Rolling Acres Mall was a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

located in the Rolling Acres area of

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

, United States. Built in 1975, it originally included approximately 21 stores, with

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

as the main

anchor store In North American, Australian and New Zealand retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are ...

. Later expansions added several more stores including anchor stores

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001; its common nickname was "Monkey Wards". ...

, and

O'Neil's O'Neil's was an American department store chain founded in 1877 by Michael O'Neil and Isaac Dyas. It dominated the Akron, Ohio, Akron and Canton retail markets. Founded in 1877, the store grew to several locations in northeastern Ohio. In 1912, i ...

, along with a movie theater and

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...

. Montgomery Ward was converted to

Higbee's Higbee's was a department store founded in 1860 in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1987, Higbee's was sold to the joint partnership of Dillard's department stores and Youngstown-based developer, Edward J. DeBartolo. The stores continued to operate under ...

in 1986, and then to

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The company a ...

in 1992, while O'Neil's became

May Company Ohio May Company Ohio was an American department store chain that was headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio. It originated with the purchase and renaming of the E. R. Hull & Dutton Co. by David May (merchant), David May in 1899, and expan ...

Kaufmann's Kaufmann's was a department store that originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The store was owned in the early 20th century by Edgar J. Kaufmann, patron of the famous Fallingwater house. In the post-war years, the store became a regional chain ...

, and then finally

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

. The fifth anchor store was

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

, added in 1995. At its peak, the mall had over 150 stores. It underwent a sharp decline in tenancy throughout the 1990s and into the first decade of the 21st century, resulting in the relocation of Target and closure of Dillard's. Macy's and the mall itself both shuttered in 2008 along with the website to the mall, although Sears remained operational until 2011, and JCPenney as an

outlet store An outlet store, factory outlet or factory store is a brick and mortar or online shopping, online store where manufacturers sell their merchandise directly to the public. Products at outlet stores are usually sold at reduced prices compared to re ...

until 2013. Rolling Acres Mall was publicized after its closure as an example of a

dead mall A dead mall, also known as a ghost mall or zombie mall, is a shopping mall that has low consumer traffic or is deteriorating in some manner. Many malls in North America are considered "dead" when they have no surviving anchor store or successor ...

, and non-retail ventures operated out of the former locations of Target, Sears, and Dillard's. The mall was finally demolished in stages between 2017 and 2019, with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

building a distribution facility on the former site soon after.

History

Rolling Acres Mall was developed by

Forest City Enterprises Forest City Realty Trust, Inc., formerly Forest City Enterprises, was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the great ...

and

-based developer Richard B. Buchholzer (February 19, 1916 - February 6, 2006). The developers chose the site, along Romig Road on Akron's southwestern side, between 1964 and 1966 after conducting studies which revealed that several major department stores had expressed interest in that area. In 1971, Buchholzer received a $500,000 permit to begin clearing and grading land along Romig Road for the mall's site. Developers also had to acquire two other permits from the city: one to excavate earth required to build the mall, and another for construction. In addition, the city of Akron budgeted $1.1 million toward highway and sewer improvements along Romig Road, to accommodate for the projected traffic increases brought on by the mall's opening. By mid-1973,

had been confirmed as the mall's first

. Construction of the mall required the relocation of two natural gas lines. Serving as architect was the Keeva Kekst Association of

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

. Due to the slow speed at which Forest City Enterprises had begun land clearing and construction, then-city councilman Ray Kapper sent a letter to the developers in July 1973, threatening to repeal the zoning permit for the mall. Kapper later withdrew the repeal after representatives of Forest City Enterprises agreed to sign an assessment that included written plans for the mall's timeline. At this point, company representative Mel Roebuck had announced that in addition to Sears and 60 other stores, the mall would contain a

, and that development beyond land clearing would begin within a month. JCPenney would relocate from Wooster-Hawkins Plaza, a plaza located about to the north. This announcement caused concern among retailers at that plaza, particularly since its other anchor store, a Clarkins discount store, had just closed. Construction of the mall cost over $100 million and employed over 1,200 workers.

1970s

The first phase of the mall, consisting of Sears and 21 other stores, opened to the public on August 6, 1975. Among the tenants open for business on that day were Sears,

Rite Aid Rite Aid Corporation is an American drugstore chain based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1962 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, by Alex Grass under the name Thrift D Discount Center. Prior to its first bankruptcy in 2023, it was the th ...

Kinney Shoes The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from 1894 until September 16, 1998. It was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in March 1923, with the symbol KNN. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney ...

Chess King Chess King was an American men's clothing retailer created by the Melville Corporation. From its founding in 1968, it grew to over 500 locations by the mid-1980s, before an eventual decline, sale, and closure of the chain in 1995. History In 1 ...

Thom McAn Thom McAn is an American brand of shoes and was formerly a retail chain. Its shoes have been sold in Kmart and Sears stores. It consists of leather-dress, casual, and athletic shoes (under its Tm Sport label). Until the 1990s, Thom McAn had hun ...

Waldenbooks Walden Book Company, Inc., doing business as Waldenbooks, was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a children's e ...

Claire's Claire's (formerly known as Claire's Boutiques, Claire's Boutique and Claire's Accessories) is an American retailer of accessories, jewelry, and toys primarily aimed towards tween and teen girls, and young women. It was founded in 1961 and i ...

B. Dalton B. Dalton Bookseller was an American retail bookstore chain founded in 1966 by Bruce Dayton, a member of the same family that operated the Dayton's department store chain. B. Dalton expanded to become the largest retailer of hardcover books i ...

, GNC,

The Limited The Limited is an American clothing brand sold exclusively through Belk. The Limited began with operating retail stores between the early 1960s and the late 2010s. In 2017, it became a brand owned by the private equity firm Sycamore Partners. Hi ...

, and

Jo-Ann Fabrics Jo-Ann Stores, LLC, (stylized JOANN) was an American specialty retail chain that specialized in fabrics and arts and crafts supplies. The chain was based in Hudson, Ohio, and had operated over 800 stores across 49 U.S. states until the beginni ...

. The design of the mall featured a central court known as the Court of Twelve Trees, decorated with twelve ''

Ficus microcarpa ''Ficus microcarpa'', also known as Chinese banyan, Hill's weeping fig, small-fruited fig, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, or curtain fig, is a species of banyan tree in the family Moraceae. Its native range is from India to China and Japan, thro ...

'' trees, along with planters, skylights, and a fountain. Altogether, the mall was to include over 120 tenants. JCPenney opened its department store in January 1976, at which point the inner mall had over 50 tenants. In August 1976,

General Cinema Corporation General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first theaters ce ...

opened a three-screen movie theater at the mall, known as the Rolling Acres Cinemas. Construction on

department store, located on the south end, began in July 1977, and a

opened in October 1977. The mall also included a space along the south wing for a fifth anchor, along with an elevated section along the southern wing known as the Promenade, which included more retail space for a total of 144 stores. Upon opening in 1978, the Promenade section of the mall featured predominantly local and regional shops, along with Motherhood Maternity and

Spencer Gifts Spencer Gifts LLC, doing business as Spencer's, is a North American mall retailer with over 600 stores in the United States and Canada. Its stores specialize in novelty and gag gifts, and also sell clothing, brand merchandise, sex toys, room dec ...

. Also included in the Promenade was a

originally known as the Prom-n-Eat, but renamed by 1981 to Picnic Place.

1980searly 1990s

The opening of Montgomery Ward at the mall had resulted in that chain converting its existing Akron-area store at Akron Square Plaza into an

which sold damaged, returned, or overstocked items from other stores. By 1980, the chain had decided to convert all of its eastern Ohio stores, including both Akron locations, to its discount division Jefferson Ward. Under this format, the stores were to include a greater emphasis on self-service shopping, with cash registers located solely at the exits instead of in each department. Montgomery Ward reversed this decision a year later as part of a plan to reassess the chain's profitability. Both stores were closed in early 1986 and the Rolling Acres Mall store was sold to

, which opened later the same year. The store was the twelfth in the Higbee's chain, and the first new store in over four years. After the store opened, mall management began attracting more fashion-oriented tenants to the mall, including

Lane Bryant Lane Bryant Inc. is an American women's apparel and intimates specialty retailer focusing on plus-size clothing. The company began in 1904 with maternity designs created by Lena Himmelstein Bryant Malsin. Lane Bryant, Inc., is the largest pl ...

, Lerner New York, and

Limited Express A limited express is a type of express train or express bus service that stops at fewer locations compared to other express services on the same or similar routes. Japan The term "limited express" is a common translation of the Japanese ...

(all then under the same

ownership Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as '' title'', which may be separated and held by dif ...

as existing mall tenant The Limited), along with Caren Charles and Petite Sophisticate, two clothing chains then owned by the United States Shoe Corporation. In addition to these, the mall underwent a thorough renovation that replaced its existing earth-toned decor with blue and purple tones, while also undergoing a relandscaping of the exterior. This was followed in 1989 by the acquisition and renaming of the O'Neil's stores to

. In a cost-cutting measure, Rolling Acres Mall stopped using off-duty police officers and instead relied on cheaper security guards, starting in 1991. During a showing of the film ''

New Jack City ''New Jack City'' is a 1991 American crime action film directed by Mario Van Peebles (in his feature film directorial debut) and written by Thomas Lee Wright and Barry Michael Cooper, based on a story by Wright. The film stars Wesley Snipes, I ...

'', two movie patrons got into a fight outside of the cinema. A panicked crowd ran through the mall after patrons mistook the sound of a metal sign falling over for the sound of a gunshot. Rollingacres kaufmanns

Two anchor stores changed names between 1992 and 1993:

purchased and renamed the entire Higbee's chain, while

May Department Stores Company The May Department Stores Company was an American holding company of department stores founded in 1877 by David May. It operated several regional department stores throughout the United States, which were managed as distinct business divisions ...

consolidated the May Company Ohio stores into

, which they also owned at the time. Forest City Enterprises refinanced the mall in 1994, putting the money towards the development of several new restaurants inside the mall's food court. General Cinema Corporation closed the mall's movie theater in mid-1993, saying that it had been unprofitable for years due to its smaller size relative to other multiplex theaters in the area. Prior to the closure, the company had attempted to run it as a discount theater showing second-run movies for 99 cents, but doing so attracted homeless people and urban youth, both of whom would often loiter in the theater for extended periods. Combined with the theater riot two years prior, this caused a preconception among patrons and merchants that the mall had begun catering more heavily to teenagers and to lower-income clientele.

Mid-1990smid-2000s: Addition of Target and decline

The fifth and final anchor store to open at the mall was

, which began construction in 1994 and opened in 1995. It was connected to the rest of the mall by a passageway that included new storefronts. This store was part of an expansion by that chain into northeastern Ohio, which was to comprise about 20 stores in total. Target representatives noted that the stores would contain merchandise mixes fitting the stores' demographics, which would be reflected in the Rolling Acres Mall location carrying cosmetics, clothing, and music that would cater to the area's predominantly African-American demographics. Despite the addition of this new store, the mall began losing tenants, and both Dillard's and JCPenney downgraded their respective stores to outlet stores between 1997 and 1999. Although JCPenney had operated several outlet stores at the time, the Rolling Acres Mall store was only the third such one to be converted from a conventional store, and employees of the store at the time told the ''Akron Beacon Journal'' that the store had experienced declining sales for many years prior to its conversion. The mall was sold to Banker Trust of New York in 2000 for $33.5 million, who gave the mall a new logo as well as a website. Also, an independent group called Blind Squirrel Cinema reopened the mall's movie theaters. By November 2001, a buyer was sought by Bankers Trust. In September 2002,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

businessman Heywood Whichard and his family purchased Rolling Acres for $2.75 million. A 2002 news article in ''The Akron Beacon Journal'' described the mall and the area around it as having "faltered since the early 1990s" due to perceptions of high crime and lack of renovations to the mall, compared to the renovations that

Chapel Hill Mall Chapel Hill Mall was a shopping mall located in Akron, Ohio, United States. It was built by Richard "R.B." Buchholzer and Forest City Enterprises, and opened in 1967. At its peak the mall featured more than 100 stores, with Sears, JCPenney, ...

and

Summit Mall Summit Mall is a one-story, "East Side Malls" ''The Plain Dealer'' February 22, 2004. Retrieved July 31, 2006. enclosed shopping mall located at 3265 W. Market Street in the Akron suburb of Fairlawn., and with the closing of both Chapel Hill M ...

had both received in the 1990s. At the time of purchase by Heywood Whichard, Rolling Acres was about 65 percent occupied. The same article also noted that Heywood Whichard had a track record of buying faltering malls at low prices and making no attempt to revitalize them, to the point that many of their properties were ultimately demolished or converted to non-retail use.

2006–2010: Further decline

The first anchor to leave the mall was Target, which relocated to nearby

Wadsworth Wadsworth may refer to: People * Wadsworth (given name) * Wadsworth (surname) Places * Wadsworth, Illinois, United States, a village * Wadsworth, Kansas, United States * Wadsworth, Nevada, United States, a census-designated place * Wadswort ...

in May 2006. Dillard's closed in August 2006, one month before Kaufmann's was re-branded as

as the parent company of Kaufmann's was acquired. However, it was announced on December 28, 2007 that Macy’s would close three stores in Ohio, with the Rolling Acres Mall location being one of the three. The store's final day of business was February 16, 2008. Invest Commercial LLC, a company owned by California-based real estate developer Michael Mirharooni, bought the facility in July 2006 for $1.6 million. Invest Commercial bought the mall using a loan from Ezri Namvar's fraudulent Namco Capital Group. At the time of purchase, the mall had about 40 remaining tenants, including

Dollar General Dollar General Corporation is an American chain of discount stores headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As of January 8, 2024, Dollar General operated 19,643 stores in the contiguous United States and Mexico. The company began in 1939 in ...

MasterCuts Regis Corporation is an American operator of hair salons. As of August 2021, it has 5,563 franchised and 276 company-owned salons. Its headquarters are in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The primary trade names Regis salons operates under are SmartSty ...

Deb Shops Deb Shops, Inc. was a specialty retail chain store and catalog in the United States, selling women's clothing and accessories under its own private labels, as well as other labels, then exclusively an online retailer. The company was based in Phil ...

Bath & Body Works Bath & Body Works, LLC. is an American retail store chain that sells soaps, lotions, fragrances, and candles. It was founded in 1990 in New Albany, Ohio, New Albany, Ohio and has since expanded across six continents. In 1997, it became the large ...

Zales Jewelers The Zale Corporation (best known as Zales) is an American jewelry retailer, incorporated in Delaware in 1993. The principal executive offices are located in Coppell, Texas. History The company began in 1924 in Wichita Falls, Texas, when the t ...

, Subway,

Hershey's Ice Cream Hershey Creamery Company, also known as Hershey's Ice Cream, is an American creamery that produces ice cream, sorbet, sherbet, frozen yogurt, and other frozen desserts such as smoothies and frozen slab-style ice cream mixers. It was founded ...

, GNC, and FootAction USA, along with a number of local independent stores. Under Mirharooni's ownership, proposals were made to convert the mall to offices, light industrial, or call centers. As part of the sale, Invest Commercial also paid over $600,000 in property taxes that had gone unpaid by Heywood Whichard. In April 2007, a homeless man was found living in an abandoned store, with over $30,000 in merchandise that he had stolen from other mall merchants. He had lived there for a month, subsisting on

energy bar Energy bars are supplemental bars containing cereals, micronutrients, and flavor ingredients intended to supply quick food energy. Because most energy bars contain added protein (nutrient), protein, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, and other nutri ...

s and drinks stolen from GNC. By October 2008, only eight tenants remained, including Diamond's Menswear and Digital Palace. At this point, the website was shut down and all of the tenants were informed that the mall could no longer afford its electricity bill, and it would be closing as soon as possible. On October 31, 2008, the mall closed after the electricity was cut off except for Sears and the JCPenney outlet. Soon after, photographs and videos of the mall went

viral The word ''Viral'' means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents). It may also refer to: Viral behavior, or virality Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example: * Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spre ...

on the internet as an example of

retail apocalypse The retail apocalypse refers to the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores in the United States, especially those of large chains, beginning in the 2010s and accelerating due to the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. In ...

and suburban decline. On April 23, 2009, it was announced that Rolling Acres Mall had been auctioned online, and that several people showed interest in buying it for various purposes. The mall was set to be auctioned off on May 1, 2009. No bids were placed for the mall. The building was sold to Premier Ventures LLC of California in November 2010. The company announced plans to use the existing structure. The company did not pay taxes on the property, including the back taxes owed to 2006, and as a result the city of Akron began foreclosure proceedings in September 2013.

201117: Closure and demolition

Shortly after the 2010 sale, Sears announced it would be closing its location at the mall, and it closed on April 3, 2011. JCPenney announced in January 2011 that it would eliminate all outlet stores; nine months later, SB Capital Group purchased all JCPenney Outlet Stores with plans to rename them and continue to operate them, including the Rolling Acres store, under the name JC's 5 Star Outlet. This venture was also unsuccessful, and all of the JC's 5 Star Outlet locations were closed in 2013. On December 31, 2013, the store was closed, which left the entire mall completely abandoned. Storage of America at Rolling Acres

sheriff's sale A government auction or a public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a governmen ...

was set to be held in October 2014, but was called off because of a filed bankruptcy on the part of Premier. The city attempted another sheriff's sale in March 2015 but it was again delayed to June 16, 2015, by an incorrect dismissal of the previous bankruptcy case. On June 16, the mall was once again pulled from sheriff's sale at the last second by a second bankruptcy filing by the owner. Subsequent sheriff's sales on August 6 and October 6 also failed at the last minute by bankruptcy filings. An agreement was reached in November 2015 to force the sale of the mall while legally barring Premier from filing for bankruptcy until two months after sales proceedings ended. After subsequent sheriff's sales failed in mid-2016, the mall was foreclosed by Summit County on June 26, 2016. This transferred ownership to City of Akron who, the council said they would seek to work with a developer and that the buildings would be demolished. Four former department store buildings are still owned by other companies. In September 2016, the former location of JCPenney was sold to the city of Akron, as it was not demolished until after the rest of the mall. Later in 2017, demolition had finished. The former JCPenney building demolition began in August 2017, with full demolition of the main mall building completed in October. The former Target was in use as a Storage of America facility until 2017. The former Dillard's hosted Old Main Storage, a private storage company, until November 2018 and the former Sears currently hosts

Rumpke Rumpke Sanitary Landfill, more colloquially known as Mount Rumpke or Rumpke Mountain, is one of the largest landfills in the United States located in Colerain Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, Colerain Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, Hamilton Cou ...

Trash Pickup & Recycling Services (formerly Pinnacle Paper Recycling Company). To date, the former Sears is the only part of Rolling Acres Mall that has not been demolished.

2017–present: Future of the site

In 2019, following the property's demolition, it was rumored that

planned to develop a distribution facility on the site of the former mall. On July 22, 2019, a statement was issued by the city of Akron that Amazon had officially acquired the land. Construction on the new distribution center began in September. Approximately 1,500 jobs were to become available when construction was completed. The center opened on November 1, 2020.

References

External links

Rolling Acres Mall
at Deadmalls.com
Extensive photographic coverage and writeup about Rolling Acres Mall
{{Shopping malls in Ohio 1975 establishments in Ohio 2008 disestablishments in Ohio Buildings and structures demolished in 2019 Buildings and structures in Akron, Ohio Demolished buildings and structures in Ohio Demolished shopping malls in the United States Shopping malls established in 1975 Shopping malls disestablished in 2008 Shopping malls in Ohio Tourist attractions in Akron, Ohio