Owings Mills Mall

Owings Mills Mall was a shopping mall in Owings Mills, Maryland, United States, that hosted 155 stores and eateries, in the Baltimore County, Maryland, community of Owings Mills. It was owned and managed by General Growth Properties (GGP). While its main entrance was off Red Run Boulevard between Painters Mill Road and Owings Mills Boulevard, the mall was also accessible from the exit ramps of I-795. It was originally known as Owings Mills Town Center during planning. It was also known as Owings Mills Fashion Mall when it opened, but the "Fashion" part was eventually dropped. The mall was completely demolished in 2017, and redeveloped in 2019 as Mill Station. The mall's final anchor store was JCPenney, which closed its doors on April 8, 2016. Previous anchors were Bambergers, Hecht's, Macy's, Boscov's, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Sears. IFL (International Furniture Liquidators) was temporarily located in the space vacated by Lord & Taylor. Sticks 'N' Stuff, a furniture retailer, was temporarily located in the Sears building before it was demolished in 2004. The mall experienced the closures of several national stores, leaving multiple vacancies. History 1981–1986: Development and opening The mall was announced as early as March 1981, with vague plans that compared it to the White Marsh Mall in size. By late 1983, a summer 1986 opening had been announced, and the mall was to feature three department store anchors with plans for two more. Anchors Saks Fifth Avenue, Bambergers, and Hecht's were announced in 1984. The area was identified as a primary growth center in 1979 by Baltimore County and originally intended to be built around a 100-acre (40 ha) lake, with $2 million invested in the project. The Rouse Company planned to develop the mall and surrounding area as Owings Mills Town Center, similar to its town center project in Columbia, Maryland. Environmental regulations changed during the time between the development of Columbia and Owings Mills, and the Army Corps of Engineers concluded the lake would have a negative environmental impact. The area does not include the waterfront focal point initially planned, which is why the "Owings Mills Town Center" name was never used when the mall opened. The mall had its grand opening celebration on July 30, 1986 as Owings Mills Fashion Mall, with the mall 95% leased and 80% of stores open. 1987–1992: Owings Mills Metro Subway Station The Baltimore Metro Subway opened the Owings Mills Metro Subway Station one year after Owings Mills Mall. Shuttle bus service with a ten minute round trip was provided between the mall and the station. This shuttle bus service was discontinued in June 1992, leaving a less frequent bus service that provided this link only every 30 to 60 minutes. 1990s–2017: Decline, closure, and demolition Owings Mills Mall received growing competition as other local malls have expanded. Towson Town Center added Nordstrom in October 1991, and that was the final blow to Owings Mills Mall's upscale status. Saks Fifth Avenue began liquidation sales in early November 1995 (with a projected closure date of January 6, 1996), and was replaced with JCPenney. In 1997, bus service between the two locations was improved. The ease of public transportation allowed visitors from inner city urban areas to get to and from this mall much more easily than other suburban malls in the Baltimore metropolitan area. In 1998, following the Rouse Company's acquisition of Towson Town Center, the developer expanded Owings Mills Mall and dropped "Fashion" from the mall's name, due Rouse's strategical repositioning of the mall to serve as a general "middle-market" shopping center rather than a "fashion" destination. This was part of Rouse's plans to make its malls in Maryland more competitive to modern malls, such as the then-under-construction Arundel Mills, and to avoid cannibalization. The 1998 renovation and expansion added Sears and Lord & Taylor, but they closed in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Stix n' Stuff, a short-lived furniture retailer moved into the Sears building, but closed in 2004, and the building was subsequently demolished to make way for an adjacent residential development. IFL (International Furniture Liquidators) moved into the Lord & Taylor building, but was short-lived and closed soon after. The building remained vacant until demolition. The Rouse Company, and subsequently General Growth Properties after a 2004 acquisition of Rouse's assets, have continued to promote Towson Town Center and The Mall in Columbia as premier malls, while leaving Owings Mills Mall stuck in the middle. Federated Department Stores would acquire Hecht's in February 2006, with Macy's moving into the former Hecht's building following the conversion of every Hecht's location to Macy's, and Boscov's would move into the original Macy's building. However, Boscov's announced in August 2008 that this location would close as part of a plan to close ten locations nationwide due to the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This left JCPenney and Macy's as the remaining anchors. An October 2010 story on the mall in The Baltimore Sun stated that the mall was 22.6% vacant. WBAL-TV reported on November 10, 2011, that Owings Mills Mall would be demolished in 2013, with a new "outdoor style" mall similar to the revamped Hunt Valley Towne Centre to be completed by 2014. An October 2014 story in the Baltimore Business Journal stated that the mall was "about half vacant." In late September 2015, the interior of the mall was quietly closed, leaving only Macy's, JCPenney, out-parcel restaurants and the adjacent movie theater in operation. Macy's closed in November 2015, and JCPenney announced on January 13, 2016, that it would close its Owings Mills location in the spring. Fixtures from the mall were auctioned in March 2016. Demolition of the mall commenced in August 2016, and was completed in March 2017. Redevelopment as Mill Station As of March 2017, Owings Mills Mall was completely demolished, and readied for redevelopment. On December 5, 2017, it was announced that the property would be redeveloped as a lifestyle shopping center called Mill Station. The $108 million project will be 575,000 square feet (53,400 m2) and anchored by Costco, Lowe's, and Dick's Sporting Goods. There will be at least 30 total tenants. Construction began in late December 2017 and was completed in early 2019. Costco, however, opened in October 2018. The existing 17-screen AMC Theatres, originally a General Cinema opened in 1998, was also fully remodeled. Peripheral properties Owings Mills Restaurant Park opened next to the mall in 1998; it is a collection of five sit-down restaurants such as Red Lobster and the Olive Garden, which closed in 2023. A mixed-use, transit-oriented development first called Owings Mills Metro Centre (now Metro Centre at Owings Mills), exists alongside Mill Station. BECO Towers, formerly the Owings Mills Corporate Center until January 2013, is an office complex adjacent to Owings Mills Mall/Mill Station. Firms operated there include CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Truist (formerly BB&T until it merged with SunTrust). Notable incidents Christina Brown murder At 2:18 p.m. EDT on September 25, 1992, Christina Marie Brown was found dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head along the vegetation lined portion of the path between the mall and the Metro station. She was found ten minutes after leaving work as an employee of a cleaning company under contract to Saks Fifth Avenue at the mall, and was believed to have been traveling to the Metro station, en route to her home in Baltimore City. Brown was shot after she resisted a robbery attempt, and her purse, containing about $120, was taken. The pathway was closed on November 25, 1992, in response to Brown's murder. The murder received heavy local media attention, which led to a long-standing perception that Owings Mills Mall was unsafe. After the closure of the trail, a walk between the mall and metro became impractical for most, thereby requiring the use of regular bus service. Gallery References See also Harborplace & The Gallery – a similarly failed mall also developed by The Rouse Company in Baltimore, Maryland Collin Creek Mall, a similarly failed mall also designed by RTKL White Marsh Mall, the surviving equivalent to Owings Mills Mall also developed by Rouse and designed by RTKL Harundale Mall / Harundale Plaza, a shopping mall also developed by Rouse that was demolished and replaced with a power center External links Media related to Mill Station at Wikimedia Commons DEAD MALL SERIES: Owings Mills Mall **DEMOLISHED** by This Is Dan Bell