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VILLA ITALIA: LAKEWOOD, CO

Andrew Button's Commentary:

Posted May 9, 2011 (user submitted May 27, 2002)

Villa Italia
7200 West Alameda
Lakewood, Colorado.

Built - 1965 - 1966,
Closed July 15, 2001

Demolished 2002 To make room for a "Downtown" Lakewood.

Two story Mall. 1,500 Million Square Foot on 105 Acres. Approximatly 140 stores inside. 4 Anchor Stores - Foleys, Dillards, Montgomery Wards and JCPennys.

Dillards, on the east end of the mall, was the first anchor store to close, then Montgomery Wards on the west end. JCPenny on the south end was soon to Follow, as Foleys on the north west corner of the mall, became the last surviving store for this once megamall. Villa Italia once housed several drugstores including a full sized Woolworths and later a Walgreens. The mall was constructed almost entirely of blonde brick, and sometime between 1985 and 1988, a second story was added, to compete with other malls in the metro area. Due to demographic and economic area changes, the mall languished as many malls of this type do in the latter part of the 1990s. Gasping for life for the last years of its existence, most of Villa Italia became empty, as tenants left in force. The crowd in the latter 1990s changed from people who chose to shop and spend money to a crowd that loitered and ravaged the once glorious mall. This was due to an economic decline in the surrounding areas to the east of the mall. So in the summer of 2001, Villa Italia gasped her last dying breath with almost 100 percent vacancy, her race was run. Currently Villa Italia is being demolished for the site and development of Belmar. Rip Villa !

Links

http://villaitaliamemories.tripod.com/ - Old pics and more!
   
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