Voorhees Town Center (Echelon Mall)-Dead Mall With an Abandoned Macy's(I got in)-Expedition Log # 13

[Music] [Music] hey what's up guys my name is Sal and this is another expedition log the echelon mole from Voorhees Township New Jersey used to be a staple among in the community everyone that I've spoken to about this mall from family members to locals when I was researching and filming the place they all spoke this with such reverence but there was also a tinge of regret in their voice that the mall wasn't what it used to be today it's the Voorhees town center and while it's half of what it used to be I still think it's a fantastic mall so come take a walk with me and let's explore the Voorhees town center but first the Commodore vic-20 sold at Macy's when you made your first power pill you were being prepared for something far greater because those game machines were food versions of computers and what you were being prepared for was a real version of a computer the Commodore vic-20 games like you've never seen before but more important true computing the Commodore vic-20 a real computer for the price of a toy the Commodore vic-20 is available at Macy's in 1939 Rogers and Jeanette Smith bought 200 point one five five four acres of land in Voorhees Township New Jersey for a flattened thousand bucks they used the land to build a small airport with three dirt runways which Rodgers illuminated with flares the airport was a small operation used for crop dusters and small charter planes rogers also worked on planes and sometimes he would use jeans aluminum dishes and pans for breaks on his plane in 1950 while rogers was taxiing two men to ohio biplane the aircraft went down killing all three men Jean was confident however that Rogers was murdered when one of the men in the backseat turned crazy the bodies were recovered near the wreck but no proof was found to support homicide shortly thereafter Jean leased out the land to a friend but in 1962 she sold the land from $1,000 an acre to one of the greatest planned community developers pioneer of the great American mall Jim rouse [Music] [Music] the rouse company finished construction on the Echelon wall in 1970 the mall was named after the airport built by Rogers and Jeanette Smith at the malls dedication the original anchors were Strawbridge and clothier JC Penney's and lit brothers in 1976 construction on phase 2 was finished which saw the completion of a new wing for the JC Penney's in 1977 lit brothers shuddered and was replaced by Gimbels department store Gimbels was closed nine years later in 1986 and replaced by Stearns four years after this in 1990 Stearns closed and was replaced by Baz coves [Music] in 1992 one of the coolest storefronts came into this mall it was called axillary as a part of this channel I'm going to introduce something called side-quests accompanying the expedition log will now be side quests which are accompanying pieces of raw footage promotional footage or even footage that I shot of places surrounding them all or place that I visit that can lend more insight into its history or just the overall aesthetic language of the the place that I visit so you'll see a pop up and you can click this to see the promotional footage that was played inside the exhilarate the time that it was standing now again it was built in 1992 but it only lasted a few years and it closed in 1996 this building it also housed a small general cinema it was a movie theater from what locals have told me it was pretty disgusting he was small it was a crevasse but he was cheap and for the most part they did enjoy going this building housing the axillary and the general cinema it was demolished to make room for more parking in the same year in 1996 the straw bridges was acquired by the may company which was later rebranded to Macy's a couple years after this 1998 Sears was built alongside the JC Penney's but it only lasted a couple years even contractors that worked on this place they've been quoted saying that the paint was still wet when they closed down and they were all lamenting about how it was such a brand-new building that later went abandoned [Music] so right now we're looking at the old straw bridges which later became Macy's and to our right that was the JC Penney's wing [Music] in 2002 negotiations began between the rouse company and pre 't for a gigantic sale priya decided to sell-off 7244 apartments across 15 wholly-owned and for half owned complexes spanning seven states the sale yielded Priya a net gain of 420 million dollars they then went back to rouse and cut a deal which included two hundred and twenty five million dollars in cash purchases 285 million in carry to mortgage debt thirty-eight million in Priya operating partnership costs and seven million dollars in transaction fees the total deal was for five hundred and fifty five million dollars what did Priya get for this they got six moles the Exton wall in Exton pennsylvania the gallery at market East and Philly the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill New Jersey the Moorestown mall in Morristown New Jersey Plymouth Meeting law in Pennsylvania and the Echelon mall in Voorhees Township New Jersey hey Daphne so the entire deal that Priya cut they paid out five hundred and eighty two million nine hundred and eight thousand one hundred and ninety three dollars for six moles of that money sixteen million five hundred and one thousand three hundred and forty-two dollars were dedicated to purchasing the Echelon mall when they did purchase the Echelon mall it had a forty one point two percent occupancy and the total sales were have two hundred twenty-five dollars per square foot so was not doing well shortly after the purchase in 2003 the JC Penney's shuttered [Music] on July 14th of 2004 Priya announced plans to construct a Walmart at Esalen then in early 2005 the occupancy fell below 25% and the Voorhees Township Committee challenged pre it on the Walmart as the community disapproved so the project was canceled on September 14th of 2005 pre it published a plan in their quarterly earnings report to rebrand and redevelop a chillon mall to a new town center groundbreaking was begun on January 30th 2007 starting with the demolition of the abandoned Sears half of the existing wall including the abandoned JC Penney's and Sears with their corresponding concourses were to be demolished to make way for an outdoor shopping and dining Boulevard with 425 apartments in December 2007 the wall demolition and renovations were complete then in early 2008 the construction on the Boulevard for the restaurants in the grocery store and the 425 apartments that was completed it cost spree it 150 million dollars to demolish four hundred and seventy seven thousand three hundred and eight square feet of mall and to build the Boulevard and all of its components and to renovate a small portion of the mall thus was born the for his town center now before the renovations in rebranding the mall proper with its anchors had 1 million one hundred and twenty seven thousand three hundred and eight square feet of gross leasable area afterwards 650,000 square feet the mall was neutered [Music] it's always depressing to see that much space chopped off from a mall it was cut in half so as an attempt to try and cheer everyone up let's take a look inside the boss scoffs just for a brief second as some amazing neon [Music] [Music] [Music] in 2015 rumors began circulating that the Macy's company would be closing stores across the country this actually spooked a lot of mall owners and furthermore it prompted investors to act quickly on some of these places mason asset management and namtar realtor group made an offer to priyad to buy the Voorhees town center for thirteen point four million dollars pre 'it who were panicked by the rumors about Macy's accepted the deal after the sale in 2016 Macy's actually announced that they would not be closing the Voorhees location later that year in August of 2016 Macy's did announce that they would be closing 100 stores across the country of which the Voorhees town center was included the move by Macy's saved the company an estimated 550 million dollars but this was at the behest of almost 7,000 jobs being cut at this point the Voorhees town center is not doing so well there are a ton of vacant storefronts and it's only got one anchor as far as Macy's is concerned I'm sure that the executives had a reason behind what they did but I do think that it was a bit of a scumbag move to cut nearly 7,000 jobs sure half a billion dollars is a ton of money but I would rather see people at work so even though the Voorhees town center has demolished two of its anchor stores it still has one remaining even though it's abandoned but I was able to gain access to this building and I would like to take all of you inside [Music] exploring the inside of an abandoned structure or even a mall that's just so dead it's one of the most cathartic experiences you can have and the first term that comes to mind is a term called Megillah phobia it's this uneasy unsettling feeling when you're around big things when you're around giant things most of the time people afflicted by this when they stand next to a skyscraper they get kind of uneasy now when I'm inside of a giant mall that is nearly uninhabited I get a really weird feeling I get an uneasy feeling because it's so huge and massive and overwhelming but I also get this sense of calmness because we have things like this up here you'll see the UH this chandelier in a second there's just these beautiful pieces of brightness and color and Happiness but there's also a sense of sadness that surrounds them because nobody can see these things anymore look at that chandelier somebody spent so much time designing that and nobody will see it again similar thoughts crossed my mind about other moles one perfect example is the Burlington wall right up the street and now that it's shuttered and locked up nobody can see the xenos for doc his statue of the the boy riding the elephant that's closed down to the public now there is an example at the Schuylkill mall where the famous coal miner statue that was there they moved that statue to a museum and I can only hope that they do the same with Burlington because there are these amazing pieces of art in malls around our country that the public deserves to see in the news recently I heard that the landmark mall in Alexandria was going to repurpose the Macy's there as a homeless shelter personally I think that's fantastic news because a the community surrounding that mall approved this and that shows that they're just awesome people but be it's an awesome repurposing of a giant space that's just otherwise sitting there not doing anything and here we have an example of a space that's just sitting there [Music] [Music] so when I went down here I didn't have my my big floodlight so there really wasn't much that I could have seen but I did try and get some shots where there was some light peeking through one of the main things you see an experience when you're inside of an abandoned place like this is this smell and if you look at the carpet it's just completely stained and I'm pretty sure that's just moisture that's settled in and the overwhelming smell is just mildew and and stale it's just stale but I really really hope that they don't knock this place down and that they find a way to repurpose it and to do something more laudable than just letting it sit and rot like this because this place deserves better [Music] so once again as it stands once the Macy's here closed down in 2017 it left just the boscoe's which is the sole anchor and I really hope that this mall makes it because as a kid I've been to this mall and I have a lot of family that worked here that that shopped here and I just hope that it makes it because it's a pretty awesome place thank you guys so much for the support you've been showing me we're about to reach 400 subscribers and that's awesome because you guys are really supportive and I'm getting some awesome comments and some really good ideas for future videos if there's something that you liked please leave a like and subscribe because I have a ton more content coming and if there's something you didn't like I'd love to hear from you because I learn from you and I want to make better content for you so stay tuned I have an awesome awesome really special Maul coming up next it'll be out next Friday take care everybody [Music]

Channel: Sal

Views: 69,513

Rating: 4.919343 out of 5

Keywords: expedition log series, dan bell, dead mall, mallsoft, experimental electronic, schuylkill mall, metrocenter mall, fiesta mall mesa, salvatore amadeo, label scar, dead mall series, in the mall, dan mason ダン·メイソン, in a mall, a e s t h e t i c, dead retail, shopping mall, 1990s, vaporwave music, echelon, echelon mall, new jersey, voorhees town center, voorhees, experimental, macys, jcpenney, #deadmall, retail archeology, dying mall, food court, abandoned mall

Id: B0SNaLKZnBo

Length: 24min 34sec (1474 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 16 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/GaspardNuit]

Really loving this series. I can definitely see a huge improvement in quality over the course of it. Can't wait to see the next one!

[u/Metsareawesome5]

You deserve way more than 400 subs dude. Keep it up!