Memories Flourish of Lanza Gate Mall as the Mall Opened Fifty Years Ago

== 6/16/2023 ==
LANZA GATE, MINECRAFT
Memories are flouring for one Orange County shopping mall that opened fifty years ago today and used to be successful in the once thriving city. Lanza Gate Mall opened on June 16, 1973 by Edward J. DeBartolo and served the City of Lanza Gate’s East Side and was the first shopping mall located in Orange County, Minecraft. The mall provided shoppers from different towns such as George, Orange Village, Orange Township and East Tristate, Mareland. Lanza Gate Mall had three anchors originally which were JCPenney, Sears and Woolworth as well as being a one floor shopping mall with thirty stores. There was also a Kroger supermarket and Eckerd drug store located outside of the mall on a Mall Annex. The mall also brought the opening of Noggin Avenue with the freeway that had an exit to Lanza Gate Mall. During the early 1980s, the mall began to expand and added another two anchor stores which were Club and Higbee’s. In 1985, Summer Gate Mall opened in East Tristate and as an attempt to combat the competition of the two malls, Lanza Gate Mall added an additional two floors and made it a three-story mall with an additional 200 tenants. Another anchor was added to the mall which was Kaufmann’s making a total of six anchors, the mall also went through a major remodel around this time adding a eight-bay food court known as The Galaxy Food Stuff, additional parking garages as well as on neighboring roads in Downtown Lanza Gate, and a renaming from Lanza Gate Mall to The Gates at Lanza Gate. During the 1990s, Lanza Gate began to have major problems with crime with also crimes and violence starting to occur at the mall, which resulted in stores packing up and moving to safer towns like George and Orange. The mall was 75% vacant by 2000 with most anchors pulling out of the mall one by one. In 2003, The Gates at Lanza Gate was officially closed and became abandoned, vandalism began to plague to mall as well as many violent crimes occurring inside and outside the abandoned property. To combat crime, the mall was fenced off with an electric fence with plans to be demolished by the city once the funds from the State of Minecraft arrive to help do so.