstrom has now closed too!

The Florida Mall has lost two anchors.

Anchor failure is generally a sign of up and coming decline,

unless the mall can creatively redeem itself like it is trying to do

with that new food court.

In 2009 the mall received an upgrade that gave it some large new stores

facing the outside, including the Zara and the double-decker Forever XXI.

The innovative new sushi restaurant replaced a dying candy store 

that was oddly placed in the middle of an open area.

I believe it opened in 2012.

The Florida Hotel is still attached to the property,

with one lobby exit going into the mall.

I will pay this mall a visit possibly in December.

Here today, Mall tomorrow

Some would say that indoor shopping malls are obsolete.
Soon to be fazed out in favor of outdoor lifestyle centers
and less frequented because of online malls,
there are theories bouncing around that in the near future,
the indoor mall will cease to exist.

An ever-expanding network of urban explorers and economists
are running websites like Labelscar and Deadmalls.com
to keep a tabs on those behemoth climate-controlled retail centers
that are dwindling in occupancy rates and falling into disrepair
as well as a growing number of centers
that have been abandoned completely.
These are the types of places where I read theories
that malls will go extinct in the next few decades.

For the malls that have been completely abandoned
and now are being leveled so something new can be built,
most of them resided in the rust belt.
States like Indiana, Ohio and Illinois were booming
back in the day of the thriving steel industry.
That part of the economy has folded
as advancing technology has brought change.
Entire cities (like Gary, Indiana and a large part of Detroit) have gone under.
In Louisiana, malls have died from Katrina's flooding.
There have been some others that have died
in California and here in Florida
Because "bigger and better" have replaced them.
One was in my home town of Lakeland.
The one that is now a church.
I know of a mall that has been bulldozed in
Clearwater, Tampa, Hollywood and tiny Titusville.
I know of ailing malls such as
Regency Square in Jacksonville,
University Mall in Tampa,
Orlando Fashion Square,
our own Ponce Mall
and many more.

Still, malls do exist.
In every city I go to,
there is a mall.
Some are large and newly renovated,
some are tiny and in need of updating
but most are very much alive.

Orlando, Florida has one state-of-the-art Mall,
the Mall at Millennia.
It is occupied by high-end designer stores
and markets to the wealthy tourists.
As far as I can tell,
it is healthy.
The more affordable family mall, Florida Mall,
is fully functional.
International Plaza in Tampa is bustling.
Lakeland Square Mall,
which was going downhill since the 2000's,
has received some renovations.
Altamonte Mall is simpler but still very large
and serves a large subdivision of Orlando.
And this is just what I can visit in my Florida
"territory".
These healthy malls exist all over America.
some have a few shuttered stores
or store fronts that once held a brand name
like "Loft" that now hold a family-owned boutique shop,
But I would hardly say they are "dying".

Here is my theory.
Here in North Florida, the Jacksonville Metro area,
we have an "inverted" mall called the
St. Johns Town Center.
It is massive and was only built about a decade ago.
Its stores range from budget bargains like Ross and Old Navy
to middle-range like Nike, JCrew and American Eagle
to high fashion like Coach and Louis Vuitton.
They all face outward to sidewalks in the open air.
Its "anchors", a Dillard's, Dick's Sporting Goods, DSW Shoes,
Target and soon a Nordstom,
are situated in the midst of the layout
but on different ends like a standard indoor mall.
It is refreshing to take a walk through it,
breathing in outdoor air and it feels like exercise...
...as long as it is a nice day.
North Florida is still Florida.
In August, it's in the mid 90's outside.
In the winter, the weather is a little more harsh
than some of Florida's more southern regions.
There are many cold, dreary and rainy days.
There are mornings that are downright frosty.
Long story short,
it isn't always convenient to spend an afternoon
strolling leisurely in an outdoor shopping center
when there's damp cold or extreme heat.

I can see these new lifestyle centers
being most successful in states like CA,
where the weather is fairly stable.
Everywhere else, there's something that
will make them difficult for people.

Where do you go shopping when it's so hot
your skin gets sticky?
What about when there's driving rain?
Snow and sleet?
Thank goodness for these older climate controlled
indoor malls.
If I had shopping to do for an afternoon
or people in town to entertain
and the weather was unforgiving,
I wouldn't care if the mall
looked like it was stuck in the 90's.
I would look up at the rain
through the glass ceilings,
feeling thankful it couldn't get to me,
and then enjoy not shivering because
the indoor temperature was somewhere in the 70's.

Today I visited the Avenues Mall,
which is my nearest large option for indoor retail.
It is Labor Day weekend.
It is hot, humid and people are off of work.
There are sales everywhere.
It took awhile to find a parking spot.
Once I got into the stores,
it took awhile to get through to the front of the lines.
And walking in the main corridor,
through center court,
I felt like I was in a sea of faces.
Faces of all different nationalities,
colorful outfits,
and various languages.
There were sounds of children,
music, the kids train,
and voices on intercoms.
The few fronts that are closed
boast an ad for something new coming soon.
There are old store fronts that belong
to a family owned business now,
including one wine shop that sells alcoholic slushies.
The children's play area is crawling with babies.
The Starbucks kiosk has a line backed up all the way across
center court.

This retail empire is not going anywhere.

Gentrification at It's Finest

The story of an abandoned mall's reincarnation

Old Lakeland Mall, 1972

 *This image is not owned by me, it was borrowed from another blog. I was not born yet in 1972.

Until about 1993, old Lakeland Mall was filled with shoppers

Milling about looking at current fashions

in stores such as Jean Nicole.

Then, because of the larger Lakeland Square Mall’s opening in 1988,

The little mall met its demise.

It was sliding downhill quickly after that mall opened.

My only memory of it is very vague.

I was 5 years old, it was 1992, and my parents and I

Were sitting in one of the main areas by a fountain.

Everything was dark.

I was actually frightened a bit by all the shuttered, dark stores.

It was closed permanently less than 2 years later.

Unlike most other malls that die, however,

Lakeland Mall didn’t get bulldozed 

and replaced with a super Wal-Mart or a lifestyle center.

Instead, renovations took place and its doors opened once again, in 1999.

Seemingly resurrected, its halls were filled with people once again.

There was one major difference though.

In the past, the residents of Lakeland were here to find items they desired.

Now, they were here to find spiritual enrichment.

Lakeland Mall had become “First Baptist Church at the Mall”.

Now, the old Montgomery Ward was a stadium-style sanctuary fit

For a few hundred church goers.

The old Sam’s Club was now an auxiliary fellowship hall.

The many store fronts were various ministries, classes and a nursery.

The old 2-screen theater was the college ministry,

Later to become the men’s ministry.

A former restaurant became a coffee bar.

This monolith church that had formerly been a tiny mall

Was there for several years before I even realized

My affinity for malls,

And it was not until it’s 10^th anniversary in 2009

That I was invited to attend by a friend

Who was a member there at the time.

I had only been inside the mall when it was still a mall

Just a few times when I was very little,

But I recognized it right away.

It felt familiar, and it was hard to believe it was actually a church.

It still looks just like a mall. The only major renovation

Was to that old Montgomery Ward.

In fact, I was looking for a bathroom and I found one in

The old Sam’s club-turned-worship-hall.

It was in a hallway behind the store, a hallway with old

Janitorial closets that would have only been accessible

By mall staff in the past.

The bathroom I found still looked like it was stuck in the 1970’s.

It was freaky.

Little hidden nooks and crannies of this place weren’t even

Addressed when it was updated.

I enjoyed my visit to the church.

People seemed friendly and welcoming.

I enjoyed the fact that it was a mall

As much as I enjoyed worshipping.

In college, the term for when an old structure

Is still put to use but for something new is called

“Gentrification”.

Normally, it happens with old warehouses being

Remodeled to become apartments

Or old barns becoming restaurants

Or old churches becoming a school.

First Baptist Church at the Mall was a rare occurrence

Where an entire mall was repurposed for worship.

It speaks volumes not just for creativity,

But also for Christianity.

http://churchatthemall.com/

*interior photos coming 9/21

Inspired Vision for a Dead Mall

When I moved to St. Augustine in 2005,

I was here for college and with no car,

When I wanted to shop it had to be if I could bum a ride

To a place nearby.

I was thrilled to find out there was a mall, called

Ponce De Leon Mall.

I was dismayed to find out it was a dead mall.

And that was in 2005.

Though St. Augustine does have two outlet malls,

One of which underwent some hefty renovations in 2008,

It doesn’t have a standard shopping mall that is fully equipped

Like the Avenues Mall in Jacksonville.

Ponce De Leon Mall has only slipped further downhill since then.

In less than a decade, it lost its surviving fashion stores

To the refaced outlet mall.

It lost its movie theater to the new 20-screen Epic Theater.

It lost a one-of-a-kind nerdy joke and novelty shop to the economy.

It lost a few tiny restaurants the same way.

And after Blockbuster shutdown its entire franchise,

Thus killing the video store outside the mall,

The Hallmark realized how much everything slowed down

and saw fit to close as well.

In 2009, Ponce had a minor renovation of its tiny center court area

And the two short corridors.

It did gain a sewing lounge, a florist, a women’s fitness room,

A church and it still has GNC and its two-and-a-half (because Sears

Is only an appliance store) surviving anchors.

One store space is used for meetings.

There is no food court.

It has nearly 30 store fronts, and maybe

6 of them are occupied.

After spending time on the First Baptist Church at the Mall

In Lakeland,

That same thought occurred to me about Ponce Mall.

After the 6-screen Regal cinema was vacated,

Anchor Faith bought it.

Anchor faith is a word-based non denominational contemporary

family church that’s been growing rapidly in the past few years.

It once occupied just a single store front in a strip mall.

Now it fills out all of the movie theater space and has a little playground

For the nursery, outside in the back.

It was founded 10 years ago in 2004,

Here in St. Augustine,

And by 2011 or 2012 had grown so rapidly

it needed the cinema space.

It has also put out church plants in

Georgia, Puerto Rico and Nicaragua.

Could the local congregation

double in size again in less than another decade?

http://www.anchorfaith.com/

It isn’t my church of membership.

I am a proud member of Good News, a PCA church.

However, I do know that

Anchor Faith does teach the Word of God,

Encourage prayer, worship and ministry,

And instills a love for Christ.

So as a Christian,

I think it would be

a positive development if their organization

were to completely overtake the struggling Ponce Mall.

Residents of St. Augustine who want to see

The structure be preserved would most likely be relieved.

Christians in the community would benefit,

As would the specific ministry.

I tried contacting Anchor Faith through email.

I asked if an expanse that would take up

A large part of Ponce Mall has ever been considered.

The response I got was actually not unexpected

For a Christian organization.

The pastor himself wrote back

And stated basically that

“If it is God’s will for us to expand,

we will.”

To those of my readers who are new to Christianity-

Basically it means that idea might have crossed their mind,

But they won’t actively pursue it unless a large amount

Of signs pointed to such a large undertaking

Being an act of divine intervention.

Suppose Anchor Faith saw fit to expand in or before 2024.

2024 would be its 20^th anniversary.

I of course have little/no knowledge of what an organization

Must do to legally undertake this.

But suppose they were able to afford to buy the entire building.

They had no issues with taxes, legal matters, or anyone petitioning

Against them.

Based on my tour of First Baptist Church at the Mall

And what I know of Ponce Mall,

I could see the repurposing effort going like this:

Belk and JCPenney could stay since they are on either end.

It is just as likely that they could move to fill in

recently vacated spots in the general area,

like the old Ross and Staples buildings, left over when

Seabridge Square strip mall built over the old Kmart site.

Sears could go to one of these or a new building that is going up now.

The little stores like the florist, the GNC and the sewing lounge

Could easily find a new home in the updated Seabridge Square

Or in Cobblestone plaza.

The women’s fitness room and the dance studio

(if it is still there now) could move into the strip mall

Where we have the Sav-A-Lot.

Any number of combinations seem possible in my mind,

But like I said,

The little businesses and the chain businesses alike

Know what they should and shouldn’t do for their budgets

And regular clients.

Once the Ponce Mall is empty,

save for Anchor Faith in its little 6-theater cinema,

The church could branch out to turn each of the

30 or so store fronts into class rooms and multi-purpose spaces.

Youth ministry.

College ministry.

Singles ministry.

Marriage ministry.

Grief and loss care.

Recovery services.

Mission trip planning.

Nursery.

Media center.

Gift shop.

There is a space that looks like it was a café of some kind.

That could become a little restaurant where church goers

Can purchase coffee, sandwiches and other snacks.

The Belk and JCPenney could become

additional fellowship halls.

One for a larger Sunday service

And one for when guest speakers come to town

And draw a crowd.

These hefty spaces could be renovated and

put to use for other events.

Plays.

Christian concerts.

Easter and Christmas services.

VBS.

Christian middle school dances.

Weddings.

The old Sears could become something for youth services.

Facing outward to the main parking lot

With an extra door leading directly outside,

It would be easy for parents

To drop their children off here.

Since this is a mall,

There is ample parking on all sides.

Could my idea be a possible option for Ponce Mall in the future?