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    Opinion: Traditional Malls are in Decline. Is It Time To Worry About Tuttle Yet?

    Eastland Mall has finally closed, and Westland Mall is slated for demolition. That means that the oldest Columbus mall in operation is now The Mall at Tuttle Crossing (aka, “Tuttle Mall”), which will turn 26 years old this summer, and it might be time to start having some serious conversations about its future as a retail destination.

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    To be clear right up front, this is not an attack piece. I don’t wish any ill will on the mall, the stores, the employees, the shoppers, or anyone else. But I can’t help but feel like 26 years is a very long time for any shopping center to go without a major renovation, and the world of retail in 2023 is a very different place than it was back in 1997.

    But before we talk about the challenges and the future, let’s first take a trip down memory lane.

    In The Begining

    On Saturday, July 12, 1997, I hopped in the car with several high school friends, and we went to check out Tuttle Mall.

    After a quick 20 minute drive from Marysville, our group of 17-year-olds spilled out into the crowded parking lot, walked into the shiny new mall, and spent maybe an hour cracking jokes and not really buying anything. We left and went home and didn’t really think much else about the state of the retail industry in Central Ohio.

    Me (left) with my buddy Jason (right), on my front porch in Marysville, circa 1997. I can’t exactly recall who in our group of friends ventured to Tuttle on opening weekend, but Jason and I are still friends to this day, and he’s holding a Best Buy flyer in this photo, so we obviously cared a lot about retail back then.

    If I had to make a wild guess, I’ve probably been back to Tuttle approximately 26 times in the 26 years since (and two of those times were within the past month for research). When Tuttle opened in 1997 it was the new hotness for a very short amount of time before the first phase of Easton Town Center opened in 1999 and Polaris Fashion Place opened in 2001. That one-two punch slotted Tuttle into a very quick third place.

    And that was fine, because Columbus was growing rapidly (and online shopping wasn’t really a big deal yet).

    The Great Recession, The Retailpocolypse & COVID

    Throughout the ’80s and ’90s and ’00s, America continued to build retail at a very fast pace. Big chain stores spread to every shopping center and strip mall — with investor capital, a strong retail economy, and a sizable enough middle class driving growth in most every major metro area.

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    By 2018, the U.S. had more retail square footage per person than anywhere else in the world. We outpaced developed nations like Germany, South Korea and Italy by 10 to 1. That means 10 times more Bed Bath & Beyond locations for every man, woman and child, whether we really needed that many or not.

    But the great recession arrived in late 2007, and the tides began to turn. Middle class Americans were hit hard right in the wallet. Home foreclosures spiked, consumer spending fell, and overextended chain stores began to shutter.

    Coupled with a rise in online shopping and changing consumer preferences, corporate stores were quick to cut costs by closing their underperforming stores, while some even filed for bankruptcy protection in the hopes to financially restructure… and not all of them made it.

    The news of store closures came sporadically, and without a lot of immediate details, which likely left a lot of consumers uncertain of how bad it the situation actually was. There is a list maintained on Wikipedia of “Retailers Affected by the Retailpocolyse” which includes over 130 major brands including Abercrombie & Fitch, RadioShack, J. Crew, Ann Taylor, Sears, Victoria’s Secret and many more. Stores like American Apparel, Golfsmith, Wet Seal, H.H.Gregg, Justice and Coldwater Creek shut down brick-and-mortar operations entirely.

    In a mid-sized market like Columbus, any large retailer with multiple locations at Tuttle, Easton and Polaris that decided to close a store often chose to do so at the oldest and least busy mall of those three. Which meant that Tuttle was generally hit harder than the others by these closures.

    And, of course, after a decade of post-recession store closures all across America, retail was hit hard once again in March 2020 with the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, the closure of nonessential retail, and a slow return to in-person shopping.

    An old (pre 2019) store directory map found online shows what’s been lost in recent years at Tuttle when compared to the current mall directory:

    Not exactly sure of the timestamp for this old mall directory at Tuttle, but it was before the Sears closed in early 2019.

    When compared to today’s mall directory, the stores that have closed from that previous listing include The Men’s Warehouse, Brookstone, Express, New York & Co., Hallmark, Victoria’s Secret, Justice, GNC, Red Robin, Panera, Pottery Barn, Yankee Candle Co., White House Black Market, GAP, The Limited, Abercrombie & Fitch, Charlotte Russe, Lane Bryant, Cacique and Sears.

    Of course, some degree of retail churn is to be expected. Stores come and go, and looking at an old mall directory from Easton or Polaris would likely reveal plenty of brands that shuttered or went out of business along the way.

    The more concerning aspect at Tuttle is not that those stores have left, but what has replaced them, if anything at all.

    The main north entrance at Tuttle, the Red Robin and Panera on each side of this entrance have both closed.

    The Current State of Tuttle Mall in 2023

    As I mentioned earlier, I’ve visited Tuttle Mall twice recently. Once in the middle of the week (a Wednesday at noon) and once during peak hours according to Google (Saturday at 3 p.m.). As expected, it was pretty dead during the week but semi-active on the weekend.

    By my count, about 30% of the non-anchor stores are currently vacant. That doesn’t take square footage into consideration, just the ratio of occupied to unoccupied spaces.

    In the occupied spaces you can still find a decent mix of standard mall fare: Forever 21, H&M, American Eagle, Hollister, Bath & Body Works, Vans, Hot Topic, Finish Line and others. If you’re looking for this kind of shopping experience, you will find it at Tuttle. Surprisingly, several supposedly open businesses remained shuttered on Saturday at 3 p.m., including Sunglass Hut and The Window Guy.

    A sizable number of the currently occupied retail spaces contain a curious mix of niche independent businesses, personal services, stores with no exterior signage, and a a bewildering spot called “The Amazing Space” that included a dozen claw games and kid rides you’d normally expect to find in a WalMart vestibule. It’s a weird use of space, to put it lightly.

    The Amazing Space is pretty amazing, but not for the right reasons.
    The current Tuttle mall directory lists all five AVRS stores in the building.

    Also noteworthy in the Tuttle lineup is a local home furnishings business called AVRS Furniture, which has five stores spread out across both floors of the mall, some of which appear to be quite large. This is a brand I’m unfamiliar with, but it did feel a bit strange to see them occupy so many detached locations throughout the building. If this single business were to relocate or close their Tuttle stores, there would be a huge jump in vacancy rates for the building, similar to the impact of an anchor store leaving.

    Speaking of which, of the four mall anchors, three are currently occupied (JCPenney, Macy’s and Scene 75) while the former Sears remains closed. It’s worth noting that a Spirit Halloween operated out of the Sears space last fall, which is often seen as a signal of a commercial property past its prime.

    The food court at Tuttle is also pretty standard as far as mall dining experiences go. Chick-Fil-A, Charleys Philly Steaks and Auntie Anne’s. Several food options have closed though, including Subway, Red Robin, Panera, Starbucks and Duck Donuts.

    Where This Could be Headed & Why We Should Care

    The story of shopping centers in decline is certainly not a new one. The website DeadMalls.com is devoted to cataloging the retail failings of this format all over the U.S.

    And we’ve seen this same trajectory play out locally several times over at this point. Eastland Mall spent decades declining, closing up in December after 54 years in business. Westland Mall was open for 48 years before the final anchor closed in 2017. Northland Mall had a shorter lifespan at 38 years, and has long been demolished and redeveloped. The City Center Mall had an even shorter lifespan at 20 years, but only because of the intervention of local leadership who wanted to see the site quickly redeveloped.

    In many cases all over the U.S., mall ownership changes hands through property sales or business mergers, and mall management can sometimes slip once the original developer is no longer involved in day-to-day operations. If mall management is not keeping up with safety, cleanliness, renovations, trends, store replacements, and other aspects of day-to-day operations, then the customer base can begin to suffer as a result.

    A view of Tuttle Mall in 2023 on a Wednesday at noon.

    The ownership of Tuttle Mall has changed twice, once in 2004 and again in 2007 when it was acquired by Simon Property Group, which also purchased The City Center Mall at the same time. The City of Columbus was able to wrest control of City Center from Simon through eviction lawsuits, but Simon retained ownership and management of Tuttle.

    In November of 2020, The Columbus Dispatch reported that Simon Property Group was letting The Mall at Tuttle Crossing fall into foreclosure, owing $114 million in mortgage debt on the property. In February of 2021, WolfStreet.com reported that Simon had turned over Tuttle Mall ownership to its lenders through a process known as “jingle mail” and removed it from its property listing page. During this process, Tuttle was placed into receivership and has been managed by The Woodmont Company ever since.

    The Woodmont Company is based in Texas, but is no stranger to Central Ohio. They’ve managed operations at the recently-shuttered Eastland Mall for at least the past decade (the details are pretty vague on Eastland’s timeline of operations and ownership, and an email to a representative with Woodmont seeking more details has gone unanswered).

    The more I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of mall operations — not just in Columbus, but in America as a whole — the more concerned I’ve gotten. Simply put, a series of corporate consolidations, bankruptcy maneuvers, and other high-level financial plays seem to have left the fate of malls like Tuttle in a very precarious state.

    After spending a week researching this topic, I don’t really have any better understanding of whether or not Tuttle will last another 10 days or 10 years under its current trajectory. But what I do know is that it’s highly likely that we as the taxpayers will be left holding the final bill for demolition. Once every dollar to be made has been sucked dry out of these kinds of properties, the last thing the corporate owners want to do is pay for a costly teardown. The Westland Mall demolition cost is estimated at $13 million, and Tuttle is around 30% larger than Westland.

    As a Columbus resident, taxpayer or shopper, it may not feel like there’s a whole lot that can be done right now about this situation. But awareness is always a good starting point. And perhaps there’s a case to be made to city leaders to advocate on behalf of local stakeholders of this property. If the mall is to change ownership once again, a contingency plan could be put into place so that we’re not left footing the demolition bill whenever the time may come.

    Until then, enjoy what’s left of your shopping experience before it’s gone.

    All photos by Walker Evans.

    This store at Tuttle appears to have some merchandise and posted hours, but no name or signage, and was shuttered on a Wednesday at noon.
    The former Sears anchor at Tuttle remains empty after four years.
    A closed store has mannequins in the windows to give passersby something to look at other than darkness.
    Several empty storefronts clustered around the shuttered Sears anchor.
    Another empty storefront with mannequins and a hiring sign.
    An empty hallway entrance to the mall, lined with empty stores and empty restaurant spaces.
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    Walker Evans
    Walker Evanshttps://columbusunderground.com
    Walker Evans is the co-founder of Columbus Underground, along with his wife and business partner Anne Evans. Walker has turned local media into a full time career over the past decade and serves on multiple boards and committees throughout the community.
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