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Having worked in mall management for a large company, The Owing Mills mall was a money maker for the owner Taubman. Then the owner got in big trouble with the governement and sold this mall and many others to Simon Property. Simon Property tried to suck every dollar they could out of the tenants by increasing rents and adding advertising banners, vending machines, kiddie rides and hawking sales carts to the common area. They then made the killing mistake of firing staff that they felt was "overpaid", but knew the market and had money. The final death nail was when they cut maintenance and security. As you can see in the video. The water features and the escalators /stairways are not maintained and you rarely see any security. Back in the day, this mall was packed and there is no way, he would have been able to film the mall like this, the security was walking the mall and patrolling the parking lots. Sad to see what greed and mismanagement can do.
Simon has killed a bunch of properties. A few of my local malls in my home state are dying for various reasons used to be owned by Westfield, who at least had the smarts to sell when they noticed things taking a turn for the worse.
@@ThisisDanBell absolutely brilliant job. I know these are older videos but I rewatch them from time to time. Plus the new ones. Thanks for feeding my nostalgia addiction!!
stateofdisorder1977 It appears to be a very beautiful mall....they need to figure out how they can utilize it. It would be terrible to see something like that turn into Dixie Square :(
fouroverseven Sorry to hear that, I hate dealing with Paul(a) Blart-style security guards too. Never gotten kicked out of any malls for sneaking pics, but I had a bad run-in at one dead mall(Lincoln Mall in Matteson, IL) over taking pics 2 years before it closed. Wasn't kicked out, but it made me uneasy enough I chose to leave. Did thankfully get back for Lincoln's auction earlier this year, and unbelievably security was nowhere to be seen inside, so I finally made up for that bad run-in w/enough pics. At 4:18, that sure looks like a former Suncoast.
BoratWanksta OMG, I grew up around Lincoln Mall. Skipping school, week ends and whatever. Back in its heyday in the mid 80s there were so many people there it was annoying, now I wish that was an annoyance we still had to deal with. I also wish someone would come up with a way to save the mall, maybe not as the mall we all used to know, but as a place for Mom and Pop shops and small businesses to get together and put a dent in the big box china syndrome with honest American business ethics and American made and local made products.
JessicaTG2008 I remember when Lincoln Mall opened...me and my family lived in Park Forest. A shopping trip back there way back when was a big deal for us. When Lincoln Mall went up, the Park Forest Plaza started on its long spiral downward. Before living in Park Forest me and my folks lived in Harvey.. I remember as a youngster shopping trips with my Sister and my Mother at Dixie Square. What I remember most about it was the string - type fountain/sculpture deals that went up in column shapes that had what appeared to be drops of water going down the strings...don't think it was water, though..the drops were too uniform (god that was a long time ago, lol). Crazy how short a shelf life all of these malls had and now the internet marketplace is gonna kill what's left off for sure.
This has got to be one of the most beautifully lit malls I've ever seen. The natural lighting everywhere is just stunning alongside the marble flooring.
That'd be so amazing! Have a room in an old retail space, it would really become an indoor community. Such a good idea but I think that some would be turned off by the fact that it's a mall. And who knows how much rent would go for, since it's a large property it might be expensive unless it was fully occupied. I'd be down to live at a mall.
This mall was such a nice mall. In its hey day it was one of the luxury malls of Maryland while also being one of the biggest. This mall had so many store in the 90's many being higher end/pricey brands.
I worked less than a mile from this mall for 5 or 6 years. Also used to take a shuttle bus from college in Westminster there a few times a year because the Westminster mall was very nearly dead itself in the late 90s/early 2000s. The OM Mall was always packed... It was weird to watch it slowly die. I would grab lunch at the food court up until relatively recently, but never wandered around it. I now wish I had...surreal to see it empty.
westminster mall is still dead, it’s even worse now. nothing has changed. most of the stores are gone - some are filled with cheap stores that come and go. the sears is gone - boscovs and belk are barely holding on
@@dvferyance the one with the boscovs in it?? no it isn’t 😂😂 still standing - belks, boscovs and the movie theater are still there. some stores inside too.
That red and white tiled section you looked at was a Mrs field's cookies place. I also think you could get ice cream and milkshakes there. Lots of memories at this mall. Went shopping for clothes in the summer for the upcoming school year every year.
Hey Dan, I am sicko for your Dead Mall series, I have watched them all multiple times and can't stop. Keep up the good work, the way you dump on these malls in your commentary is priceless hahaha
This is Dan Bell. Me too, keep it up! I love the ones that start with news/commercials about how great these malls are and how bright the future is. The one that advertises K-Mart playing as you show shots of the liquidating K-Mart is brilliant.
Thank you Dan. As an Owings Mills native, this mall played a huge part in my upbringing. I moved for college right around the time they began demolition. Seeing this footage sparked so many memories in my mind and brought back some good feelings. Knowing this exists made my day! :)
What really broke this mall were the areas sorrounding it. Simply too many issues going around it and the people willing to spend money and shop simply went to other locations just to avoid problems
Behold students, how easy it is to waken the sleeping troll. Their anger is sparked by a select few phrases. In this case the mentioning of Jesus. Other phrases include Mohammad, Safe spaces, Trump, Clinton, feminism, equality, Men's rights, Hitler, and Harambe. Your homework this evening to see which kind of trolls are most triggered by which words. Please have a 500 word journal article reading with your results on Monday.
It's pretty surreal seeing the mall I went to for my entire life (I was born in 1988) in this state. When I think of malls, this is the one I think of. Part of its downfall was likely its' walking-distance access to the subway which brought in crowds from Baltimore City which became more of a thing when I was a teenager. I remember at one point my parents started getting anxious about my wanting to spend time there, especially on weekends, because things got progressively more sketchy and people were getting mugged or worse. Then they decided to build townhomes directly next to the parking lot and I feel like after that point everything went full tilt seemingly out of nowhere. I didn't really understand at the time but I do remember when suddenly there seemed to be a lot less stores and I just stopped going as a young adult. Watching him walk through I could distinctly remember what stores used to be where, and at the point this video was made at least, the food court looked exactly as I remember. Major nostalgia trip.
I can't tell you how thankful I am that you filmed this. I remember buying my (hopefully soon to be) fiancee a bottle of perfume here back in like 2013...and even then I was like "jesus christ this is a nightmare"....and then I was sitting in a dorm room while playing a music festival between rehearsals, and I found your channel. It invoked such insanely familiar feelings in me. First, I remembered going to the Laurel Mall in Laurel, MD when it was standing, thinking the same thoughts, but much further back...and the memory is so incredibly vivid today, just as the Owings Mills Mall memory Is (I worked as a retail manager in Owings Mills for years, and this was "my mall"). I couldn't help but go film the Chambersburg Mall near my music festival, and then Seoul Plaza to try my hand at filming. My footage was shit, and I had no idea what to do with it. Now with just shy of 10,000 subscribers for my Expedition Log Series, and I can't thank you enough. You sparked a new wave of content, and we all will never forget who the godfather of dead mall videos is. Thanks for being awesome, and I can't wait to see your next piece. We've been keeping the water warm for you, and we're all ready for new Dead Mall Series content....we crave it. You inspired a movement, and we're in debt.
That is one of the prettiest dead malls I have seen, marble floors imported from France. I think many times what causes malls to fail is actually greedy owners, even in a dead mall the rent is around 3,500 to 6,000 to rent a retail space, it's hard to believe they would charge that in a dead mall but they do.
To think Malls and Shopping centers were the places to go 15 years ago, before online shopping took over and made us lazy. Now we can just sit on the couch or at the computer desk and order something, instead of getting up and going to these grand ol' malls, that are slowly disappearing. I miss these times and they brought great nostalgia. Seeing them like this now makes me sad and angry at how technology is moving.
Crossingman18 that is why we are all fat to we just can just sit on our fat asses order something on a tablet, i acutally like to go somewhere and try on my cloths first since different brands fit me differerntly , i am lucky ourmall is still thriving strong, yes its slwo duriing the week, but on weekends its mad house
Crossingman18 Don't blame the people, blame the multinational corporations & greedy property managers that just want to hold onto real estate without investing in it. My guess is that this mall property is owned by a small front company, which is owned by a big company, which is owned by a global company in China, Saudi Arabia, or Russia.
we are lucky that our mall is packed on weekends, duirng the week its slower but still stready stream of people, and holiday season its out of control with people
I like online shopping just for the ease of it, but I also enjoy getting out into the stores as well. Companies are wise to offer certain items in stores only so it puts bodies in the shops. I'm fortunate that the mall I work at is in a very central location. No matter which direction you come at it from the freeway it's easy to get to. Also it's in between two cities Escondido, CA and Poway. We're so close to Poway that part of the mall is on Poway power grids.
Crossingman18 Haha It's pretty funny - I hate shopping online - I usually go to local malls like The Central Parkway Mall, Cloverdale Mall or The Erin Mills Mall (These malls are (probably) not around your area - they're in Mississauga/Toronto in Canada)
Loved the original news reports on the grand opening. What I enjoy the most of your videos is how much info you have for every mall you go to. Great to hear your narrative on the malls history.
I lived near the Owings Mills Mall when it opened (left the area in the early nineties) and we had two pre teen daughters so we were there all the time. It was the place to be for Shopping, Eating or just people watching. It is a shame to see such a beautiful mall go down hill but from what I've read since the opening of the train station nearby helped to accelerate it's decline......
Never thought in a million years that Owings Mills Mall would close and then be demolished. Just seeing this brings back memories of what it used to be. And I remember Sally Thorner. She was first a newscaster for WMAR-TV, and later WJZ-TV, before she retired in 2009.
Well done Dan. You really create a sense of nostalgia and even a sense of sadness when I watch your vids. As a producer myself, I just want to say nicely done.
@@marysunshine5587 Indeed. Someone posted about how this mall was mismanaged, but ultimately it comes down to e-commerce having done away with it like other places. And yes, malls used to be places of social gathering, from an era that many of us yearn for.
in south australia where i live we have a mall called westfield marion i remember it when i was a little kid in the early 90s that mall was dying & it had a late 80s to 90s look to it lots of shops were boarded up eventually they renovated it & now %99 of the shops are filled & thousands upon thousands of people daily go there to shop. most of the malls that u do vid on all they need is a huge renovation & keep up with the ever changing times
I grew up going to local malls with my mom in the mid-'90s and have always had an affection for them. I'm from Portland, OR and all of our malls around here are still active and well, and many have been upgraded significantly. There are still holdover relics from the '90s that we still have, including a beloved Suncoast movie store that I frequent on occasion. It seems that the malls that have really taken a turn are the ones in smaller suburbs and communities that are cut off from big cities; there's just not enough money circulating to keep them going, plus the advent of online shopping. It's sad. I've been to a few malls like these ones in other cities/states, though Dan has profiled some of the most extreme cases of "dead mall" that I've ever seen.
The 80's and 90's were the hey-day for having fun at the mall. We had some money to spend and enjoyed the entertainment at the malls. The malls came when people felt secure and there was a lot of 'leisure' money to be spent... The malls were new, shiny, bright and fun...You could find anything you wanted 'at the mall'. Then the money started to dry up..jobs got scarce...and, let's face it... gang shootings in the food courts...people just started to stay away.. Now malls are fading away...even in a lot of previously affluent areas... We are watching the slow, inevitable dismantling of an industry.They look like dismal scenes right out of a 'zombie-apoc' movie.
I always thought malls came about in the 80s, but it seems they'e been around since the 50s. I'd love to see the 50s, 60s, & 70s malls. Well, I have seen ONE 70s mall....Old Town Mall in Reno, NV. Brick floors & wood panel walls.
Mark Suckerberg Oh yeah...Now when I go to the mall..I make a quick look around the areas and look for anything suspicious, any potential dangers.. 30 years ago,I used to look around.. looking for cute women in mini-skirts. My my..how times have changed.
As a photographer and someone interested in filmmaking, I have to say Dan that you're very good at it! Love these mall vids. Your attention to detail and storytelling ability are really good! Gives me something to aspire to.
BTW, I'm from Poland in EU. Last year I was in a dead mall in Cracov. It was surreal. Only two opened stores and one foodcourt (McDonald's). Walking to the bathroom while passing by the empty, closed stores and totally abandoned cinema, gave me chilles. The mall doesn't exist anymore, it was closed only few months after my visit.
That was a beautiful and historic farm before they built the mall. I'm thinking it might have actually belonged to one of the Owings family members originally. It still had a house, barns, outbuildings and even a really early log cabin on it. Such a waste for a mall that didn't make it.
I was wondering why this mall, which looks so much like the mall by me, closed. It was relatively new, built in 1986. It appears that it's close to Baltimore, which is a crime haven. That turned out to be true in 1992, when a mall employee, Christina Marie Brown, 28, was shot in the head by a thug as she left work. The thug, who was 17 and kicked out of an alternative school just the week before, was impassive at his sentencing hearing, where he got only 40 years for the murder, with the possibility of parole. That means the killer, Nigel Antonio Carter, may actually be loose. I found a picture of Christina, who looked to be a lovely young woman, and was certainly a hard worker. Her killer got her paycheck of $110, and he gave Christina's metro pass to his sister, so she could ride for free. Carter was raised in an intact family, with both parents working for the city of Baltimore. So this killer had no excuse about a bad upbringing. His father loved him so much, in fact, he disposed of the gun used to assassinate Christina. Carter tried to say the cops 'tricked' him into a confession. The judge, who sounds like a total tool, was going to give the murderer life without parole, but a lot of sobbing by Carter family members apparently turned the judge's dim brain to allow the killer a 'second chance.' Christina, who is buried in King Memorial Park in Baltimore, never got a second chance. After Christina's horrendous murder, the mall began a relatively quick slide into oblivion. For some reason, shoppers believed the area to be unsafe. Here are two articles on Christina's murder, her killer's trial, and a memorial page to her. articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-04-29/news/1993119151_1_carter-owings-mills-mall-baltimore-county articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-10-08/news/1992282169_1_carter-baltimore-court-papers www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14392578
So sweet of you to put this article out. I read your comment and as I clicked the last link I instantly cried. Christina is a beautiful young lady , I don’t know her but I was moved by this. She’s in a better place now. Thank you @Katylake
omg...thank you for this. Indeed, Ms. Christina Brown was beautiful...and looked so much like a side of my family of cousins that live in the Baltimore, D.C. and VA area. I am outraged, that her killer got to put on a show in court. Young killers, people always like to think there is something in them, that's redeemable and that will make them give something back if they live. I hate that. The only thing he should give, is his own life. If the murder was committed by someone under 18, then incarcerate them until the age of 21, then execute them. It's when there are no real consequences to their actions, that doing so can be done so casually and thoughtlessly. Ms. Brown, was someone who lived her life in a way to be proud of. And I'm sick of losing young people like herself, to others who didn't care about her. Her killer's parents didn't care about her either. Which I find despicable, and no wonder he did what he did.
@J K Baltimore's level of violent crime is much higher than the national average. You can't deny factual statistics. There's a crime problem. You don't have to live in the area to recognize that, genius. 1,833 violent crimes per 100K people. National average is 381. Holy fucking shit look at that disparity. And for MD state the number is 469. Wide fuckin gap there huh? Crime is a serious problem in the city, and it spills out into surrounding areas, and that shit can be called out by any fucking body who wants to point it out. Oh shit look this is from 2017 The violent crime rate in Baltimore is 2,027 per 100,000 people. In 2017, 342 people in Baltimore were murdered. So its getting fucking worse!!! You wanna talk about political climate? Yeah wtf you done? Vote the same people in every fuckin time expecting different results? The blame for the violent crime is THE CRIMINALS DOING EVIL SHIT! Look at the census btw people have been net leaving the city and never returning. What happened to this mall is happening on a larger scale. Urban fuckin decay, moral decay, good people gtfo because why should they put up with this bullshit, huh? If Destiny Harrison had opened her salon somewhere else she'd still be alive blackamericaweb.com/2019/12/27/baltimore-salon-owner-fatally-shot-at-her-shop-feared-for-her-life-before-murder-video/#autoplay Motherfucker one of my friends was also bludgeoned to death on St Paul Street (and he was lgbt). That shit happened 3 years ago and they haven't caught any suspects. Think about that.
He said in his comment that it wasn't the community itself, it was people coming in from the inner city on the metro. The late 70s-early 90s crime wave was still in effect. Things have changed a lot since then, but a dramatic incident like that would fuel white flight. At that time, nobody knew if they'd be the next victim.
I wasn't particularly aware of the location growing up. However, yesterday I was driving in the area killing time at lunch and rambling through the new development when I noticed this massive field with a pile of dirt and a pile of asphalt in the middle. It occured to me that it couldn't have been a forest since the area was too built up around it. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks-- that was the mall! I quickly pulled into the Red Lobster lot and made my way across the street to get a panoramic. Really impressive to see just how large a piece of land was leveled for a business venture lasting not even one lifetime.
I'm so sad to see what happened to this place. I grew up going to this mall and remember going there on opening day. I worked at both Hechts and Ritz Camera. when they opened the light rail there it really lead to the downfall that it never recovered from.
Great that you show how it was and how is and gone . I remember walking thru this mall in 87' and it had high line stores and one store I forgot its name but had a jeep going thru the store front window and was busy with people . Ive been going to a doctors office in the last 10 years and used to drive thru part of it and was mostly closed then but the theater on the far side of the lot still gets business and will be moved . Golden ring Mall in Rosedale looked like this before it closed , it was empty as I sat on a bench and remembered back in the 80's being busting with people . Sad as you get older and see changes, in the 80's there were Mall rats , teens that lived in malls but now stay in their home and get fat and buy on Amazon .
We last walked the interior in 2014 when there were still a few stores open. We drove over today and. lo and behold........ it was GONE! I love the way you have entwined the 1980s news clips with the present-day reality. I am surprised that the AMC Theatre even stayed on the property!
Your Dead Mall series is so sad yet fascinating. Unfortunately with the more advanced internet age that we live in now, are we really that surprised that a lot of the brick and mortar stores of our youths are dying? With Walmart being just about everywhere, Amazon being so convenient, Groupon a click away, and Ebay as my homepage, I am part of the society like many of us that contribute to the closings. Case and point, I went to my local mall, saw something I wanted, price compared online found a coupon code, applied to order and ended up spending 50 bucks less than if I were to have purchased it from the store. These are the times we live in. Now don't get me wrong, I still shop in physical stores , but the amount of money I spend there now, compared to 15 years ago is way less. I still love the bright glitz and open space of the mall but chances are more likely than not, you'll usually only see me there if I'm picking up an order I placed online.
I still miss strolling through this mall, even when it became dead like this. I might've last visited right after you filmed this, when it was Macy's last day and they were selling EVERYTHING including display cases and light fixtures in the store.
There have been several things sited as reasons why the mall failed. When the survey was done, the way traffic and people flowed in the Baltimore County area changed. The mall that superseded this one, Towson Town Center, was built in a better location and ended up with better stores. It does have a bad crime problem now. It was built in one of the more heavily Jewish areas of town and so the company management decided to downplay the Christmas holiday and that was a complaint many customers had and they would not shop there often during the big Christmas sales period because other malls would decorate and focus on that. The subway brought crime in from Baltimore City and the murder trail did not help matters. When the higher end stores started to pull out due to the sales figures not being what they were promised, it started the downward spiral. I remember the last time I stepped foot in that mall which had to be about 20 years ago at this point, it did not seem like the upscale mall I remembered from 1986 but a middling mall that had nothing going for it. I remember a friend of mine at the time would do there with the rest of his team for lunch and he said lunch time in the food court was the only time in the late 90s he would see there be any people really in the mall.
I was binge watching “the company man” videos and this played. I just moved to Bethesda from NC. We had a weird mix of lively malls and straight up dead ones that have been barely clinging to life for 15 years or so. I wish all of them could get converted into something useful like shelters and such.
I remember coming here with my brother in like 2007 and grabbing something to eat and this mall wasn't that dead looking at this video makes me think how much things change over the year, it's sad.
Not very often I see footage of a mall relatively close to me! Maryland rarely ever gets talked about (for good reason, it's kinda scummy here in Baltimore), but still, it's nice to see some of my local places getting attention!
Owings Mills Mall has been DEAD for a while and now that MACY's is gone it is over. The thing I found funny was JCPenny's was holding on. JCPeeny's is just barely clinging to life itself and that it stayed with Owings Mills way too long proves why it too is dying. I remember Owings Mills Mall when it first opened and it was beyond awesome. Owings Mills was supposed to be Baltimore's upscale destination all. Well needless to say that never happened. Owings Mills Mall soon became a joke. The tombstone for Owings Mills Mall was writ when Saks Fifth Avenue could not make a go of it there. Yeah Owings Mills hung on for a few more seasons but the stench of death was definitely in the air after the departure of SAKS. People blamed the Subway and the urban day travelers for killing Owings Mills and yeah the murder of someone on the way to the Metro did put affluent people off Owings Mills but that was not the Malls undoing. Baltimore is basically an overgrown small country town. Look at the Baltimore skyline what little there is of it. The tallest building in Baltimore is about 40 floors tall the TransAmerica Building Please in most real cities a 40 floor building is just another face in the crowd. Baltimore's 40 floor TransAmerica Tower started out life in the 1970's as USF&G Companies corporate headquarters. I was there when it was built. If you build a 40 floor building in Baltimore your building will be noteworthy since Baltimore hasn't seen a 40 floor building constructed in over 50 YEARS! Baltimore is a small back office one horse town whose population basically has no money to spend on neccessitites. Owings Mills Mall wanted shoppers who could afford luxuries please give me a break. In Baltimore the ability to keep your rent paid, your belly full, your phone working and your lights on in the same month is a luxury. However other forces conspired to put Owings Mills out of its misery. Baltimore is a larger tiny town with a tiny town mwntality. Baltimore could not sustain multiple luxury malls yet it had three malls trying to be the premier luxury mall in Baltimore. Hunt Valley Mall, White Marsh, Marley Station and Towson Town Center also wanted to be the regional mall that lived while all other malls withered and died. In the end Towson Town Center beat all its competition and it was an unlikely winner given its haphazzard design. Towson Town Mall is not in truth a single Mall. Towson Town Mall is a series of weird additions sculpted very brutally into a single mall. Towson Town Mall is a disjointed collection of escalators and elevators joining many levels together the strange thing is it works. Today Towson Town Mall is almost always crowded to the rafters with old Towson \ Lutherville, Timmonium, Mays Chapel Money and Urban Chic. Close proximity to major bus lines insure a helthey contingent of vulgar dead common urban day tripper types also litter the Towson Town Mall langscape. Towson Town Mall also benefits from the fact that it is located in TOWSON which is the Baltimore County seat. Towson is undergoing a rebirth that hopes to make it a 24/7 place to live and work. Towson is trying hard to be the jewel in the Baltimore Metro Crown and Towson Town Mall is key to that continuing effort. Finally the last spike in Owings Mills Mall was and is E-Commerce. Amazon.com and other online venues made brick and mortar stores at every beltway off ramp a money losing affair. Owings Mills tried to be a town center but it failed. Its pricey homes did not sell well. Better off black folk moved in but alone they were not large enough in number and income to sustain the types of upscale stores at Owings Mills.Mall offered. I used to go to Owings Mills Mall 3 times a month and never failed to make purchases under $300 each trip. However I am disabled why walk from the subway or even drive to Owings Mills Mall to buty 30 pairs of blue jeans from MACY's when I can sit home and buy 35 pairs of jeans cheaper from Amazon.com. Amazon.com dleivers the jeans to my home no muss or fuss. I started buying everything I could from Amazon.com. Seems most of the malls lost customers to the likes of Amazon.com. I do love to shop so I moved close to Towson so I could live near the Towson Town Mall. So if you read this far you now know in detail what forces really murdered Owings Mills Mall. Owings Mills Mall was a beautiful Mall a very young mall to die so soon after it was completed but die it did. I do shed a tear for Owings Mills Mall because when it opened I was so filled with high hopes but it did not take long for me to realize it would not last. Near the end Owings Mills tried to become more like Security Square Mall a suburban mall with a decidedly urban flavor. The stores at Secueruty Square are geared mostly to the desires of black folk and white hipsters. There is a food court full of unhealthy selections fried in grease that fills the lunch time stomachs of two near by government agencies. In Woodlawn also known as Hoodlawn a more affluent black population has secured a nice living and nice neighborhoods so Security Mall is well supported and not dying. Owings Mills just does not have the density to survive. Owings Mills is a car only mall with out good public transit. Owings Mills might do good as a villiage Center but as a Mall it is kaput. Hunt Valley Mall became a thriving village center. Westview Mall became a nice strip mall. White Marsh Mall seems to have reinvented itself successfully. Poor Owings Mills Malljust faded away left to die an ignominious death as this video so totally shows! Watching this video about Owings Mills Mall makes this poor gray autistic werewolf almost feel like a ghoul!
The towson mall is like the one place that is reversing this trend, when I grew up in towson in the 80s that was a dying mall but somehow it got mall cancer and blew up. I think the unplanned design actually contributes to it being a success, but there was definitely luck involved.
+TreyEightTv Since when did it become racist to speak the truth? So many of you freaking blacks keep playing that race card. Give it up, it doesn't work. Nice epithet by the way, let's see how you'd like it when someone calls you the "N" word. You deserve it.
I remember that mall opening in a similar time frame to the White Marsh Mall and what a big deal it was to go there. Owings Mills went from a fairly prosperous area to one in serious decline about a decade ago, a shame really.
My mother and grandma actually occupied this mall in its heyday. Mom would tell me stories of hanging out with friends and going on dates at Owings Mills Mall. I would've loved to see it in its former glory, but it was actually reconstructed as a new "lifesytle" center called Mill Station, meaning it's more open than an indoor mall.
I lived near this mall for almost 20 years. It was extremely upscale and always packed. As it began to decline and then that accelerated, I became first scared to go there and then had no reason to go there. This video just makes me sad. (And I moved away from the area 8 years ago.) But this mall really did go downhill FAST.
Amazing! that mall is reminiscent of the Arden Fair Mall here in Sacramento. And Arden is a huge mall. It has been open since 1957 and I don't see it closing anytime soon. It's in prime location and is always, ALWAYS full! Location is usually the biggest deal breaker for many of these malls.
i used to live in owings mills for a couple years. i remember going a few days or weeks before closing and it definitely had an eerie feeling of seeing almost everything closed. i saw a gymboree or jumping bean (or both), and a popcorn and cotton candy dispenser and a couple small stores. im glad there is more development in owings mills.
wow, so sad to see what happened to this place. I grew up going to this mall and remember going there on opening day. I worked at both Hecths and Ritz Camera.
When this opened, my parents and I went there. It was crowded and full of rude people. There was a pet store. I don't recall anything else from then. Years later I went a bunch of times when it was nearly in the death throws. There was a neat store that sold African wood carvings, some were big and just amazing works of sculpture. The Macys ( or was it Bloomingdales?), I still have a really interesting expensive vintage ring that was bought for me there. Guy was obsessed with me and bought it, but he didn't work out and he didn't ask for the ring back, so I still have it. We used to go to White Flint in Rockville too, another mall that died and was destroyed. Maybe the 2 of us are mall jinxers? LOL
I've never gone to this mall, but I think when I was visitng Baltimore for my 10th birthday (yes, I'm a pre-teen), I got on the metro train in Owings Mills and when I looked on Google Earth, the remains of the Owings Mills Mall was about a little less than a mile away.
Dang, just remembering how this mall was such apart of my adult life. This was where I got fitted for my wedding tuxedo and also where my family took holiday and spring portraits at Penny's
My friend and I used to shop there. We lived in Carroll County and it was a big deal to go there in the 80s. We would always lunch at Panda Express. I think saw where it was in the food court. Thanks for the memories.
Attention! Completely remastered episodes of the Dead Mall Series are now being archived in 4K at ruclips.net/channel/UCfCM_TfrSDMkkMpKuLNWuXA. The remasters have gone through an extensive AI Enhancement process as well as proper sound mixing and colorization. This Dead Mall Series Remastered project has been made possible through viewer support on Patreon. Go over now and watch in glorious 4K. ENJOY!
Having worked in mall management for a large company, The Owing Mills mall was a money maker for the owner Taubman. Then the owner got in big trouble with the governement and sold this mall and many others to Simon Property. Simon Property tried to suck every dollar they could out of the tenants by increasing rents and adding advertising banners, vending machines, kiddie rides and hawking sales carts to the common area. They then made the killing mistake of firing staff that they felt was "overpaid", but knew the market and had money. The final death nail was when they cut maintenance and security. As you can see in the video. The water features and the escalators /stairways are not maintained and you rarely see any security. Back in the day, this mall was packed and there is no way, he would have been able to film the mall like this, the security was walking the mall and patrolling the parking lots. Sad to see what greed and mismanagement can do.
Simon has killed a bunch of properties. A few of my local malls in my home state are dying for various reasons used to be owned by Westfield, who at least had the smarts to sell when they noticed things taking a turn for the worse.
Without mention of the metro station opening, this assessment is incomplete at best.
Simon also owned the Granite Run Mall for a while
I love that you include old footage of the mall.
9nah Whenever I can find it, I use it. So hard to come by for most malls.
+9nah
I thought that footage was from the 60's...God I'm old...
Classic80sStuff it's demolished. only thing around there is the AMC movie theater and restaurant park
BmorezHomeGurl What a shame. Beautiful mall. So well lit with natural light.
@@ThisisDanBell absolutely brilliant job. I know these are older videos but I rewatch them from time to time. Plus the new ones. Thanks for feeding my nostalgia addiction!!
How sad, that was one fancy mall. Marble tile from Italy! It cost a fortune to build it and now it's just a shadow
stateofdisorder1977 It appears to be a very beautiful mall....they need to figure out how they can utilize it.
It would be terrible to see something like that turn into Dixie Square :(
+A Heimdahl Given how gorgeous it looks, maybe a fancy convention center? It'd be such a waste to just let it die or knock it down. Just too pretty!
+stateofdisorder1977 video said imported from france :) not thst it matters ...it looks like an amazing space
NoFcksGiven they said france not Italy
@bee r. It was leveled a year ago. They just built a Lowe's and a Costco, there. They open this month.
9:09 - "Turned off to save electricity, Thanks for helping us make a difference for the environment" Helping save . . . the environment . . . right
Water fountains too, if they had it
The fucking nerve lmao
If they really wanted to make a difference for the environment, they wouldn't have built the mall in the first place
As far as malls go, this one was one of the more attractive ones. Got kicked out of it a few years ago for filming it empty.
fouroverseven Sorry to hear that, I hate dealing with Paul(a) Blart-style security guards too. Never gotten kicked out of any malls for sneaking pics, but I had a bad run-in at one dead mall(Lincoln Mall in Matteson, IL) over taking pics 2 years before it closed. Wasn't kicked out, but it made me uneasy enough I chose to leave. Did thankfully get back for Lincoln's auction earlier this year, and unbelievably security was nowhere to be seen inside, so I finally made up for that bad run-in w/enough pics. At 4:18, that sure looks like a former Suncoast.
BoratWanksta OMG, I grew up around Lincoln Mall. Skipping school, week ends and whatever. Back in its heyday in the mid 80s there were so many people there it was annoying, now I wish that was an annoyance we still had to deal with. I also wish someone would come up with a way to save the mall, maybe not as the mall we all used to know, but as a place for Mom and Pop shops and small businesses to get together and put a dent in the big box china syndrome with honest American business ethics and American made and local made products.
JessicaTG2008 I remember when Lincoln Mall opened...me and my family lived in Park Forest.
A shopping trip back there way back when was a big deal for us. When Lincoln Mall went up, the Park Forest Plaza started on its long spiral downward.
Before living in Park Forest me and my folks lived in Harvey.. I remember as a youngster shopping trips with my Sister and my Mother at Dixie Square.
What I remember most about it was the string - type fountain/sculpture deals that went up in column shapes that had what appeared to be drops of water going down the strings...don't think it was water, though..the drops were too uniform (god that was a long time ago, lol).
Crazy how short a shelf life all of these malls had and now the internet marketplace is gonna kill what's left off for sure.
fouroverseven Yeah, even if you're in the parking lot and take pictures or filming, security will pull up and ask you to leave.
This has got to be one of the most beautifully lit malls I've ever seen. The natural lighting everywhere is just stunning alongside the marble flooring.
its a beautiful building, what a shame
I agreed! 😪
Turn the dying malls in to Artist loft type residences - like indoor condo communities
That'd be so amazing! Have a room in an old retail space, it would really become an indoor community. Such a good idea but I think that some would be turned off by the fact that it's a mall. And who knows how much rent would go for, since it's a large property it might be expensive unless it was fully occupied. I'd be down to live at a mall.
Probably a better idea to tear it down and build modern high rise apartments/condos for $$$.
Shilly Storm A lot of them are being converted into interesting spaces.
that will be expensive as hell...but good idea.
that would b sick id pay to live in a mall
Sign: "What brings you [in] today?"
Dan: "I'm here to film your dying mall"
This mall was such a nice mall. In its hey day it was one of the luxury malls of Maryland while also being one of the biggest. This mall had so many store in the 90's many being higher end/pricey brands.
AMC across this mall i think is also dying.. there were a lot of bed bugs in the seats of that theater
This is so sad. Owings Mills Mall was everything until like 2008-2010. Idk what happened
Yeaster super malls like Arundel Mills and of course online shopping killed these malls
the cinnabon closed. yes I know this is a necro but that's what my sister always said
@@RmsDome with that logic Towson should've been closed. Right? dickhead.
@@mh3594 yes but one of the managers of this mall was killed and gave the mall a bad reputation
To many evil people were coming in.
I worked less than a mile from this mall for 5 or 6 years. Also used to take a shuttle bus from college in Westminster there a few times a year because the Westminster mall was very nearly dead itself in the late 90s/early 2000s. The OM Mall was always packed...
It was weird to watch it slowly die. I would grab lunch at the food court up until relatively recently, but never wandered around it. I now wish I had...surreal to see it empty.
Philip Vogt The food court is completely abandoned now. I think the last eatery closed a few weeks ago.
Kinda odd isn't it? Good ol cranberry mall 😅😅 since they changed the name it's been doing pretty good.
westminster mall is still dead, it’s even worse now. nothing has changed. most of the stores are gone - some are filled with cheap stores that come and go. the sears is gone - boscovs and belk are barely holding on
@@yetanotheranna Westminster Mall was demolished like over 10 years ago.
@@dvferyance the one with the boscovs in it?? no it isn’t 😂😂 still standing - belks, boscovs and the movie theater are still there. some stores inside too.
I'm shocked they demo'd this place... still looks pretty new/clean
Right
nadiainthesky I know!
That red and white tiled section you looked at was a Mrs field's cookies place. I also think you could get ice cream and milkshakes there. Lots of memories at this mall. Went shopping for clothes in the summer for the upcoming school year every year.
Hey Dan, I am sicko for your Dead Mall series, I have watched them all multiple times and can't stop. Keep up the good work, the way you dump on these malls in your commentary is priceless hahaha
motox4real Glad you’re enjoying them!
This is Dan Bell. Me too, keep it up! I love the ones that start with news/commercials about how great these malls are and how bright the future is. The one that advertises K-Mart playing as you show shots of the liquidating K-Mart is brilliant.
Thanks! Whenever media is available for a mall I’m filming, I always use it. Sadly, most of the time it isn’t available.
+This is Dan Bell. love this stuff the music sounds 1970,s
Ditto what motox4real and christopher coleman said!!
Thank you Dan. As an Owings Mills native, this mall played a huge part in my upbringing. I moved for college right around the time they began demolition. Seeing this footage sparked so many memories in my mind and brought back some good feelings. Knowing this exists made my day! :)
I have dat exact dreams of Owings Mills Mall when my brother and I growning up. RIP Owings Mills mall.
What really broke this mall were the areas sorrounding it. Simply too many issues going around it and the people willing to spend money and shop simply went to other locations just to avoid problems
I wonder if management used the coins in the fountain to pay the light bill.
+TheLeatherChannel
Evidently fountains don't pay for themselves.
JCPenney is paying for it.🙂
I love the architecture of the mall. The internal designs are pretty unique. It looked like it once was a beautiful mall.
Just watched the Demolition vid. Had to rewatch this one again.
Same here.
Same. it could have been saved at this point. Looks clean.
same
***** Jesus
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It's pretty surreal seeing the mall I went to for my entire life (I was born in 1988) in this state. When I think of malls, this is the one I think of. Part of its downfall was likely its' walking-distance access to the subway which brought in crowds from Baltimore City which became more of a thing when I was a teenager. I remember at one point my parents started getting anxious about my wanting to spend time there, especially on weekends, because things got progressively more sketchy and people were getting mugged or worse. Then they decided to build townhomes directly next to the parking lot and I feel like after that point everything went full tilt seemingly out of nowhere. I didn't really understand at the time but I do remember when suddenly there seemed to be a lot less stores and I just stopped going as a young adult. Watching him walk through I could distinctly remember what stores used to be where, and at the point this video was made at least, the food court looked exactly as I remember. Major nostalgia trip.
For me, the phrase "Owings Mills, MD" will always recall memories of watching MotorWeek on PBS on Sunday mornings in the 80s.
I can't tell you how thankful I am that you filmed this. I remember buying my (hopefully soon to be) fiancee a bottle of perfume here back in like 2013...and even then I was like "jesus christ this is a nightmare"....and then I was sitting in a dorm room while playing a music festival between rehearsals, and I found your channel. It invoked such insanely familiar feelings in me. First, I remembered going to the Laurel Mall in Laurel, MD when it was standing, thinking the same thoughts, but much further back...and the memory is so incredibly vivid today, just as the Owings Mills Mall memory Is (I worked as a retail manager in Owings Mills for years, and this was "my mall"). I couldn't help but go film the Chambersburg Mall near my music festival, and then Seoul Plaza to try my hand at filming. My footage was shit, and I had no idea what to do with it. Now with just shy of 10,000 subscribers for my Expedition Log Series, and I can't thank you enough. You sparked a new wave of content, and we all will never forget who the godfather of dead mall videos is. Thanks for being awesome, and I can't wait to see your next piece. We've been keeping the water warm for you, and we're all ready for new Dead Mall Series content....we crave it. You inspired a movement, and we're in debt.
That is one of the prettiest dead malls I have seen, marble floors imported from France. I think many times what causes malls to fail is actually greedy owners, even in a dead mall the rent is around 3,500 to 6,000 to rent a retail space, it's hard to believe they would charge that in a dead mall but they do.
0:27 - Funny, even the announcer laughed a bit when she said it was a new era for the mall.
To think Malls and Shopping centers were the places to go 15 years ago, before online shopping took over and made us lazy. Now we can just sit on the couch or at the computer desk and order something, instead of getting up and going to these grand ol' malls, that are slowly disappearing. I miss these times and they brought great nostalgia. Seeing them like this now makes me sad and angry at how technology is moving.
Crossingman18 that is why we are all fat to we just can just sit on our fat asses order something on a tablet, i acutally like to go somewhere and try on my cloths first since different brands fit me differerntly , i am lucky ourmall is still thriving strong, yes its slwo duriing the week, but on weekends its mad house
Crossingman18 Don't blame the people, blame the multinational corporations & greedy property managers that just want to hold onto real estate without investing in it. My guess is that this mall property is owned by a small front company, which is owned by a big company, which is owned by a global company in China, Saudi Arabia, or Russia.
we are lucky that our mall is packed on weekends, duirng the week its slower but still stready stream of people, and holiday season its out of control with people
I like online shopping just for the ease of it, but I also enjoy getting out into the stores as well. Companies are wise to offer certain items in stores only so it puts bodies in the shops. I'm fortunate that the mall I work at is in a very central location. No matter which direction you come at it from the freeway it's easy to get to. Also it's in between two cities Escondido, CA and Poway. We're so close to Poway that part of the mall is on Poway power grids.
Crossingman18 Haha It's pretty funny - I hate shopping online - I usually go to local malls like The Central Parkway Mall, Cloverdale Mall or The Erin Mills Mall (These malls are (probably) not around your area - they're in Mississauga/Toronto in Canada)
Loved the original news reports on the grand opening. What I enjoy the most of your videos is how much info you have for every mall you go to. Great to hear your narrative on the malls history.
I lived near the Owings Mills Mall when it opened (left the area in the early nineties) and we had two pre teen daughters so we were there all the time. It was the place to be for Shopping, Eating or just people watching. It is a shame to see such a beautiful mall go down hill but from what I've read since the opening of the train station nearby helped to accelerate it's decline......
Never thought in a million years that Owings Mills Mall would close and then be demolished. Just seeing this brings back memories of what it used to be. And I remember Sally Thorner. She was first a newscaster for WMAR-TV, and later WJZ-TV, before she retired in 2009.
Well done Dan. You really create a sense of nostalgia and even a sense of sadness when I watch your vids. As a producer myself, I just want to say nicely done.
Beautiful sunny mall. ☀ I like the food court. :3
I am just so sad the 80s are gone :-(
Exkelsior I know this represents the closing of that era so sad
@@marysunshine5587 Indeed. Someone posted about how this mall was mismanaged, but ultimately it comes down to e-commerce having done away with it like other places. And yes, malls used to be places of social gathering, from an era that many of us yearn for.
This make me so sad but I can't stop watching it. I love seeing the vintage mall videos! Thank you for showing them!
in south australia where i live we have a mall called westfield marion i remember it when i was a little kid in the early 90s that mall was dying & it had a late 80s to 90s look to it lots of shops were boarded up eventually they renovated it & now %99 of the shops are filled & thousands upon thousands of people daily go there to shop. most of the malls that u do vid on all they need is a huge renovation & keep up with the ever changing times
8:25, Watch out we got a *BADASS* over here! LOL
I grew up going to local malls with my mom in the mid-'90s and have always had an affection for them. I'm from Portland, OR and all of our malls around here are still active and well, and many have been upgraded significantly. There are still holdover relics from the '90s that we still have, including a beloved Suncoast movie store that I frequent on occasion. It seems that the malls that have really taken a turn are the ones in smaller suburbs and communities that are cut off from big cities; there's just not enough money circulating to keep them going, plus the advent of online shopping. It's sad. I've been to a few malls like these ones in other cities/states, though Dan has profiled some of the most extreme cases of "dead mall" that I've ever seen.
The 80's and 90's were the hey-day for having fun at the mall. We had some money to spend and enjoyed the entertainment at the malls. The malls came when people felt secure and there was a lot of 'leisure' money to be spent... The malls were new, shiny, bright and fun...You could find anything you wanted 'at the mall'. Then the money started to dry up..jobs got scarce...and, let's face it... gang shootings in the food courts...people just started to stay away.. Now malls are fading away...even in a lot of previously affluent areas... We are watching the slow, inevitable dismantling of an industry.They look like dismal scenes right out of a 'zombie-apoc' movie.
+MrGchiasson not only that you can get anything online with a click of a button now a days from the comfort of your own home in nothing but underwear.
I always thought malls came about in the 80s, but it seems they'e been around since the 50s. I'd love to see the 50s, 60s, & 70s malls. Well, I have seen ONE 70s mall....Old Town Mall in Reno, NV. Brick floors & wood panel walls.
Mark Suckerberg Oh yeah...Now when I go to the mall..I make a quick look around the areas and look for anything suspicious, any potential dangers.. 30 years ago,I used to look around.. looking for cute women in mini-skirts.
My my..how times have changed.
+MrGchiasson Not really, I mean the malls in my city are booming.
SleepyKittenz That's good news.. There are some areas that are booming. I wouldn't mind moving back to Charleston, S.C. it's a boom-town.
I grew up near the first mall built in America. "Southdale mall in Edina Minnesota ((suburb of Minneapolis). Still there, still going strong.
used to go here in the late 80's when ever I went to Dale City....wow....just wow...
As a photographer and someone interested in filmmaking, I have to say Dan that you're very good at it! Love these mall vids. Your attention to detail and storytelling ability are really good! Gives me something to aspire to.
Wow! another one I'm familiar with! Great job, I love how your serious and informal in all your videos!
Just came here because of the new ContraPoints video. Really interesting video and channel.
BTW, I'm from Poland in EU. Last year I was in a dead mall in Cracov. It was surreal. Only two opened stores and one foodcourt (McDonald's). Walking to the bathroom while passing by the empty, closed stores and totally abandoned cinema, gave me chilles. The mall doesn't exist anymore, it was closed only few months after my visit.
Love the style of the video with the old clips added in! Nice touch!
That was a beautiful and historic farm before they built the mall. I'm thinking it might have actually belonged to one of the Owings family members originally. It still had a house, barns, outbuildings and even a really early log cabin on it. Such a waste for a mall that didn't make it.
I was wondering why this mall, which looks so much like the mall by me, closed. It was relatively new, built in 1986. It appears that it's close to Baltimore, which is a crime haven. That turned out to be true in 1992, when a mall employee, Christina Marie Brown, 28, was shot in the head by a thug as she left work. The thug, who was 17 and kicked out of an alternative school just the week before, was impassive at his sentencing hearing, where he got only 40 years for the murder, with the possibility of parole. That means the killer, Nigel Antonio Carter, may actually be loose.
I found a picture of Christina, who looked to be a lovely young woman, and was certainly a hard worker. Her killer got her paycheck of $110, and he gave Christina's metro pass to his sister, so she could ride for free. Carter was raised in an intact family, with both parents working for the city of Baltimore. So this killer had no excuse about a bad upbringing. His father loved him so much, in fact, he disposed of the gun used to assassinate Christina.
Carter tried to say the cops 'tricked' him into a confession. The judge, who sounds like a total tool, was going to give the murderer life without parole, but a lot of sobbing by Carter family members apparently turned the judge's dim brain to allow the killer a 'second chance.'
Christina, who is buried in King Memorial Park in Baltimore, never got a second chance.
After Christina's horrendous murder, the mall began a relatively quick slide into oblivion. For some reason, shoppers believed the area to be unsafe.
Here are two articles on Christina's murder, her killer's trial, and a memorial page to her.
articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-04-29/news/1993119151_1_carter-owings-mills-mall-baltimore-county
articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-10-08/news/1992282169_1_carter-baltimore-court-papers
www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=14392578
So sweet of you to put this article out. I read your comment and as I clicked the last link I instantly cried. Christina is a beautiful young lady , I don’t know her but I was moved by this. She’s in a better place now.
Thank you @Katylake
omg...thank you for this. Indeed, Ms. Christina Brown was beautiful...and looked so much like a side of my family of cousins that live in the Baltimore, D.C. and VA area.
I am outraged, that her killer got to put on a show in court. Young killers, people always like to think there is something in them, that's redeemable and that will make them give something back if they live.
I hate that.
The only thing he should give, is his own life. If the murder was committed by someone under 18, then incarcerate them until the age of 21, then execute them.
It's when there are no real consequences to their actions, that doing so can be done so casually and thoughtlessly.
Ms. Brown, was someone who lived her life in a way to be proud of.
And I'm sick of losing young people like herself, to others who didn't care about her.
Her killer's parents didn't care about her either. Which I find despicable, and no wonder he did what he did.
@J K Baltimore's level of violent crime is much higher than the national average.
You can't deny factual statistics. There's a crime problem. You don't have to live in the area to recognize that, genius. 1,833 violent crimes per 100K people. National average is 381. Holy fucking shit look at that disparity. And for MD state the number is 469. Wide fuckin gap there huh? Crime is a serious problem in the city, and it spills out into surrounding areas, and that shit can be called out by any fucking body who wants to point it out.
Oh shit look this is from 2017 The violent crime rate in Baltimore is 2,027 per 100,000 people.
In 2017, 342 people in Baltimore were murdered.
So its getting fucking worse!!!
You wanna talk about political climate? Yeah wtf you done? Vote the same people in every fuckin time expecting different results? The blame for the violent crime is THE CRIMINALS DOING EVIL SHIT!
Look at the census btw people have been net leaving the city and never returning. What happened to this mall is happening on a larger scale. Urban fuckin decay, moral decay, good people gtfo because why should they put up with this bullshit, huh?
If Destiny Harrison had opened her salon somewhere else she'd still be alive blackamericaweb.com/2019/12/27/baltimore-salon-owner-fatally-shot-at-her-shop-feared-for-her-life-before-murder-video/#autoplay
Motherfucker one of my friends was also bludgeoned to death on St Paul Street (and he was lgbt). That shit happened 3 years ago and they haven't caught any suspects. Think about that.
@J K The rob-n-ride destroyed this place.
He said in his comment that it wasn't the community itself, it was people coming in from the inner city on the metro. The late 70s-early 90s crime wave was still in effect. Things have changed a lot since then, but a dramatic incident like that would fuel white flight. At that time, nobody knew if they'd be the next victim.
I wasn't particularly aware of the location growing up. However, yesterday I was driving in the area killing time at lunch and rambling through the new development when I noticed this massive field with a pile of dirt and a pile of asphalt in the middle. It occured to me that it couldn't have been a forest since the area was too built up around it. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks-- that was the mall! I quickly pulled into the Red Lobster lot and made my way across the street to get a panoramic. Really impressive to see just how large a piece of land was leveled for a business venture lasting not even one lifetime.
Great footage! Unbelieveable how quickly things change. Marble floors imported from France... wow.
notsoseriousmoonlight I have to admit, the marble looked good after all these years.
At 1:30 it looks very similar to Landmark Mall. At some angles, it even looks like Pentagon City. Maybe they all have the same builder.
I'm so glad I grew up when they were all still alive and thriving. Such great memories ❤️
I'm so sad to see what happened to this place. I grew up going to this mall and remember going there on opening day. I worked at both Hechts and Ritz Camera. when they opened the light rail there it really lead to the downfall that it never recovered from.
I see people just walking around, visiting there memories. Its great to see that.
Great that you show how it was and how is and gone . I remember walking thru this mall in 87' and it had high line stores and one store I forgot its name but had a jeep going thru the store front window and was busy with people . Ive been going to a doctors office in the last 10 years and used to drive thru part of it and was mostly closed then but the theater on the far side of the lot still gets business and will be moved . Golden ring Mall in Rosedale looked like this before it closed , it was empty as I sat on a bench and remembered back in the 80's being busting with people . Sad as you get older and see changes, in the 80's there were Mall rats , teens that lived in malls but now stay in their home and get fat and buy on Amazon .
Crime
Came here from Contrapoints.
Excellent video.
We last walked the interior in 2014 when there were still a few stores open. We drove over today and. lo and behold........ it was GONE! I love the way you have entwined the 1980s news clips with the present-day reality. I am surprised that the AMC Theatre even stayed on the property!
Your Dead Mall series is so sad yet fascinating. Unfortunately with the more advanced internet age that we live in now, are we really that surprised that a lot of the brick and mortar stores of our youths are dying? With Walmart being just about everywhere, Amazon being so convenient, Groupon a click away, and Ebay as my homepage, I am part of the society like many of us that contribute to the closings. Case and point, I went to my local mall, saw something I wanted, price compared online found a coupon code, applied to order and ended up spending 50 bucks less than if I were to have purchased it from the store. These are the times we live in. Now don't get me wrong, I still shop in physical stores , but the amount of money I spend there now, compared to 15 years ago is way less.
I still love the bright glitz and open space of the mall but chances are more likely than not, you'll usually only see me there if I'm picking up an order I placed online.
This year, I hear everyone saying "I don't want to go to the mall. I catch a cold or a flu every time I go there."
Not a big fan of online shopping. The only times I do some online shopping are for rare books and anything really specific I can’ find near my home.
I know this is an old comment, but this is not the reason the Owings Mills Mall closed. The Owings Mills metro station opening killed it.
I still miss strolling through this mall, even when it became dead like this. I might've last visited right after you filmed this, when it was Macy's last day and they were selling EVERYTHING including display cases and light fixtures in the store.
RIP Owings Mills Mall, I used to work out there in the 2000's
Love the vintage news clips thrown in! Binge watching the dead mall series right now, keep it up!
3:03 I used to love those as a kid. Iv'e always put some kind of coin in (mostly) every time I saw one.
This is so sad, it looks like it was a nice mall😞
There have been several things sited as reasons why the mall failed. When the survey was done, the way traffic and people flowed in the Baltimore County area changed. The mall that superseded this one, Towson Town Center, was built in a better location and ended up with better stores. It does have a bad crime problem now. It was built in one of the more heavily Jewish areas of town and so the company management decided to downplay the Christmas holiday and that was a complaint many customers had and they would not shop there often during the big Christmas sales period because other malls would decorate and focus on that. The subway brought crime in from Baltimore City and the murder trail did not help matters. When the higher end stores started to pull out due to the sales figures not being what they were promised, it started the downward spiral. I remember the last time I stepped foot in that mall which had to be about 20 years ago at this point, it did not seem like the upscale mall I remembered from 1986 but a middling mall that had nothing going for it. I remember a friend of mine at the time would do there with the rest of his team for lunch and he said lunch time in the food court was the only time in the late 90s he would see there be any people really in the mall.
'this one actually has water in it.....but it's not on' my favorite :) captures the moment perfectly.
I was binge watching “the company man” videos and this played. I just moved to Bethesda from NC. We had a weird mix of lively malls and straight up dead ones that have been barely clinging to life for 15 years or so. I wish all of them could get converted into something useful like shelters and such.
Love these videos. They're oddly mesmerizing. Your commentary is great as well. Would've been awesome to have it in this episode.
In memory loving of
Owings Mills Mall
1986-2017
this mall was so pretty :(((
Yes it's huge sad that it's gone now
Dan, I seriously need more of these. I've already watched all of them 😭 Your Dead Mall Series is the best all over RUclips 👌🏻
I loved the architecture of this mall. So sad that it is demolished. Good video. Thanks for uploading.
I remember coming here with my brother in like 2007 and grabbing something to eat and this mall wasn't that dead looking at this video makes me think how much things change over the year, it's sad.
looked like a very nice mall. i love the natural lighting, combined with the palm trees and the marble floors.
My favorite place to go when I was growing up. So sad, but it dies along time ago, I'd say around 1999.
ContraPoints brought me here.
auxetoiles , she mentioned both.
Of course she watches this shit lmao
*he
@@xxslicendicexx man shut the fuck up, your profile looks like that of a closeted trans girl, you ain't got no room to talk
Not very often I see footage of a mall relatively close to me! Maryland rarely ever gets talked about (for good reason, it's kinda scummy here in Baltimore), but still, it's nice to see some of my local places getting attention!
I love the music 🎶 the editing in the beginning of this video was awesome 👍 working on see your dead mall series , love it
Yeah can anyone ever tell us what it is cos dan bell wont...
Owings Mills Mall has been DEAD for a while and now that MACY's is gone it is over. The thing I found funny was JCPenny's was holding on. JCPeeny's is just barely clinging to life itself and that it stayed with Owings Mills way too long proves why it too is dying. I remember Owings Mills Mall when it first opened and it was beyond awesome. Owings Mills was supposed to be Baltimore's upscale destination all. Well needless to say that never happened. Owings Mills Mall soon became a joke. The tombstone for Owings Mills Mall was writ when Saks Fifth Avenue could not make a go of it there. Yeah Owings Mills hung on for a few more seasons but the stench of death was definitely in the air after the departure of SAKS.
People blamed the Subway and the urban day travelers for killing Owings Mills and yeah the murder of someone on the way to the Metro did put affluent people off Owings Mills but that was not the Malls undoing. Baltimore is basically an overgrown small country town. Look at the Baltimore skyline what little there is of it. The tallest building in Baltimore is about 40 floors tall the TransAmerica Building Please in most real cities a 40 floor building is just another face in the crowd. Baltimore's 40 floor TransAmerica Tower started out life in the 1970's as USF&G Companies corporate headquarters. I was there when it was built. If you build a 40 floor building in Baltimore your building will be noteworthy since Baltimore hasn't seen a 40 floor building constructed in over 50 YEARS!
Baltimore is a small back office one horse town whose population basically has no money to spend on neccessitites. Owings Mills Mall wanted shoppers who could afford luxuries please give me a break. In Baltimore the ability to keep your rent paid, your belly full, your phone working and your lights on in the same month is a luxury. However other forces conspired to put Owings Mills out of its misery. Baltimore is a larger tiny town with a tiny town mwntality. Baltimore could not sustain multiple luxury malls yet it had three malls trying to be the premier luxury mall in Baltimore. Hunt Valley Mall, White Marsh, Marley Station and Towson Town Center also wanted to be the regional mall that lived while all other malls withered and died.
In the end Towson Town Center beat all its competition and it was an unlikely winner given its haphazzard design. Towson Town Mall is not in truth a single Mall. Towson Town Mall is a series of weird additions sculpted very brutally into a single mall. Towson Town Mall is a disjointed collection of escalators and elevators joining many levels together the strange thing is it works. Today Towson Town Mall is almost always crowded to the rafters with old Towson \ Lutherville, Timmonium, Mays Chapel Money and Urban Chic. Close proximity to major bus lines insure a helthey contingent of vulgar dead common urban day tripper types also litter the Towson Town Mall langscape. Towson Town Mall also benefits from the fact that it is located in TOWSON which is the Baltimore County seat. Towson is undergoing a rebirth that hopes to make it a 24/7 place to live and work. Towson is trying hard to be the jewel in the Baltimore Metro Crown and Towson Town Mall is key to that continuing effort.
Finally the last spike in Owings Mills Mall was and is E-Commerce. Amazon.com and other online venues made brick and mortar stores at every beltway off ramp a money losing affair. Owings Mills tried to be a town center but it failed. Its pricey homes did not sell well. Better off black folk moved in but alone they were not large enough in number and income to sustain the types of upscale stores at Owings Mills.Mall offered. I used to go to Owings Mills Mall 3 times a month and never failed to make purchases under $300 each trip. However I am disabled why walk from the subway or even drive to Owings Mills Mall to buty 30 pairs of blue jeans from MACY's when I can sit home and buy 35 pairs of jeans cheaper from Amazon.com. Amazon.com dleivers the jeans to my home no muss or fuss. I started buying everything I could from Amazon.com. Seems most of the malls lost customers to the likes of Amazon.com. I do love to shop so I moved close to Towson so I could live near the Towson Town Mall.
So if you read this far you now know in detail what forces really murdered Owings Mills Mall. Owings Mills Mall was a beautiful Mall a very young mall to die so soon after it was completed but die it did. I do shed a tear for Owings Mills Mall because when it opened I was so filled with high hopes but it did not take long for me to realize it would not last. Near the end Owings Mills tried to become more like Security Square Mall a suburban mall with a decidedly urban flavor. The stores at Secueruty Square are geared mostly to the desires of black folk and white hipsters. There is a food court full of unhealthy selections fried in grease that fills the lunch time stomachs of two near by government agencies. In Woodlawn also known as Hoodlawn a more affluent black population has secured a nice living and nice neighborhoods so Security Mall is well supported and not dying.
Owings Mills just does not have the density to survive. Owings Mills is a car only mall with out good public transit. Owings Mills might do good as a villiage Center but as a Mall it is kaput. Hunt Valley Mall became a thriving village center. Westview Mall became a nice strip mall. White Marsh Mall seems to have reinvented itself successfully. Poor Owings Mills Malljust faded away left to die an ignominious death as this video so totally shows! Watching this video about Owings Mills Mall makes this poor gray autistic werewolf almost feel like a ghoul!
Do you remember Golden Ring Mall?
No worries. If we aren't lucky, thugs like you will kill us all.
The towson mall is like the one place that is reversing this trend, when I grew up in towson in the 80s that was a dying mall but somehow it got mall cancer and blew up. I think the unplanned design actually contributes to it being a success, but there was definitely luck involved.
+TreyEightTv Since when did it become racist to speak the truth? So many of you freaking blacks keep playing that race card. Give it up, it doesn't work. Nice epithet by the way, let's see how you'd like it when someone calls you the "N" word. You deserve it.
thank you
I remember that mall opening in a similar time frame to the White Marsh Mall and what a big deal it was to go there. Owings Mills went from a fairly prosperous area to one in serious decline about a decade ago, a shame really.
My mother and grandma actually occupied this mall in its heyday. Mom would tell me stories of hanging out with friends and going on dates at Owings Mills Mall. I would've loved to see it in its former glory, but it was actually reconstructed as a new "lifesytle" center called Mill Station, meaning it's more open than an indoor mall.
I lived near this mall for almost 20 years. It was extremely upscale and always packed. As it began to decline and then that accelerated, I became first scared to go there and then had no reason to go there. This video just makes me sad. (And I moved away from the area 8 years ago.) But this mall really did go downhill FAST.
These are really cool videos. Euclid square mall should be on your list. Keep up the great videos dan!
Amazing! that mall is reminiscent of the Arden Fair Mall here in Sacramento. And Arden is a huge mall. It has been open since 1957 and I don't see it closing anytime soon. It's in prime location and is always, ALWAYS full! Location is usually the biggest deal breaker for many of these malls.
I love the architecture of the mall, such a shame and waste that this happened to it :(
Only went to this mall once, sometime in the late 80's. It was a nice mall with upscale retailers.
i used to live in owings mills for a couple years. i remember going a few days or weeks before closing and it definitely had an eerie feeling of seeing almost everything closed. i saw a gymboree or jumping bean (or both), and a popcorn and cotton candy dispenser and a couple small stores. im glad there is more development in owings mills.
wow, so sad to see what happened to this place. I grew up going to this mall and remember going there on opening day. I worked at both Hecths and Ritz Camera.
When this opened, my parents and I went there. It was crowded and full of rude people. There was a pet store. I don't recall anything else from then. Years later I went a bunch of times when it was nearly in the death throws. There was a neat store that sold African wood carvings, some were big and just amazing works of sculpture. The Macys ( or was it Bloomingdales?), I still have a really interesting expensive vintage ring that was bought for me there. Guy was obsessed with me and bought it, but he didn't work out and he didn't ask for the ring back, so I still have it. We used to go to White Flint in Rockville too, another mall that died and was destroyed. Maybe the 2 of us are mall jinxers? LOL
It cool watching the video from the 80's it like going back in time
Gotta love the music its spot on great job Dan
Came here from listening to Hallmark ‘87’s dedication to this mall: “conservation pieces.” Listen and weep
I love the Demi music playing. Literally smiled when I heard it playing.
I've never gone to this mall, but I think when I was visitng Baltimore for my 10th birthday (yes, I'm a pre-teen), I got on the metro train in Owings Mills and when I looked on Google Earth, the remains of the Owings Mills Mall was about a little less than a mile away.
Dang, just remembering how this mall was such apart of my adult life. This was where I got fitted for my wedding tuxedo and also where my family took holiday and spring portraits at Penny's
So sad I used to go there quite a bit I worked across the street at Blue cross and blue shield
I remember hearing that type of music in malls back in the 80s!
My friend and I used to shop there. We lived in Carroll County and it was a big deal to go there in the 80s. We would always lunch
at Panda Express. I think saw where it was in the food court. Thanks for the memories.
I have watched most of the videos in this series. This one is easily the most depressing one.
Suggestion - Landover Mall in PG County, MD. When it opened it was INCREDIBLE. It is now closed........
This is one of the only malls I've gone to that you've been to too, and I live 4 hours away.