Owings Mills Mall

1981–1986: Development and opening

The mall was announced as early as 1981, with vague plans that compared it to the White Marsh Mall in size.[11] By late 1983, a summer 1986 opening had been announced, and the mall was to feature three department store anchors with plans for two more.[12] Anchors Saks Fifth Avenue, Bambergers, and Hecht's were announced in 1984.[13] The mall opened on July 30, 1986 as Owings Mills Fashion Mall with the mall 95% leased and 80% of stores open.[14] The area was identified as a primary growth center in 1979 by Baltimore County and originally intended to be built around a lake.[15] The Rouse Company planned to develop the mall and surrounding area similar to its town center project in Columbia, Maryland.[16] Environmental regulations changed during the time between the development of Columbia and Owings Mills and the Army Corps of Engineers concluded the lake would have a negative environmental impact.[17] The mall began construction in 1984 under subsidiary TRC at Owings Mills, Inc. (The Rouse Company at Owings Mills, Inc.), which in turn formed O.M. Mall Company, LLC.[18] The area does not include the waterfront focal point initially planned, which is why the "Owings Mills Town Center" name was never used when the mall opened. Owings Mills Fashion Mall had its grand opening celebration on July 30, 1986.

Baltimore Metro Subway station

The Owings Mills Metro Subway Station was opened by the Baltimore Metro Subway one year after Owings Mills Mall opened. Shuttle bus service with a 10 minute round trip was provided between the mall and the station. This shuttle bus service was discontinued in June 1992, leaving a less frequent bus service that provided this link only every 30 to 60 minutes.[19] Alternatively, a one mile walk was possible between the mall and the Metro station which ran alongside an unused auxiliary parking lot of the mall, then down a hill through grass and vegetation on a winding asphalt pathway, before reaching one of the Metro parking lots.

1990s–2017: Decline, closure, and demolition

The mall was quite popular throughout the mid-late '80s and well into the '90s. Exclusive and upscale stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Williams Sonoma, and Benetton were tenants. As a result of the renovations at other local Baltimore area suburban malls Towson Town Center and The Mall in Columbia, crime committed in and around the mall, and the shift in the socio-economic climate of the community surrounding the mall, Owings Mills Mall had steadily lost business since that time.

Owings Mills Mall received growing competition as other local malls have expanded. Towson Town Center added Nordstrom in 1991 and that was the final blow to Owings Mills Mall upscale status.[20]

Saks Fifth Avenue closed in 1996, and was replaced with JCPenney.[21][22]

In 1997, bus service between the two locations was improved. The ease of public transportation allowed visitors from inner city urban areas to get to and from this mall much more easily than other suburban malls in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

1998 expansion

In 1998, following The Rouse Company's acquisition of Towson Town Center, the firm expanded Owings Mills Mall and dropped "Fashion" from the mall's name, due Rouse's strategically repositioning of the mall to serve as a general "middle-market" shopping center rather than a "fashion" destination. This was part of Rouse's plans to make its malls in Maryland more competitive to modern malls such as the then-under-construction Arundel Mills, and to avoid one of its properties from competing with another one Rouse also owns.[23] The 1998 renovation and expansion added Sears and Lord & Taylor, but they closed in 2001 and 2002, respectively.[9][7] Stix n' Stuff, a short-lived furniture retailer moved into the Sears building, but closed in 2004, and the building was subsequently demolished to make way for an adjacent residential development. IFL (International Furniture Liquidators) moved into the Lord & Taylor building, but was short-lived and closed soon after. The building remained vacant until demolition.

The Rouse Company, and subsequently General Growth Properties after a 2004 acquisition of Rouse's assets, have continued to promote Towson Town Center and The Mall in Columbia as premier malls, while leaving Owings Mills Mall stuck in the middle.

When Federated Department Stores acquired Hecht's in late 2006, Macy's moved into the former Hecht's building following the conversion of every Hecht's location to Macy's, and Boscov's moved in to the original Macy's building. However, Boscov's announced in 2008 that this location would close as part of a plan to close 10 locations due to the company filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.[24] This left JCPenney and Macy's as the remaining anchors.

An October 2010 story on the mall in the Baltimore Sun stated that the mall was 22.6% vacant.[10] WBAL-TV reported on November 10, 2011, that Owings Mills Mall would be demolished in 2013, with a new "outdoor style" mall similar to the revamped Hunt Valley Towne Centre to be completed by 2014.[25] An October 2014 story in the Baltimore Business Journal stated that the mall was "about half vacant."[26]

In late September 2015, the interior of the mall was quietly closed, leaving only Macy's, JCPenney, out-parcel restaurants and the adjacent movie theater in operation.[27] Macy's closed in November 2015, and JCPenney announced on January 13, 2016, that it would close its Owings Mills location in the spring.

Fixtures from the mall were auctioned in March 2016.[28] Demolition of the mall commenced in August 2016, and was completed in March 2017.[29]

Christina Brown murder

At 2:18 p.m. on September 25, 1992, Christina Marie Brown was found dead from a gunshot wound to the back of the head along the vegetation lined portion of the path between the mall and the Metro station. She was found ten minutes after leaving work as an employee of a cleaning company under contract to Saks Fifth Avenue at the mall, and was believed to have been traveling to the Metro station, en route to her home in Baltimore City. Brown was shot after she resisted a robbery attempt, and her purse, containing about $120, was taken.[35] The pathway was closed on November 25, 1992, in response to Brown's murder.[36] The murder received heavy local media attention, which led to a long-standing perception that Owings Mills Mall was unsafe. After the closure of the trail, a walk between the mall and metro became impractical for most, thereby requiring the use of regular bus service.