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The abandoned entrance was blocked off by Simon Property back around 2010 when the Macy's Furniture Gallery closed. By chance, I happened to film the clearance bars and lights 2 weeks before they were ripped down. I believe that was in the June 7 update. As for the mall road at the beginning of this video, the municipality and Moonbeam kept saying that the road was the other party's property. So, while the rest of the roads on top of and around the slag dump have been resurfaced, the only party to do any work at all on this road was Neiswonger Construction. While Pittsburgh roads leave a lot to be desired, this one is infamously bad because nobody can agree whose responsibility it is to maintain it. If you watched the end, some regulars have figured out the path to take that avoids the worst holes, and at the right speed, they basically float over the rest.

@@MrTsolar That’s not Moonbeam’s responsibility. As bad as a mall owner as they are, (They’re struggling to maintain West Oaks Mall in Florida.) Century III Mall road stretches well beyond the perimeter of the property. Since the municipality already maintains the first half of the road, they might as well just repave the second half if Moonbeam is going to be a bad owner. I’ve always hated how Moonbeam takes on projects they obviously shouldn’t have but I think the municipality should just repave it.

@@mikemancini313 I agree. The parcel perimeter on the maps stops in the grass between the road and the parking lot, but a few of the mall's parking lot lights share power with the streetlights. Wasn't this road originally built by DeBartolo with the mall? As for Moonbeam, as much as I dislike them, they finished what Simon started. Can't imagine how things would've been different had CBL or even Kohan owned Century III after DeBartolo. Washington Crown Center, owned by Kohan, has been getting kicked since 2020 (the first hit their own fault) but has somehow survived to date. Of course, they're set to lose a handful of stores soon, so we'll have to see how that plays out.

@@MrTsolar Yes. You’re right. This is a DeBartolo mall. DeBartolo built the largest mall in the world in 1976 in North Randall Ohio. Later became one of the largest abandoned malls in the world after it closed in 2009. DeBartolo also built the extremely large Florida Mall in Orlando that does very well to this day. (Ironically, another Simon owned mall.) Century III was the third largest mall in American when built. Sad that it failed but the Pittsburgh area has so many malls and shopping centers around today. Competition really killed it and moonbeam neglecting fire codes lol.

@@MrTsolar Washington Crown Center might get killed from competition from South Hills Village Mall once Von Maur opens next month. That mall has a lot of traffic thanks to the railway line close to it. That and all those other Pittsburgh Malls like the Mall at Robinson.

It’s actually in better shape now than it was a year ago. The demo crew filled in a lot of the craters from the Sears entrance to 51.

@@MrTsolar I still take the extra time to go around.

Lewis Run isn’t far from the mall and does the same job. Might even be faster than the mall if you’re coming north on 51. Otherwise, Lebanon Church Road is better since the ramp to 51 South is a nightmare at times.

@@MrTsolar If you're coming from the intersection of 885 south and LCR it's tempting to use the mall road to avoid Lewis Run, especially since it's a double detour for the new turnpike construction. They don't want detour traffic on Coal Valley to keep the road to the hospital clear but Route 51 traffic backs up past the JMA center. It's a tough choice.

It appears so, along with surveillance cameras and the construction crew workers themselves. I wouldn’t risk stepping foot onto the property and getting in trouble, and I hope nobody else does, either.

That happened back in mid-April.

It was. I guess maybe that was so because those escalators are closer to the main group of stores and food court (which I totally missed the hallway to). Macy’s is on the quiet end of the mall.

I'm hesitant to call it that, but yeah, quite empty, especially for a Friday afternoon. Maybe I should so the video gains more traction.

So sad

Sometime in 2016. The original date stamps on the videos were lost.

Not through the heydays (wasn’t born then). My time at Century III was during the Simon days (2000-2012). I started coming back to C3 in 2017.

@@MrTsolar .....I see. Thank you for the answer. I do appreciate that.

It would definitely get noticed

Drones are noisy, so it would be heard through most of the mall. The crew likely wouldn’t take too kindly to it being there. Neither would the law.

@@MrTsolar So you would advise against flying a drone inside the mall while people are working in there?

@@GabetheSlacker I advise against it unless you have permission from the demolition crew to do so.

@@MrTsolar Would you need to have permission to get inside the mall and see what's going on in there, or do you think it would be best if you just had permission to fly a drone in there?

The canopy took damage from the falling brick. Some of the metal framing that held the glass is bent.

@@MrTsolar Oh. Well, it's quite weird how you can barely see that JCPenney label scar on the mall, whereas you can very clearly see the label scar on the now abandoned DSW Shoe Store next to the mall.

@@MrTsolar I didn't really notice any damage to the canopy.

@@GabetheSlacker It is strange how the signage at Century III barely left scars at all. Sears, Wards, the Century III sign over the main mall entrance, and Penneys barely left a mark, yet Gimbels appears if the weather conditions are correct. I have a picture of it from the night the mall closed.

@@MrTsolar And you can also kind of see a label scar on the Old Mexico restaurant.

There’s been evidence of that. In my videos, you can see transformers, electrical switch gear, and escalators removed and sitting outside the mall at various points during demolition. There were some pictures from inside posted on the C3 Mall Memories facebook page showing the mall being gutted of drywall, carpet, and ceiling tiles. JC Penney has been taken down to the steel and concrete inside. Hoping to get out there tomorrow and film an update. I was out of town last week.

There are still a lot of them out there, many still doing well. So far, the Pittsburgh area has only lost a small percentage of malls. There are still at least 5 in the area that are doing well, along with probably a dozen others not doing so well but still open.

Pittsburgh Pennsylvania,

Absolutely. Winrock and Coronado Malls were in walking distance.

Indeed. Spent a lot of time there shopping with my parents when I was younger. I think 2011 or so was the last time I was there until 2017 when I started documenting its decline.

Unless he goes past the marked off restricted areas on the other side where Dicks sporting goods is located, there’s no other spot like this from the top of the slag hill behind Pool City to get a great view.

It’s a big place. It took almost as long to walk a loop over/under the deck as it did the mall itself, and the mall is 3 floors on one end.

It’s not like they can keep stores from filing bankruptcy. Malls are just obsolete now and nobody has the time or much disposable income anymore to shop at malls.

Well, for one, that hole is on the second floor, but as much as I want to see pictures of inside, that’s trespassing and is illegal. I advise against it.

@@MrTsolar Well, there are pictures of the inside on the Century 3 Mall Memories page on FaceBook.

There you can see what's going on inside the mall as they're prepping it for demolition.

But like imagine if someone climbed up with the ladder and went inside the mall through that hole on the 2nd floor of JCPenney.

I was there a lot through the 2000’s up until around 2011 or so when we quit shopping there. I don’t know why we stopped since JC Penney and Sears were the main stores we went to, but it wasn’t until 2017 that I returned. There’s another video on RUclips that shows the mall at night around 2009. If you search “Blaze West Mifflin Fountain”, it should come up. That aesthetic is how I remember Century III back then.

@@MrTsolar thanks for sharing!