What a classy gesture all around from Lumos repurposing the school (and letting you document the progress) to repurposing old fixtures from the mall. It’d be something to come back and see a performance once they remodel everything.
It's so rare to see a dead mall actually have a happy ending, but props to Lumos Art Academy for doing just that. I've long felt dead malls could always be repurposed for art installations, but I didn't imagine an actual art ACADEMY repurposing a mall for their school. You'll have to go back to get a full tour of the finished product once they've got everything set up.
I reccomend checking out Festival Bay Mall in Orlando, FL. It was a dead mall with a couple neat anchors, but it turned into an indoor theme park/car museum called Dezerland Park. Probably the happiest ending I've seen for a dead mall.
The Parkway Mall in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada was partially repurposed into the campus of a local community college. Some external tenants remain, but the interior retail space is now all the college.
I'm glad the new owners are going by what they said and actually renovating it unlike with Festa Mall which said that they were also turning it into a med school but years later it's still left abandoned
A mall I went to when I was a kid, the Kyova Mall in Askland, Kentucky, just recently got repurposed, as well. Think of it as part shopping, part large-scale Chuck-E-Cheese, part food court with drinks and bowling and axe-throwing. I'm really delighted to see it get a new lease on life, and to see it busy with a ton of people even after its mall-death.
This is a cool video. I'm an educator, and it's cool to see how the new owners showed you what they were doing and th and that they reached out to you! As you have no doubt seen, this seems to be a recurrence in repurposing mall. It's not a bad second life for a mall and that it serves the community and its future is pretty cool! Keep up the documenting of these spaces. I appreciate your work.
I love your videos! In regards to this mall though, I worked there in 1992 - 93 at the "Food Factory' while I went to ASU. This mall was predominantly a senior citizen / snowbird destination. So much so that the summer hours were shorter than the winter because of the decrease in snowbird traffic. The parking lot was filled with Lincoln Towncars, crown vics and old school Cadillacs. It was definitely a senior mall.
Love to see it turn into an Art School. Much better then being torn down or turned into a bunch of offices, which is basically what one mall in my town turned into.
End of a era... the power square mall video where you took a pic of the bird guy with your floppy disk camera was the first retail archaeology vid I ever watched and how I discovered this channel!
Pause the video @ 5:54 and maybe you can imagine the bird guy as a ghost, still sitting in that lonely chair across from where the library used to be...
That's great that this mall is getting repurposed! If you told me as a kid in 1995 that malls would become class rooms etc in the future, my mind would have been blown XD
It's sad to see the old mall close. My family lives really close to the mall and it's basically been tradition every time I visit for Christmas that we go antiquing at the antique stores. But I am happy to see that it doesn't have the same fate as other dead malls.
*Props to the new owners for inviting you in and informing you about what they are doing..if only more owners would do the same. It is very good publicity.*
There's an old VF Outlet mall a few counties west of my home town. It reminds me so much of this mall. The VF Outlet closed in late 2019. The coin op rides in my mall are just as unique. Fortunately the mall soldiers on despite losing its original anchor. I hope it has a different ending than Power Square
There's something so sad about seeing some of these old malls become dead malls. So much love and creativity goes into these malls when they are first conceived and built then uncreative types run them down. Its so awesome that this mall is being saved by more creative types. We need a lot more of these types of people.
I always enjoyed your videos on this mall so it's great to hear it will survive from a dead mall to a thriving art school. The new owners have some really creative ideas, best of luck to them :)
I grew up across the street from this mall! My family and I used to shop at the clothing outlet often. I was curious in April of 2021 and visited the mall to see its current state. It largely looked like it does in this video except much more disheveled. I am very happy to see this mall have a happy ending. I didn’t know it’s ending until I saw this video. Thanks for sharing!
Oh my goodness, I wish I could buy those little coin operated rides! The end of an era for my life! My family, too, shopped at VF for back to school! I’m be sad to watch it turn into something else permanently!
It's super cool seeing your coverage of this place over the years. Despite having no personal familiarity with the area, it's neat having a sort of shared history through your repeated visits.
My only memory of this mall is going shopping with my mom and being incredibly thirsty the whole time and not knowing why. A few weeks later I was in the hospital with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes… whoops.
Man this is so hard to watch I practically grew up here. I made many friends at this mall. Thanks for this! I need to hit it up before the end of the month
This is a neat idea. Malls, by their nature, are sprawling buildings. Old malls that end up having to shutdown due to changes in shopping habits should be repurposed as schools or community centers where kids can come and learn something or hang out. The food court areas can even be repurposed as cafeterias or snackbars that way. Otherwise, what's going to happen? It either becomes a self-storage or an Amazon distribution hub. And while either of these last two options would contribute to the tax base of the area, it really doesn't do much in the long term to help the people directly in their daily lives.
It's a neat idea, but the architecture of a mall is incredibly ill-suited for anything but...well, a shopping mall. Either this school has a boat load of money and has the means to radically alter the building into something that functions well as a school or they're financially strapped and this was their best option. I'm guessing the latter.
Nice to see it's going to be re-used! In my area a church took over the smallest mall. Another got turned into front facing stores with a health related company on the other side, and the biggest one still exists. I really do hope the largest one stays alive.
sorry - I seemed to have missed this one but I love how that school was using the structure for their classes - what a great idea...we need more innovation like that for all the dead and dying malls....good stuff!
Great video! Could be used as a model nationwide for this topic. Had no idea this mall existed. Neat place with a cool concept-both in its initial conception as “mini mall” and its future plans for repurposing. I assume professional architectural plans and design are involved in the renovations...Always great to see you exploring the valley and updating us! It’s hard to believe Fiesta Mall is still just sitting there stagnant and deteriorating all these years...
Hard to see this one go. I've loved all your videos of this particular mall, because I went there 4 times a week in the early 2000's when Power Black Belt Academy was in this location. Times move on, people change, and sometimes, the places get to stay the same. But not this time.
There was a mall in Mesa I think off of University, can't remember but there was a Hastings music store there. I use to manage the store there. I always wondered what happened to that mall. Thank you for the video
used to live at recker+guadalupe for 9 yrs, im in california now but I remember going there as a kid, sad to see things change, it was a good area to grow up in, thx for the vids
Power Square Mall appears to be an identical twin of the Draper, Ut factory outlet center which also had a VF store as its anchor in what appears to be the exact same location. That mall slowly died while the entire area around it was developed extensively. The final blow came when a new factory outlet mall opened 9 miles south of it less than 10 years ago. Today the mall has been turned into strip center with the enclosed mall portion completely gone.
That is awesome! Glad to see that Power Center Mall is going to be reused for something, and a school, no less! It was really great for them to let you in for one last look at the place, too.
Sad to see it go. But, like you said, this is a really positive outcome compared to some of the fates of other malls. I'm extra happy it's going to be an arts school too. And that the owners actually asked you to film! I'm glad you got the opportunity to document for them
The flat sprawling architecture of a mall centered around ultra-wide corridors makes repurposing seem like a daunting task. I'm really interested to see what the plans are for this school and how radically they plan to alter the building to make it efficient and comfortable.
I remember when I went to high school, they closed it for 1 year to remodel and I was moved to a small school that use to be a bank, it still had a massive walk in vault.
This is so awesome. During so many of the dead mall videos, the wife and I always say that it is sad to see these giant buildings not being used for things like homeless veteran housing or something of the like...glad to see someone stepping up to take it over with a great purpose.
The only way a dead mall wouldn't be an incredibly depressing and dangerous place for people to live in would be if a ton of money was poured into it and even than it wouldn't work as well as traditional housing. If our society had the will to do that than it would be a better use of that money to build housing from scratch. After being recycled into failed enterprises these malls will all either succumb to nature or demolition depending on the property value. I look forward to these videos in 10 years where the weeds and trees have started to reclaim these horrible structures.
I know you said this would be the last video for this mall but have you given any thought to making just one more video to show how the Lumos Art Academy changed the interior for their school? Provided they'd be amendable to that of course.
lived at val vista and southern for years...glad there is a new beginning...and not the same fate as the dixie square mall..not even filming blues brothers could save that mall..
This was fascinating - and it's so good there is a new lease on life on the way....a great way to make the old new again - kudos to Lumos for their efforts! - TC
Very cool. I happy to hear they are going to be repurposing it! I've been wondering what the plan was with this mall. Thanks for doing this video! Do you know if they are going to be repainting and renovating tge outside of the building as well like the storage place did?
Wow the last vid you made about this mall, there was a newly opened butcher shop and I was a bit hopeful that it'd survive but now its really closing down. Its sad but youre absolutely right, reporpusing it intoo a school that is also is also concerned about keeping the history of the building is a million times better than wrecking it or leaving it to rot. Also, you mentioned before that you particularly liked the antique shop in there. Will they be relocating or are they also going to shut down as well? Thank you btw, for the bittersweet last glimpse of power square mall.
What a classy gesture all around from Lumos repurposing the school (and letting you document the progress) to repurposing old fixtures from the mall.
It’d be something to come back and see a performance once they remodel everything.
It's so rare to see a dead mall actually have a happy ending, but props to Lumos Art Academy for doing just that. I've long felt dead malls could always be repurposed for art installations, but I didn't imagine an actual art ACADEMY repurposing a mall for their school. You'll have to go back to get a full tour of the finished product once they've got everything set up.
Yeah I'm pretty sure they would be more than happy to let you come back and document it after they expand.
I reccomend checking out Festival Bay Mall in Orlando, FL. It was a dead mall with a couple neat anchors, but it turned into an indoor theme park/car museum called Dezerland Park. Probably the happiest ending I've seen for a dead mall.
They’re really taking reduce, reuse and recycle to a whole new level.
Or being repurposed as mini museums
The Parkway Mall in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada was partially repurposed into the campus of a local community college. Some external tenants remain, but the interior retail space is now all the college.
The doors being used as walls is pure genius! The students did a great job painting them too.
Reminds me of monsters inc
It's great to see this mall have a new purpose and not just sit empty for years.
I really do love the idea of an old mall being repurposed as an art academy. It almost seems fitting in a sense.
We fans of Retail Archaeology salute you, Lumos Art Academy, for your openness and thriftiness! (salute)
o7
we salute y'all for being so creative & resourceful with your repurpose
I'm glad the new owners are going by what they said and actually renovating it unlike with Festa Mall which said that they were also turning it into a med school but years later it's still left abandoned
A mall I went to when I was a kid, the Kyova Mall in Askland, Kentucky, just recently got repurposed, as well. Think of it as part shopping, part large-scale Chuck-E-Cheese, part food court with drinks and bowling and axe-throwing. I'm really delighted to see it get a new lease on life, and to see it busy with a ton of people even after its mall-death.
This is a cool video. I'm an educator, and it's cool to see how the new owners showed you what they were doing and th and that they reached out to you! As you have no doubt seen, this seems to be a recurrence in repurposing mall. It's not a bad second life for a mall and that it serves the community and its future is pretty cool!
Keep up the documenting of these spaces. I appreciate your work.
I love your videos! In regards to this mall though, I worked there in 1992 - 93 at the "Food Factory' while I went to ASU. This mall was predominantly a senior citizen / snowbird destination. So much so that the summer hours were shorter than the winter because of the decrease in snowbird traffic. The parking lot was filled with Lincoln Towncars, crown vics and old school Cadillacs. It was definitely a senior mall.
"That's where the bird guy used to sit"
I actually recall your older video where you showed/talked about the guy and his cockatiel-looking bird.
I love the idea of repurposing the mall instead of demolishing it. Vacant lots are a blight on the landscape. This is very creative.
Love to see it turn into an Art School. Much better then being torn down or turned into a bunch of offices, which is basically what one mall in my town turned into.
End of a era... the power square mall video where you took a pic of the bird guy with your floppy disk camera was the first retail archaeology vid I ever watched and how I discovered this channel!
Pause the video @ 5:54 and maybe you can imagine the bird guy as a ghost, still sitting in that lonely chair across from where the library used to be...
Wow. That's really, really cool the way they set up the temporary classrooms. Very creative, indeed!
That's great that this mall is getting repurposed! If you told me as a kid in 1995 that malls would become class rooms etc in the future, my mind would have been blown XD
It's sad to see the old mall close. My family lives really close to the mall and it's basically been tradition every time I visit for Christmas that we go antiquing at the antique stores.
But I am happy to see that it doesn't have the same fate as other dead malls.
Now that's what I call Reduce, Reuse, ♻️. Good on them.
*Props to the new owners for inviting you in and informing you about what they are doing..if only more owners would do the same. It is very good publicity.*
Thank God I have an abundance of sick pay from my job.
I will be using one of those days before the end of the month to check this place out.
There's an old VF Outlet mall a few counties west of my home town. It reminds me so much of this mall. The VF Outlet closed in late 2019. The coin op rides in my mall are just as unique. Fortunately the mall soldiers on despite losing its original anchor. I hope it has a different ending than Power Square
I just found this channel. I remember going to this mall with my granny who lived in leisure world 😢.
You never ever fail to pick music so damn fiting for these mall videos. Damn, I would imagine some of these could be playing at the mall.
There's something so sad about seeing some of these old malls become dead malls. So much love and creativity goes into these malls when they are first conceived and built then uncreative types run them down. Its so awesome that this mall is being saved by more creative types. We need a lot more of these types of people.
I always enjoyed your videos on this mall so it's great to hear it will survive from a dead mall to a thriving art school. The new owners have some really creative ideas, best of luck to them :)
I grew up across the street from this mall! My family and I used to shop at the clothing outlet often. I was curious in April of 2021 and visited the mall to see its current state. It largely looked like it does in this video except much more disheveled. I am very happy to see this mall have a happy ending. I didn’t know it’s ending until I saw this video. Thanks for sharing!
Oh my goodness, I wish I could buy those little coin operated rides! The end of an era for my life! My family, too, shopped at VF for back to school! I’m be sad to watch it turn into something else permanently!
It's super cool seeing your coverage of this place over the years. Despite having no personal familiarity with the area, it's neat having a sort of shared history through your repeated visits.
My only memory of this mall is going shopping with my mom and being incredibly thirsty the whole time and not knowing why. A few weeks later I was in the hospital with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes… whoops.
That's wild, we went to this mall in the early 2000's and my brother got diagnosed with type 1 then too!
Man this is so hard to watch I practically grew up here. I made many friends at this mall. Thanks for this! I need to hit it up before the end of the month
This is a neat idea. Malls, by their nature, are sprawling buildings. Old malls that end up having to shutdown due to changes in shopping habits should be repurposed as schools or community centers where kids can come and learn something or hang out. The food court areas can even be repurposed as cafeterias or snackbars that way. Otherwise, what's going to happen? It either becomes a self-storage or an Amazon distribution hub. And while either of these last two options would contribute to the tax base of the area, it really doesn't do much in the long term to help the people directly in their daily lives.
I think many empty but safe, working malls could be short term 🏘 for needy small family or veterans 🎗 in need of affordable short term apartments.
It's a neat idea, but the architecture of a mall is incredibly ill-suited for anything but...well, a shopping mall. Either this school has a boat load of money and has the means to radically alter the building into something that functions well as a school or they're financially strapped and this was their best option. I'm guessing the latter.
I remember the KayBee toy store as a kid. It was an interesting mall.
Same here. I got a Barbie that had perfume in it. It was totally a 80s early 90s doll.😂
Nice to see it's going to be re-used! In my area a church took over the smallest mall. Another got turned into front facing stores with a health related company on the other side, and the biggest one still exists. I really do hope the largest one stays alive.
sorry - I seemed to have missed this one but I love how that school was using the structure for their classes - what a great idea...we need more innovation like that for all the dead and dying malls....good stuff!
1:58 Dude that's awesome! A credit to your credibility. That's the sort of thing I hope to achieve one day. Kudos to you. :)
a few years ago, my gf and I would always love to go look through the antique stores.
Great video! Could be used as a model nationwide for this topic. Had no idea this mall existed. Neat place with a cool concept-both in its initial conception as “mini mall” and its future plans for repurposing. I assume professional architectural plans and design are involved in the renovations...Always great to see you exploring the valley and updating us! It’s hard to believe Fiesta Mall is still just sitting there stagnant and deteriorating all these years...
I'm so happy I'm never bored when I'm watching a video of yours! They are always so cool! : )
Hard to see this one go. I've loved all your videos of this particular mall, because I went there 4 times a week in the early 2000's when Power Black Belt Academy was in this location.
Times move on, people change, and sometimes, the places get to stay the same.
But not this time.
Great upcycling/repurposing concept. It's very cool that they reached out to you. Kudos to Lumos!
There was a mall in Mesa I think off of University, can't remember but there was a Hastings music store there. I use to manage the store there. I always wondered what happened to that mall. Thank you for the video
Tricity Mall? That was off main and Dobson I think.
@@WonkoAndJill4Eva I think that might be it. Not sure, but maybe thank you for replying
used to live at recker+guadalupe for 9 yrs, im in california now but I remember going there as a kid, sad to see things change, it was a good area to grow up in, thx for the vids
The CEO of the company that bought the mall definitely stole that Batmobile ride for his basement.
Power Square Mall appears to be an identical twin of the Draper, Ut factory outlet center which also had a VF store as its anchor in what appears to be the exact same location. That mall slowly died while the entire area around it was developed extensively. The final blow came when a new factory outlet mall opened 9 miles south of it less than 10 years ago. Today the mall has been turned into strip center with the enclosed mall portion completely gone.
That's awesome for Lumos to give you Consent to film the dead mall and I'm happy there repurporsing the mall to an art academy.
That is awesome! Glad to see that Power Center Mall is going to be reused for something, and a school, no less! It was really great for them to let you in for one last look at the place, too.
Sad to see it go. But, like you said, this is a really positive outcome compared to some of the fates of other malls. I'm extra happy it's going to be an arts school too. And that the owners actually asked you to film! I'm glad you got the opportunity to document for them
I love this video. I love the art school allowing you to film. Way cool for history.
The flat sprawling architecture of a mall centered around ultra-wide corridors makes repurposing seem like a daunting task. I'm really interested to see what the plans are for this school and how radically they plan to alter the building to make it efficient and comfortable.
I went to high school and college at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.
I remember when I went to high school, they closed it for 1 year to remodel and I was moved to a small school that use to be a bank, it still had a massive walk in vault.
Been awhile since I checked in and wanted to say thanks, great videos as always!
This is so awesome. During so many of the dead mall videos, the wife and I always say that it is sad to see these giant buildings not being used for things like homeless veteran housing or something of the like...glad to see someone stepping up to take it over with a great purpose.
The only way a dead mall wouldn't be an incredibly depressing and dangerous place for people to live in would be if a ton of money was poured into it and even than it wouldn't work as well as traditional housing. If our society had the will to do that than it would be a better use of that money to build housing from scratch. After being recycled into failed enterprises these malls will all either succumb to nature or demolition depending on the property value. I look forward to these videos in 10 years where the weeds and trees have started to reclaim these horrible structures.
My mom worked in this mall in the 90's. I've watched it slowly die...
It broke my heart when you mentioned where the parrot guy used to sit. From a fellow bird-parent, I hope he and his bird are doing well.
Your commentary is great!
I love their plans and how it will be used! I’d love to see it once they’ve renovated!!!
This is pretty awesome. Very creative re-use of space.
Very cool of Lumos
I was very surprised when the academy opened their doors for you! Love it!
seems like it's in good hands
Great idea in a way to repurpose.
Can’t wait to see it as a school. Can’t wait for the update!
I remember you covering this mall before. I hope the new owners are successful
Great work retail archaeology thanks for sharing very well done as usual can’t wait for the next one!!
How have I never heard of this mall?
I'm glad to know this will have a new lease of life.
Need to come to PDX and do a video on Lloyd Center. Confirmed dead and set for foreclosure. Major piece of Portland and my childhood is dead. 💔
Lumos is amazing for this.
I know you said this would be the last video for this mall but have you given any thought to making just one more video to show how the Lumos Art Academy changed the interior for their school?
Provided they'd be amendable to that of course.
Was going to ask this
Yeah I don't see why they wouldn't be.
lived at val vista and southern for years...glad there is a new beginning...and not the same fate as the dixie square mall..not even filming blues brothers could save that mall..
An ayers / airway store here became a storage building now
I wish Lumos would come to my town and repurpose one of our dead mall!! We are in need of more art school here.
I feel the same about this mall. I have spent a lot of time at the V
Wonderfully documented, sir.
This was fascinating - and it's so good there is a new lease on life on the way....a great way to make the old new again - kudos to Lumos for their efforts! - TC
Your videos are the greatest
That’s pretty cool.good work on the video.
Very cool. I happy to hear they are going to be repurposing it! I've been wondering what the plan was with this mall. Thanks for doing this video! Do you know if they are going to be repainting and renovating tge outside of the building as well like the storage place did?
Great art academy! Looks like a fun place for kids to learn.
Nice to see a mall reborn.
Wow the last vid you made about this mall, there was a newly opened butcher shop and I was a bit hopeful that it'd survive but now its really closing down. Its sad but youre absolutely right, reporpusing it intoo a school that is also is also concerned about keeping the history of the building is a million times better than wrecking it or leaving it to rot. Also, you mentioned before that you particularly liked the antique shop in there. Will they be relocating or are they also going to shut down as well? Thank you btw, for the bittersweet last glimpse of power square mall.
Well with online shopping and all who needs to go to the mall
Where is May's Kettle Corn moving to? I enjoyed their snacks and love to support local business.
5:38 Patrick's lost some weight 🤣
Love how everything is recycled. This is a great use for an old mall
Great video. Thanks!
Awesome repurpose. Whoever came up with the doors ... minor genius
The deadness reminds me of Foothills Mall here in Tucson, it's gotten worse since you filmed it
This is so cool!
always bums me out seeing a mall go away
Very nice video
That's very cool.
I'd like to re-open all the malls hope you'll be interested in this udea !
I never been to a mall in the phenoix area but at least the building and parts of the mall will be saved for the school so it won't truly die.
It seems there's a mall closing in the Phoenix area every year now. What a shame. At least there's a bright future ahead of this one!
Imagine how cool it would be to go to school at a mall 😆
It’s always sad when a childhood mall closes
I want tp get into fiesta mall!
This is really cool ☺️