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Durango Mall
(startrek.website)
Durango Mall has a lot of stores shuttered. There's a TJ Maxx, Ross, Shoe Dept., Claire's, Maurices, Zumiez and a nail salon left. In the last few years many stores have closed, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Pier 1, JCPenney, and Sears. Oddly Old Navy just opened in the old Pier 1 space. All the rides and candy machines were removed for COVID and never returned. Most of the benches are gone. No food court. There's a rumor Hobby Lobby may take over the JCPenney store, and several people have suggested they should being back the bowling alley like they had when they first opened. I did have fun walking through the Spirit Halloween haunting the remains of this mall. Photo taken 1PM on a Tues.
I wish there was more viability to converting old malls into mixed use.
I enjoy living above shops and I'm sure many others do, too. Whatever added foot traffic couldn't hurt and it would redeem some of the lost land-use and intrastructure.
I know this is done sometimes, I just wish it was more common.
If the mall could support some form of food court and movie place, it would be so nice to go down after a day of work and catch a movie, grab some food, and/or people watch.
I heard one plan was to knock it down and build apartments. Don't know if that is still on the table or not. The current structure is single story, so I guess starting over would be more likely if they went with mixed use.
I'd love to see them get converted into paintball arenas or something. Add some walls and obstacles in the large hallways and you could have a pretty neat playing field.