De-malling

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De-malling is the process in which a developer eliminates the most common characteristics of a shopping mall, which usually has a large enclosed space with smaller stores, typically surrounded by department stores as anchor tenants. Often this is done by closing off the interior spaces of a shopping mall and turning the facility into an open air center, in which the remaining stores are all accessed from the outside. Alternatively, defunct anchor spaces are repurposed for such uses as private or governmental offices or medical purposes, or converted into residential uses.^[1]

Though the idea dates back to the early part of the 21st century, in North America, the retail apocalypse has heavily impacted second-tier malls and some have closed, many of which have become "dead malls". While the decline in large department stores has been the mist visible evidence of the phenomenon -- 9,000 stores closed in 2019 alone -- the causes have ranged from the rise of online shopping, the increase in big box superstores, the shift to a service economy and to increasing variations in socioeconomic status.^[2] In response, property owners have converted the inward-facing shopping mall that has a shared interior walkway connection its stores, by adding entertainment and experiential features, added big-box stores as anchors, or converted to other specialized shopping center formats such as power centers, lifestyle centers and factory outlet centers.^[3]

History

In 1995, the Mall at Fashion Plaza in North Brunswick, New Jersey, turned from an enclosed mall into a larger power center format that added 60,000 square feet (5,600 m²) of space.^[4]

A 1999 article in the Los Angeles Times cited weaker malls being demalled in the face of intense competition from stronger centers, citing the example of the Sherman Oaks Galleria declining in competition with stronger anchors at Sherman Oaks Fashion Square, with the Sherman Oaks Galleria being shifted to include 600,000 square feet (56,000 m²) of office space and a far smaller share of traditional retail.. Plaza Pasadena, a former shopping mall was demolished and replaced with Paseo Colorado, which included shopping, restaurants and 400 apartment units.^[5]

The phenomenon spread to Paramus, New Jersey, which has been one of the largest retail communities in the United States, generating more than $6 billion in annual retail sales, more than any other ZIP Code in the United States.^[6] With four major regional shopping malls, the Fashion Center on Route 17 had effectively become a dead mall as retailers left and Lord & Taylor was left as its only anchor store. By 2009, the mall become the first in North Jersey to use de-malling as a strategy, closing off the interior and focusing on larger retailers accessible only from the exterior.^[7]

A 2013 analysis in Revista Lusófona de Arquitectura e Educação documented cases of dead and dying malls in Italy being repurposed for such uses as health care.^[8] A 2019 study in the journal Cities found the phenomenon of declining malls being impacted by decline found de-malling occurring in a study of 55 shopping malls in Lisbon, mirroring patterns seen in North American.^[9]

The Westshore Mall in Holland, Michigan, originally constructed in 1988 as the area's only enclosed mall, was more than half empty by 2014 and underwent a de-malling that started in 2015 and turned the complex into an outdoor shopping mall renamed as The Shops at Westshore with a quarter of the old mall being demolished.^[10]

The International Council of Shopping Centers, the industry's largest organization in North America, cited the example of the Monmouth Mall, which had declined in the decades after its construction in the 1960s as a result of changing shopping preferences. Owner Kushner Companies invested $500 million in a redevelopment project that turned the mall into an open-air center, eliminated 200,000 square feet (19,000 m²) of space, eliminated two former anchors and added 1,000 residential units and 80,000 square feet (7,400 m²) of medical uses.^[11]

References

[1]
Chavan, Abhijeet. "The Many Meanings Of 'De-malling'", Planetizen, October 17, 2001. Accessed February 13, 2026. "The term 'de-mall' means different things to different people. "One version is the shopping center equivalent of a facelift, a complete reconfiguring of an enclosed mall to turn the stores out to face the street, usually for big-box tenants. The other type of de-malling entails 're-tenanting' an enclosed retail facility with offices and other mixed uses, essentially leaving a mall's retail past behind."
[2]
Goolsbee, Austan. "Never Mind the Internet. Here’s What’s Killing Malls.", The New York Times, February 13, 2020. Accessed February 13, 2026. "Despite a strong consumer economy, physical retailers closed more than 9,000 stores in 2019 — more than the total in 2018, which surpassed the record of 2017. Already this year, retailers have announced more than 1,200 more intended closings, including 125 Macy’s stores. Some people call what has happened to the shopping landscape “the retail apocalypse.”... In the United States and elsewhere, we have changed where we shop — away from smaller stores like those in malls and toward stand-alone “Big Box” stores."
[3]
U.S. Shopping-Center Classification and Characteristics, International Council of Shopping Centers. Accessed February 13, 2026.
[4]
Garbarine, Rachelle. "Commercial Property/The Wayne (N.J.) Towne Center; A Mall Rebuilds Itself With a Hybrid Image", The New York Times, June 25, 1995. Accessed February 13, 2026. "owners across the region are also turning their malls into power centers through a process called "demalling" -- replacing all of a mall's smaller stores by large tenants, eliminating its common area and turning it inside out so it has an orientation to the street. An example is the Mall at Fashion Plaza along Route 1 South in North Brunswick, N.J. It is being converted by its owner, Kimco Realty Corporation of New Hyde Park, L.I., from a 340,000-square-foot enclosed mall into a 400,000-square-foot power center."
[5]
Newman, Morris. "In Rise and Fall of Malls, Weaker Ones Get ‘Demalled’", Los Angeles Times, December 14, 1999. Accessed February 13, 2026. "Regional malls, those retail shrines so beloved by Southern Californians since the automobile-crazy region boomed after World War II, are losing their monopoly on consumer desire.... And while malls will continue to dominate retailing and the most successful ones show no signs of flagging, the trend of converting struggling centers to broader uses has inspired a new buzzword: demalling."
[6]
Pries, Allison. "Inside the N.J. town where retail spending beats Hollywood and tourism rivals Disney", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, March 10, 2019. Accessed February 13, 2026. "The former farming community already sees more retail sales than any other ZIP Code in the country.... More than $6 billion in retail sales happen in Paramus each year."
[7]
Verdon, Joan. "Mallville USA: Rating the four malls of Paramus. Will they survive?", The Record (Bergen County), November 16, 2017. Accessed September 19, 2019. "The Fashion Center, once the pinnacle of luxury shopping in North Jersey, a mall that was dubbed the Fifth Avenue of Bergen County, also was written off as dead before coming back to life. It was the first mall in North Jersey to save the mall by de-malling it. It turned itself inside out, closing off the interior of the mall and converting the center into a collection of big box-style stores with separate entrances."
[8]
Cavoto, Gabriele; Limonta, Giorgio. "The demalling process in Italy", Revista Lusófona de Arquitectura e Educação, 2013, via Universidade Lusofona. Accessed February 13, 2026. "The demise of retail buildings is a rather recent phenomenon, very common in the United States. Hundreds of shopping malls and big box stores are falling into decay and their failure influences, to some degrees, the contemporary and future evolution of retail buildings. Europe and Italy are not immune to the overgrowth dynamics of the retail system that have been observed in the United States, and the first cases of decline and crisis have already appeared in several Italian areas.... Features and issues arising from the conversion of retail buildings have been analyzed focusing on the Italian context, through two case studies: the abandoned shopping mall Euromercato in Casoria (Naples) and the closed grocery store Esselunga in Pioltello (Milan), transformed in an Health Centre."
[9]
Guimarães, Pedro Porfírio Coutinho. "Shopping centres in decline: analysis of demalling in Lisbon", Cities, April 2019. Accessed February 13, 2026. "However, in a process that has been gaining relevance, several shopping centres have declined. A practice commonly referred to as demalling emerged, through which shopping centres began to be redeveloped to acquire new functions.... Based on a case study methodology, we developed fieldwork in Lisbon municipality and analysed 55 shopping centres. Our main results stress the low economic viability of the majority of these retail precincts and uncovered that several redevelopment measures are already in place, framing the demalling process of that city."
[10]
McNichol, Peg. "Westshore Mall owners to pitch 'demalling' plan", Holland Sentinel, October 30, 2014. Accessed February 13, 2026. "Owner Westshore Mall Investors LLC has plans that indicate about 25 percent of the mall — 101,315-square-feet — would be demolished, according to engineering and architectural drawings received by the township on Oct. 20. After renovations create a more-open, 367,150-square-foot property, the mall would be renamed The Shops at Westshore. This follows a national trend of distressed malls reducing their monolithic presence in favor of a walkable, community-oriented approach to shopping, said Jennifer Owens, president of Lakeshore Advantage, which specializes in economic development.... Westshore Mall, the Holland area's only enclosed mall, is more than 50 percent vacant.... Owens said, citing Detroit and Chicago as places where the trend, called "demalling," has been prominent for at least a half-dozen years."
[11]
"How To 'De-Mall' a Mall", International Council of Shopping Centers, April 7, 2025. Accessed February 13, 2026. "A decade ago, real estate developer Kushner Cos. began envisioning how it might redevelop the 1.6-million square foot Monmouth Mall, a 1960s-era shopping center in Eatontown, New Jersey, that it had owned since 2002. Like many of its enclosed brethren across the U.S., the property was losing relevance amid changing shopper tastes despite being surrounded by affluent enclaves like Rumson, Colts Neck and Shrewsbury. Today, Kushner Cos. is directing a $500 million redevelopment to transform the property into Monmouth Square, a 'de-malled' open-air center."

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