Savannah Mall: Savannah, Georgia on DeadMalls.com

SAVANNAH MALL: SAVANNAH, GA

Adam Caracci's Commentary:

User submitted December 26, 2020 (update to original post from 2005 below)

It has been 15 years since I first submitted Savannah Mall to this website. At the time, the mall seemed on the cusp of a renaissance, so submitting to Deadmalls.com seemed premature. Well, turns out my intuition was correct. The simple truth is we were on the precipice of a retail apocalypse in 2005. Personally, I think Savannah Mall has less than five years left, despite still having three anchors. Here are the reasons.

1) Since first opening in 2003, rumors have circulated Bass Pro Shops was eyeing a replacement location along Interstate 95. Supposedly, when Bass Pro opened, it was lured to Savannah Mall with a rent-free initial lease term. All they had to do were pay common area maintenance fees and utilities. In 2003, Southside Savannah was still the retail mecca for the region. Development in Pooler along I-95 would have required significant infrastructure improvement and capital. The former Parisian building in Savannah was move in ready. In the last two decades, several new developments have been built along I-95 between exits 99 and 109. It would now make sense to move to this area as the infrastructure, population, and retail centers are in place to support a new location.

2) Target opened to much fanfare in 2004, as it was the first store in Savannah. Supposedly Target struggled for the better part of 10 years to get a location in Savannah. When Belk closed in 2002, it opened the way for the City s first store. Two years later, a second location was announced in East Savannah, with that location opening in 2007. The Savannah Mall store has never been remodeled, despite a nationwide campaign to modernize all stores by 2020. The East Savannah Target was completely remodeled in early 2019. According to City permitting records, a submission was made to remodel the Savannah Mall location and then voided after inactivity on the permit for six months. A company like Target doesn t unintentionally forget to follow up on permits, leading me to believe they may be eyeing a move as well. Again, the Savannah Mall area is considered an economically depressed area and Pooler is now the retail center. While Target doesn t build many full line stores any more, we ve seen they are clearly profitable during the pandemic. A relocation may be strategically possible for them. Additionally, Southside Savannah is now more easily connected to East Savannah where the East Savannah Target store is located since the beltway around Savannah (Truman Parkway) was completed in 2014. What would have originally been a 30-minute drive between stores is now a 10-minute drive.

3) Dillard s well, I don t know much about their business model, other than they are privately held. The store must be profitable, but no one I know shops there. Dillard s doesn t seem to invest money in updating their stores. This location is no exception. It still has many of the original 1990 JB White fixtures and d cor. Imagine peach walls and green marble. It just looks tired.

4) The interior of the mall has hemorrhaged stores, appearing 25% occupied. The only chain stores left are Bath & Body Works (never remodeled), Cato, and Hibbett Sports. The handful of other storefronts are nail salons, churches, a gym, a t-shirt store, and a few offices. Chick Fil-A even vacated the food court about two years ago. The point is, they can t be paying enough to keep the escalators and AC running much longer.

5) The mall has changed ownership quite a few times in the last 15 years, and none of those owners are reputable mall operators. They re usually pension plan administrators using it as real estate leverage. Ownership has made the required improvements (i.e. a new roof, adding Wi-Fi, and ADA improvements). Cosmetically, it still looks like 1990. They haven t even painted the walls.

So, I think after 30 years, Savannah s once upscale mall is getting close to the death knell. All it will take is the first piece falling into place either Target, Bass Pro Shops, or Dillard s making the jump to new digs.

FJP's Commentary:

Posted May 27, 2009 (user submitted)

This mall has been doing much better.

The Steve & Barry's location survived the original wave of closings in the S&B bankruptcy but of course is now gone. Other closings have occurred since. A local paper reported (Jan 2009) that 25% of the stores are vacant. Burlington Coat Factory, Target, Bass Pro, AC Moore and Dillards are hanging on and doing alright. The smaller stores were filling up as a result.

The public library is building a new branch on an outparcel and when that branch opens, the branch at Oglethorpe Mall will close. That should help bring traffic farther south. There is still the overall question whether Abercorn Street can support two malls relatively close to each other. In the last 5 years most of the residential growth has been to the west of the city rather than the south, and Savannah Mall is not well positioned for that.

Adam Caracci's Commentary:

Posted May 11, 2005 (user submitted)

Savannah Mall opened in June 1990. However it was close to another mall.

The mall was built, for some reason 4 miles, away from Savannah's older and at the time recently renovated/expanded and larger mall, Oglethorpe Mall. Oglethorpe Mall was 1 level, built in 1969, and 1,000,000 square feet. It housed a Belk, JC Penney, Sears, and Maas Brothers (now Macy's). They both sat on Abercorn Expressway.

Savannah Mall was announced in 1988 and would be 850,000 square feet and would be anchored by another Belk, Parisian, J.B. White, and supposably a Jordan Marsh. Jordan Marsh left Oglethorpe Mall and the Maas Brothers filled its space. Jordan Marsh was consildated with Maas Brothers however and it was never built. The vacant pad which was supposed to be Jordan Marsh was announced to be a Montgomery Ward, which opened in 1991.

The mall opened in 1990 and was remarkable. It was two levels for one thing, nothing the Savannah Market had ever experienced. There were 110 in-line tenants like the usual: Gap, Radio Shack, Casual Corner, Zales, Limited, and many more. However those stores were not new to Savannah, the real stores that were new to the market were Abercrombie and Fitch, Ann Taylor, Disney Store, Benetton, Paul Harris, 5-7-9, Maurices, and others.

The mall actually did well until about 1996 when the stores like Ann Taylor and Benetton, which were at the time too sophisticated for the market,left. Besides those stores, maybe 5-10 stores had left. Still too many. By 1998 Montgomery Ward had chose. out of bankruptsy, to close the Savannah store. The 110,000 square foot store remained vacant. Also in 1998 Mercantile Properties was bought out by Dillards. The J.B. White became Dillards almost overnight. By 2001 more stores left like Maurices, 5-7-9 (which actually moved to Oglethorpe Mall), Country Seat, and Paul Harris.

In late 2002 Belk (which lasted almost to long) and Parisian announced there departure. The only anchor, temporarily, was Dillards. The mall had been newly purchased by Jones, Lang, and Lasalle. They had a plan to revive the mall. The 102,000 square foot ex-parisian became a Bass Pro Shop and the Belk remained emtpy unil October 2003. In August 2003 the Bass Pro opened which actually attracted shoppers. By October 2003 Target had purchased the Belk and demolished the 165,000 square foot building. A new 213,000 square foot building was built in 10 months. Target was on the second level and visible from Abercorn Expressway and took up 123,000 square feet. The 1st level store has not been announced yet but is 90,000 square feet. It probably will be a Kohl's or Burlington Coat Factory.

In October 2004 the mall and Savannah aquired its first Target. Then in December 2004 the six year vacancy of Montgomery Ward was ended with the opening of a Steve and Barry's University Sportswear. Savannah Mall has continued to lose in-line tenants, like: Aberombie and Fitch (which is rumored to be opening in a new upscale shopping center), The Disney Store, KB Toys (which was short-lived, it lasted only of the christmas season 2004), Paul Harris, and several others. All of those store I just listed left within the last 18 months.

Savannah Mall really has not died per say but its not what it used to be. Several decent stores still exist in-line like, Gap/Gap Kids, Ritz Camera, Black Market Minerals, Texas Roadhouse, and RadioShack. The mall seams to have found its niche whith junior apparel (despite losing Abercrombie and Fitch during the Christmas season 2004) and entertainment businesses (A Chuck -e- Cheese type kiddie playland opened in Febuary 2003.) There has yet to be a interior renovation. The mall is suppose to be reborn but if it is, its happening slowly.

Joe Carter's Commentary:

Posted September 22, 2005 (user submitted)

I have been a shopper at the mall for quiet some time and have lately seem much work at reviving the mall. Yes it did suffer a severe decline, but much is and has been done to attempt to revive it.

The new Texas Roadhouse attracts a huge crowd, Target has done much to draw more people to the mall along with Bass Pro and in the spring of 2006 a new Burlington Coat Factory will open below Target. A week spot might be the Steve and Barry's. Dilliards has made major renovations and seems to be doing much better on the business front.

A new national craft store, similar to Michaels, is suppose to open on the 2nd floor covering a large area at the Target end of the mall. Pac Sun has opened a store, Charley's is opening in the food court, Marks and Morgans has opened a new store and the list goes on.

I do not believe the death nail has rung for the mall yet and I believe that much is being done and will be done to work on the revival.

Rumors still persist also that Kohl's will open at the mall and one vacant space remains, the floor below Steve and Barry's. I fully believe that this space in time will be filled meaning that the mall will have anchor stores of Dillard's, Bass Pro, Target, Burlington Coat Factory, Steve and Barry's and a new retailer. Most of the vacant spaces will be filled except for the old Abercrombie, which was a major draw and a major loss for the mall, but work continues at revival.

Robert Cornett’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2021

Add Texas Roadhouse to the stores leaving or left. Texas Roadhouse is building a free-standing restaurant on Montgomery Crossroads next to the Red Lobster and will be closing the Savannah Mall location after moving to Montgomery Crossroads around November 2019. Also, AC Moore closed their store in the Savannah Mall earlier this year. I don't know how they can survive.

Ayanami Doster’s Commentary:

I think Burlington has relocated by now.

Trey Johnson’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2020

Burlington Coat Factory is on the way out now also.

User submitted in 2019

Ruby Tuesday finally closed and pulled out of this mall. Keep hearing rumors that Bass Pro wants to build a free-standing store out along I-95 (since much of its business is people from several counties away traveling I-95 to the Highway 204 exit and then traveling several miles into Savannah to get to it). Of course, the Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar & Grill" began construction and never opened leaving many subcontractors unpaid - much like almost every other one planned but never opened by the group that leased his name. Many storefronts closed and most of the mall (other than Target, Bass Pro, Dillard's, and Texas Roadhouse) is dead. Several times I've gone there for indoor walking and would make over a dozen laps of the lower level and never even see another person and the few storefronts on that level that were open weren't going any business. There was an indoor go-kart track for a short while that was doing very well but a diploma mill leasinb space above them complained about the noise (which wasn't that bad) and they were forced to close. (Lawsuits ensue.) The indoor carousel (which had closed for a few years) is spotty. It's so bad that even Chick-fil-A pulled out of the food court there. On the Chick-fil-A website, they are listed as "temporarily closed" but it sure doesn't look temporary.

Adam Caracci’s Commentary:

User submitted Mar 2007

Two years ago I made a sumbission to this site about Savannah Mall. It has changed some what within the last few years. For example there are new anchors, junior anchors and the beloved "chain stores." So, Savannah Mall has been up to some good but there are also some bad signs.

In early 2006 Burlington Coat Factory and A.C. Moore opened stores on the malls south end. However, much of this area is still vacant although new stores are creeping towards this area of the mall. Recently, Rue 21 opened a store in the former Casual Corner. There is unfortunately some tenant losses, such as Lady's Foot Locker and Radio Shack, both stores towards the realatively bustling Dillard's end.

The Steve and Barry's seems to do well, although it did not ever extend itself into the second floor of the former Montgomery Ward. The escalators to the second level still are blocked by shelves. The second floor of the Montgomery Ward has been partially leased (app. 14,000 SF) to Armstrong Atlantic State University for its dental school.

What the mall's management has lacked to do to attract shoppers are simple things which worries me. For instance it's been nearly 17 years since the mall opened in the summer of 1990. The mall still very much looks like it popped out of 1990, yesterday.

As well tenants like 24 Hour Family Fitness are not good signs of a successful mall. There is a variety of stores that are absent from Savannah such as Forever 21 or No Fear which undoubtedly would do well in Savannah. Also there remains a vacant anchor pad that could be utilized by a Dick's Sporting Goods or Macy's Home Store. Additionally there is the vacant anchor pad over the Steve and Barry's. Something such as HH Gregg or even AJ Wright could attract shoppers to this potentially AAA real estate.

Ultimately had Savannah Mall been built in say the late 90s to present day it would have done much better. The area has matured to its full potential. In 1990 everything South of Savannah mall was rural and to the north the customers went to Oglethorpe Mall. Now Wal-Mart is reopening its store across from the mall as a Supermcenter and the theatres across from Savannah Mall couldn't do any better. The southside towards Southwest Chatham County is growing quickly with new develepments like Bradley Pointe, South Bridge, Berwick Plantation and Westbrook.

Savannah Mall could coexist with Oglethorpe Mall if it gets its act together and finds wanted tenants and renovates itself. The mall's oringial design is pretty but it's cold. Today's shoppers seem not to like to be made to go out their way. Savannah Mall needs to be made wanted by shoppers and it could do it.