When was the asheville mall built

This was completed in November It morphed into a Greenville-based Meyers-Arnold in June Uptons, of Norcross, Georgia, eventually acquired the Meyers-Arnold chain, with stores being rebranded as Uptons on November 1, Twenty-six stores would be added in a single-level Gallery South wing.

This would be anchored by a 2-level , square foot J. Penney and include a multilevel parking garage. An interior face lift of the existing mall had been done in , which added new skylights and store fronts. Construction of the Gallery South project got underway in January It was rededicated on August 2, On November 1, , the Gallery South addition was officially dedicated.

Eighty-two stores, out of an eventual eighty-nine, were in operation. On June 4, , the mall's Ivey's store was rebranded by Dillard's. Woolworth's was shuttered in January , with Uptons going dark in December of the same year. Three adjacent inline stores were relocated within the mall. The Uptons-Woolworth's area was gutted and rebuilt as an tenant wing, anchored by a 2-level 92, square foot Montgomery Ward.

Wards opened its doors on September 30, Around this time, Sears was given a major renovation. The building's second level, which had been used as office and warehouse space, was converted to a second sales floor. A major renovation was announced in September This project entailed the construction of a Southeast Wing , with an eight-bay Food Court, twenty inline stores and rooftop parking deck.

The addition would connect the existing Gallery South wing with the south entrance of Belk. Yes, they are! I noticed that in the Citizen Times two weeks ago. I must admit the exterior of the mall is rather hideous, and the inside is pretty bad as well. I think CBL should definitely add tile to the rest of the mall. Another great thing would be to get Old Navy to add an exterior entrance, Also, get rid of those crappy stores Manhattan and GNC sorry if anyone shops there.

GNC could move, but Manhattan needs to go. I think they should replace it with a store unique to Asheville like Ann Taylor LOFT, and create an outdoor entrance for them, and renovate the entrances this way the front will look so much better, and have nice storefronts! CBL needs to get off of their butts and do something with this mall! I mean I know it's not going anywhere anytime soon, and it will stay successful. I'm honestly hoping that the Asheville Mall having a strange layout, out-of-date appearance, and generally poor construction quality will cause the city's retail center of gravity to shift back towards downtown.

Think about it. Asheville has the best downtown retail scene of any city in North Carolina. If you were, say, Macy's, looking to finally locate a store in the Asheville area, what would you do?

They could add another anchor space to Asheville Mall, but the mall's very out of date in an already traffic-choked area. Any updates to the mall would pretty much have to be in the vein of "Tear the whole thing down and start over! Even that wouldn't address the congestion.

Or, they could go downtown, where there is already another thriving retail scene. Wachovia could move elsewhere downtown Maybe build a new building, wouldn't that be nice!

Parking, you ask? The Wachovia building already has parking underground, plus the parking deck across the street at Rankin Avenue was designed so that several more levels could be added in the future. It could work, but then you have to be careful not to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.

Part of why downtown is so popular is its weird quirky stores; if mall-style retailers all moved back downtown, what would the impact be on the quirky stores? You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

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Asheville Mall. Share More sharing options Followers 0. Reply to this topic Start new topic. Recommended Posts. StevenRocks Posted December 26, Posted December 26, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options Replies 87 Created 16 yr Last Reply 1 yr.

Top Posters In This Topic 15 10 10 Popular Posts Steve M. KJHburg January 23, KJHburg February 6, Posted Images. Posted December 27, I do remember the first time I walked through the "Gallery South" part of the mall, and marveled at the cool rainbow-colored wavy neon lights on the ceiling which now look kinda dated The building on Battery Park Avenue was apparently not Penney's original location downtown, though they moved well before my family came to town.

StevenRocks Posted December 27, NcSc74 Posted December 29, Posted December 29, edited. Edited December 29, by NcSc Posted December 29, Posted January 12, edited. Edited January 12, by rooster8. NCMike Posted January 15, Posted January 15, Posted April 19, StevenRocks Posted September 18, Posted September 18, Any assistance you can provide is appreciated and welcome.

Lootles Posted September 18, Posted September 18, edited. Posted February 1, Lootles Posted February 3, Posted February 3, Posted February 22, Sears to open major clothing display Might be old news for some of you, but it's new info for me. StevenRocks Posted February 23, Posted February 23, Posted March 25, Posted March 2, Posted April 18, Posted May 8, Posted May 10, Posted May 11, NCMike Posted May 12, Posted May 12, Join the conversation You can post now and register later.

Reply to this topic Insert image from URL. It is funny to me to see others talking about the Asheville mall Annabelle's is where I went to eat before prom as most of us did and it was such a beautiful place! The mall has definitely changed through the years. At one time it seemed as if it were dying, doomed to be the next Biltmore Square. Now, business is booming once again. Does any one have any more information on Take 10 arcade? I would love to know more about it.

Arcades are a dying art. They started major changes that scored big with Asheville shoppers. The Biltmore Square Mall per lease agreement had a narrow list of what kind of stores could and could not be opened in the mall. No sporting goods was a major problem since the demographic area was mostly a "Sportsman Paradise".

Since the Asheville Mall still had Woolworth's sporting goods, Sears sporting goods and a golf shop upstairs.

Men preferred to go to the Asheville Mall if they had to go to a mall! At that time, fishing , hunting and golf were top sports activities. With the additions to the Asheville Mall almost doubling the old mall, many people never made the change. Okay so my husband and I are arguing where Sbarros was located before the food court. He says it is where the bathrooms are. In the corner.

I have some insight as to the history of the mall being friends with the original developer. Gregory above corrected some inaccuracies so his post is good. The mall was never intended to be two stories. It seems so just because the grade falls from one side to the other. There was a small "upper mall" that did have an arcade but the spaces were hard to lease and that part was closed.

The mall's development and construction was met with similar headwinds as many developments face - red tape and angry neighbors. One woman pulled a shotgun and threatened a bulldozer driver during the initial site grading. The city council was at odds with the way the approved site plan varied from the actual physical earthwork. The zoning threat came about after Mr.

Coleman successfully sued the county in state court over their buffer zone requirements. Ultimately Mr. Coleman was able to get all parties satisfied enough to get the mall built but the situation made Sears nervous. A crane had to come in and lift the helicopter off the roof.

No one was hurt. The second story part that housed the B. Mr Coleman Jr came up with the idea of putting the escalator up only in that spot and leasing out that area.

During the original construction the water fountain didn't have a water source. Mr Coleman not wanting to put in a meter and pay for water simply extended the line from a nearby space. That tenant paid for the fountain's water without knowing it.

That was until a one hour photo moved in. They use a lot of water and corporate watches the water bills and this location used more that the others. Noticeably more and somehow figured out they were supplying the water to the fountain and brought it up. The Colemans were a pretty bold bunch and their answer to situation was to simply remind the tenant that their lease was up at the end of the year and if they wanted to make something of it they could hit the road.

They left and to this day the tenant in the space could still be paying for the water for the fountain. A unique fact concerns the mall's Chick-fil-a. In the '80s this company was just expanding out of Atlanta and wanted to be in the Mall. Coleman Jr didn't like their product but was OK bringing them to the Mall. Until the lease was negotiated The rule was all stores had to be open during mall hours.

No exceptions for Chick-fil-a that of course wants to be closed on Sundays. They went back to Atlanta disappointed. Then they approached the mall a second time with the same result. Coleman Jr simply did not budge on the rule. When they showed up a third time wanting in they agreed to be open on Sundays. From the mid 80s to when the Colemans sold the mall the Chick-fil-a was open on Sundays which is the only instance of this in Chick-fil-a company history. Once the Colemans were gone Chick-fil-a renegotiated their lease and have been closed on Sundays since.

Some people don't believe this story but it is true. More below. The restaurant that has the outside access started as "Tuesdays" and was viable due to using the the fire escape hallway as access to the rest of the mall.

The restaurant was two stories and along one large wall was a "Welcome to NC" large scale interstate sign that was obviously stolen as that wouldn't be available for public purchase no Ebay then. The expansion in saw a food court of sorts in it really just a concentrated area of food vendors.

Food courts were new at the time and so the mall wasn't designed with that in mind. Sbarro's was original to this area. It was at this time that the parking deck was constructed. It leaked like a sieve at first and the Colemans successfully sued the company who put it in. Biltmore Square was at a huge disadvantage in a number of ways but habit was clearly one of them. People were just used to going to "The Mall" and didn't care to switch. The officials from JCPenny were considering where to locate and there was plenty of influence pushing them towards Biltmore Square.

But somehow the Colemans were allowed to show both Malls to the JCP reps at the end of the negotiations. After that JCP went to Asheville. Later the owners of the BS were sued by the tenants who signed their leases with the expectation what JCP or another large anchor was going to locate there.

That's all I have remembered at this point. The Colemans sold in or and the next era started. I worked there in the mid-'70s and it was a fun crew. The store also sold cheapo stereo systems that we played music on as a soundtrack for the customers. However, the owners would only let you open one or two 8-tracks in any given rotation, and those rotations could last for a few weeks, driving employees nuts with the repetition.

I know I wasn't the only clerk there who hopes he never hears the Frampton Comes Alive! Sears has now closed. There has been talk about converting that section into apartments. Asheville retail has not seen much coverage, and much of this accounts from the fact that most visitors to the city are not real focused on this for obvious reasons. On top of that, apparently not many retail photographers reside in the area.

In all, most trips to Asheville for most people involve the Blue Ridge Parkway, Biltmore House, hiking and general sightseeing. For me, that was indeed always the case In fact, only recently have I really explored the city in depth myself. On previous trips, I was not able to cover much of the city in pictures, but with this post that changes as I cover the most important and successful mall in Western North Carolina. The old part of the mall has a very retro feel to it.

The side window skylights, scattered overhead skylights and sea green color scheme feels like an ethereal 's mall. This part of the mall is flanked by Belk, Sears and both Dillard's. Here is a look at all the anchors on the old part of the mall. Note the open glass overlook in the second floor of Dillard's Men's store. That hallway has one of the most beautiful showcases of natural light I have ever seen in a mall.

The second Dillard's is built into the hallway like an inline tenant, and it was previously an Ivey's. The Belk is original, but has been renovated to the point it looks like a new store. Note the Starbucks on the right of the last photo. This is the northwest mall entrance, the first of three. While patrons had to go up stairs or an elevator to go in, they could leave via the escalator.

It is very interesting how they built a catwalk over to the esclator going into the middle of the mall. This is my favorite mall oddity of all time. The sign next to the stairs still reads "Elevator to B.

Dalton locations. This was possibly the last. Here is a look at the crossover section between Belk and Dillard's Women's. This section is squeezed between the two stores to reach the expansion to JCPenney. This apparently replaced a previous mall corridor between then Dillard's and Montgomery Ward, and I am curious as to how this connected to the JCPenney wing.

Was this wing closer to Belk previously? I absolutely cannot figure this out, but I do remember Piccadilly was on that lost lower level wing. The JCPenney wing is not as nice as the original mall. It is darker, plainer and boring and according to what I am understanding looks far older than it actually is, apparently designed to match the original mall. This wing provides access to the rear parking deck and the southwest mall entrance to Belk. Supposedly this was added in The southwest Belk entrance, second of three mall entrances.

Looking up mall on the JCPenney wing. Like the original mall, this wing features continuous stairs and ramps. The JCPenney mall entrance definitely looks despite the otherwise 70's design. A mall layout like no other. Any questions? This very dark part of the mall is the portion of the mall connecting from the JCPenney wing to the food court. The wing extends from the JCPenney entrance court.

The lack of natural light is due to the fact that part of the parking deck overlaps this area.. Along the hallway between the food court and the JCPenney court is this long hallway to the parking deck. This is very strange to see such a long hallway with absolutely no stores whatsoever. Looking here at the food court, which forms the east side of the mall. This rather dreary dining area is joined with two escalators, but where are they going? They are going to nothing more than the parking deck, which sits over the top of this part of the mall.

The southeast wing forms the last sector of the mall. With no outside entrances, this wing extends from the food court to the southeast Belk entrance, which is the third of three entrances pictured. The second photo is looking backwards on this wing to the food court. A view of the Belk mall entrance, which also features a very large emergency exit on the right. No alarms and no surprises, right?

Rear entrance to the mall into the JCPenney wing. This is all original, and note the overhead catwalk. Notice that it heads onto the roof. Now see below. Yessir, you are on the roof. On this roof, you are headed to two double doors. Those two double doors head to Dillard's, previously Ivey's. Sears, Dillard's Men's and Dillard's Women's. The second entrance is to the former Ivey's.

Okay, maybe Penney's opened here in , but it sure doesn't look it. Note the second level parking deck entrance on the first photo. Belk here looks new, but it is not. It was just reworked to have a second level, resulting in a redesigning of the store. This was done in the renovation. Looking back here at the three level parking deck next to Belk and the three story stairs next to it.

How else are you going to have an adequate parking lot on a mountainside? It does look nice, though. Of course, it still pisses me off they closed the B. Dalton in the mall for this. Now for the mall sign.

I didn't really cover the Old Navy in the mall, which was loosely pictured in the original mall section. Those random shapes are a bit weird, and the sign looks like it hasn't held up well. Posted by J. Anonymous September 22, at AM. The Curator September 23, at AM. September 23, at AM.

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