Abandoned - Century III Mall

[Music] what's up guys my name is jake and welcome to abandoned episode 61 in the suburbs of pittsburgh in the town of west mifflin pennsylvania sits at one time the world's third largest shopping mall it was by all accounts a massive landmark for the area and a testament to how prosperous the 1970s mall boom was in america with over 200 stores contained in its 1.3 million square feet of retail space it was a shopping mecca for millions of eager patrons however since time has ravaged the building with a very public and documented fall to its eventual closure and abandonment so let's look at the history of this incredible shopping mall and its eventual decline into what it is today this is the infamous century 3 mall this episode is sponsored by curiosity stream get additional access to my streaming service nebula when you sign up for curiosity stream using the link in the description below it was 1969 and the real estate division of the united states steel was looking to develop a piece of land which had been previously used for industrial waste that waste was a byproduct of smelting steel called slag ultimately this huge pile of now hardened slag turned into a 70 million ton mountain eventually by 1976 uss realty corporation had partnered with a developer out of ohio named edward j debartolo now if you watched my abandoned series in the past that name may sound familiar to you and that's because he was the same developer who built the randall park mall which at the time had just opened as america's largest indoor shopping complex so obviously de bartolo had some experience with building enormous malls and this 100 million dollar project was going to be no different as america was entering its third century the name for this mall took inspiration of the future ahead with century 3 mall on october 24th 1979 the first phase of the mall opened with anchor tenants kaufman's and jcpenney gimble's sears and montgomery ward followed along in phase two and three the entire mall was open by the end of 1980. century 3 mall fittingly became the third largest shopping center in the world when it opened it attracted shoppers from all over the general vicinity with people even driving out of state to see the vast complex and it really was enormous as you look at the 63-acre property from the air the massive scale of the building becomes apparent across the 6 000 parking spaces almost half of that has a second deck to it doubling the amount of cars for peak capacity the courtyard food court was mixed into an impressive three level labyrinth of concrete the entire mall actually had a grandiose scale to it with a wide open concourse right down the middle the first decade of century three mall was prosperous and just like so many other malls in america had become a staple of life for the millions of locals but just like the trend itself the future ahead looked more and more uncertain by 1996 the debartolo realty group which had owned the mall since its opening was acquired by the simon property group turning them into a massive real estate company with a substantial portfolio of malls by the next year investment was made to keep the property in favorable condition to shoppers as eight million dollars was spent to update the interior however a competition was heating up in the area in 1999 the waterfront opened in homestead just five miles away the waterfront was a brand new outdoor shopping complex ironically built upon the land of an old u.s steel factory this new shopping mall was actually pretty cool since it kept some of the old factory elements for display and it now began luring customers there instead of making the extra drive to century 3. if that wasn't bad enough store tenants were following the people and some began moving around the same time the south hill village mall also nearby was renovated and caused the same effect however in 2006 the property did secure macy's which replaced the outgoing kaufman's as an anchor tenant in the same year the property was assessed at 150 million dollars in value while that is technically more than it cost to build adjusted for inflation that initial construction cost would have been around 270 million dollars in 2006 but even with the obvious depreciation photos from inside the mall at this time still showed a popular destination perhaps on its way out in styling but still full of life color and most importantly people this didn't stop simon property group from listing the complex for sale as the number of tenants vacating them all became too alarming for them over the next few years the decline continued up to the 2008 and 2009 recession where its drop in chompers became even more of a reality with no takers of the listing simon property group continued to operate the mall now navigating it through the economic crisis as shopping decreased as a whole through 2009 tenants started leaving by the beginning of that year the once 200 stores at its peak was now down to 120 and by the end of that year century 3 had just 90 retail locations left some of which like stephen berry's had closed entirely just from bankruptcy in june of 2009 the assessed value of century 3 had decreased staggeringly to just 58 million dollars drastic cost cutting measures were then taken replacing key features like the water fountains and replacing them with planters another example of the sheer neglect given to the property was the second deck car entrance to century 3 mall road which had been blocked off since 2007 since the unmaintained road had foliage breaking through the tar and surrounding the light posts and entrance height markers not a great look the amount of shoppers visiting had significantly decreased now leaving large areas of the concourse empty letting the 1980s decor and fittings show how increasingly outdated it was century 3 was listed by u.s news as one of the most endangered malls in america the situation only continued to get worse at the mall and its owners simon property group had defaulted on their almost 79 million dollar loan for the property it was 2011 and as they failed to pay that money back the land in all of its assets went into the possession of their lenders who now took control of ownership they brought in an independent management company who would operate the property and hopefully turn its poor performance around unfortunately for them the value of century 3 continued to plummet now to just 27 million dollars by 2012. while active tenants still populated the majority of the space around the mall the amount of visitors did not as time passed century 3 became known as a dying mall a place to avoid rather than seek out and we all know how detrimental a perception issue can be the property was ultimately sold in 2013 to a las vegas investment firm for just 10.5 million dollars the firm moonbeam capital investments had advertised themselves as a company experienced in turning around problematic buildings they certainly saw century 3 as an investment opportunity with city leaders enthusiastic saying that the mall still has a lot of value that can be the centerpiece for the community moonbeam then focused on the cosmetic enhancements to the property mainly with the addition of a brand new two-story carousel which honestly didn't seem to attract many people in early 2016 the mall took a huge blow when macy's announced they would be closing their store at the mall sears had already closed two years prior and the 40 occupancy the mall had been sustaining had shockingly dropped to just 10 percent by the following year as many tenants now saw the writing on the wall this thrusted the llc the company that moonbeam had set up for century 3 into chapter 11 bankruptcy by now that carousel had been decommissioned and moved out of the mall entirely the second deck of the car parking had also been closed off and the last food offering in the mall a mexican restaurant had also closed its doors really the only enticing stores within the mall were anchors jcpenney and dick's sporting goods both of which had external entrances only a handful of stores very few with brand names were left inside some of this empty space was put to use however when moonbeam rented out a section of the mall for the filming of the netflix original mine hunter they essentially divided up a section of the unused concourse and closed off shopper access with signs dotted around the walkways essentially a good quarter of century 3 mall was closed off so a fake mall could be built for filming the offset of a movie crew renting out them all however just wasn't enough to pay off their growing losses from the dying property this is around when myself and dan bell visited the mall by now even the center water fountain which had surprisingly been operating up until now was turned off surrounded by caution tape we visited on a saturday evening and i'm not kidding there were maybe five other people in the million square foot building with us it was an unbelievable sense of loneliness and the entire building was a tired depressing shell of what it used to be i had a strong sense that century 3 mall would not have much time left apparently my premonition was right as in february of the following year local officials deemed the structure as unsafe and uninhabitable after serious fire code violations were found almost immediately after the remaining interior stores had then received 30-day eviction notices as it became apparent that moonbeam would not correct the mall's issues and instead close permanently finally after being open for almost 40 years century 3 mall was closed eventually dick's sporting goods was also evicted in march leaving just jcpenney however they too ultimately left in october of 2020 leaving the mall abandoned even before the closure some of the most prominent signs of decay have been apparent on the exterior for years the former montgomery ward space turned macy's furniture gallery closed in 2009 and ultimately had boards going up over its doors surrounding that desolate anchor space was the two-level parking which i mentioned earlier was completely closed off including the bottom deck this meant there was an enormous area of parking that was unlit throughout the day creating this parking catacomb which is off limits and visibly decaying it was sort of creepy to peer into it inside century 3 mall was frozen in its final 2019 state which i guess that also meant that it was frozen from the 1980s at night the majority of the lights remained off only illuminated by a few pot lights and map kiosks it really is in an unbelievable surreal state and that brings us to now with little decay inside apart from the worsening mold and dead plants but what is going to happen to this enormous structure well back in june of 2019 moonbeam stated in a public city document that they intended to demolish the mall in 2020 and redevelop it into a quote office residential hotel entertainment and restaurant uses however 2020 came and went along with a pandemic of course but nothing ever happened instead the mall sat abandoned and relatively untouched this is most likely because in the same document they stated that they would also seek out outside lenders to help fund the demolition and planning which is probably very expensive for the site it doesn't help that the mall is also in a legal dispute with sears over their former space on the property and ultimately ended with them owing 4 million dollars to sears once again forcing them into bankruptcy not great when you're trying to redevelop a 60-acre mall so now everything's sort of just in limbo capital being invested into development is certainly not where it was back in 2019 and because of that as well as moonbeam's legal fees updates on the mall have been very slow this now only means that the longer century 3 mall sits abandoned the more it's going to decay securing a structure of that size on a consistent basis is already very hard and already people have been vandalizing places like the second floor car deck it's only a matter of time before people start finding their way inside the mall and nature starts to take its toll on the unmaintained building really with a roof that large it's only a matter of time before water starts seeping through in the end i think century 3 mall was a product of neglect it suffered from an almost surefire way to kill a maul and that's being massive as time goes on we always see a trend here with these large malls built in the 80s as it becomes too much of a hassle for these companies to keep up and it makes sense too like if you need to replace something like a carpet then you have to double the amount you would need compared to a regular mall it's a costly endeavor but the original owners the de bartillo company proved they were up for the task it was only until simon properties came in and put little investment into century three and let competition become a big issue this is all while the main corporation was bringing in almost four billion dollars in 2010. they really couldn't invest any of that into century three i think it's a pretty blatant example of how simon knew their situation was bad and chose not to try and fix it and allowed it to get worse and damage the community west mifflin mayor christopher kelly said quote they are spending tons of money in properties in more affluent areas they were willing to let this one go by the wayside moon bean capital is a much smaller company and while they did try at least to inject some life into them all their efforts were fruitless as at some point they just realized there was no saving this property and kept it open merely just for the anchors all while they racked up a seven hundred thousand dollar city tax bill west mifflin's mayor chris kelly told me he just sent a scathing email to moonbeam's chief operating officer shaw pryor kelly didn't hold back on his criticism of moonbeam they are the absolute worst tenant that you can imagine and i just hope they leave get your hat your coat and leave but i think it is important to keep in mind that there were other factors out of these companies control like the fact that the local income had drastically declined over the years and how this colossal mall was built far away from any major highway the world has changed since it opened and no longer is a big mall good enough for lots of people to want to visit it needs to be convenient and that's just not the case here century 3 is no longer a beacon of light for shopping in america's 3rd century rather a blatant and grim example of its true reality if you enjoyed this video then there's a good chance you enjoy other online creators who make similar educational videos like mine so if you're looking for even more great content then nebula is the perfect place to look nebula is a brand new streaming service that i have helped create alongside a bunch of other notable youtube creators among the ad-free content there are also nebula originals which are higher quality content from those creators which you won't find anywhere else i myself even have exclusive content on nebula as well as videos ad free and uploaded a day early partnered with nebula is curiosity stream interesting story a little while ago when i was doing research for my own documentary i remember watching a trailer for a beautifully shot film called king of the cruise to my elation i found it on curiosity stream that's just one of the thousands of fantastic documentaries and non-fiction titles most of which are right up my alley subscriptions start as low as 2.99 a month with access to both streaming platforms the amount of premium content for that price is pretty great if you're interested click the link in the description below remember to also join my discord server where i have a channel dedicated just for deadmaul related conversation anyway guys my name is jake and thank you very much for watching [Music] ah [Music]

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 952,003

Keywords: Pittsburg, PA, abandoned, mall, dead mall, dan bell, Jake williams, Century 3 Mall, Centry 3 mall, dead large mall, rolling acres, Randell park mall, Ohio, creepy mall, abandoned shopping, sears, macys, simon

Id: _RuAVg-VgHo

Length: 17min 35sec (1055 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/skyrkt]

I really enjoy the content from Bright Sun Films. I love how he packs so much history and interesting information into the videos!

[u/StrangeAgent13]

With this mall gone I don't know how to find Century III Chevrolet

[u/MentalOmega]

Century III was a never-ending wonderland of magic when I was a kid. It was top-line at the time, but the years were not kind to it.

[u/Benzona]

Jake is the absolute best on abandoned. If you do not already subscribe to him you should.

[u/thegachahunter_05]

I literally was thinking about a BSF video on this mall a few days back

[u/PrincessFuckFace2You]

Century 3 was a great mall when I was a kid! It was by my Grandma's house she lived on the hill overlooking on Audrey Dr. and I had to go to this mall in the late 90s to go to Hot Topic because South Hills Village didn't have one yet for years.

It's kind of funny because I remember all the trucks building up the slag dump at night but I don't remember watching the mall be built even though I'm sure that I did witness it. I'm in my mid 30s now.

[u/parsnipchip]

Really enjoyed this video, thanks for posting.

[u/SaablifeNC]

Great video always makes me sad to see that awesome building abandoned now. I try not to watch new content in it as I don't want to see it vandalized. I just wish Jake had not used a few picture that were not of C3, but it happens. I will have my C3 statue in my village again this year.