After almost three decades as the anchor of an entire commercial district, South Square Mall ended not with a bang, but a whimper.
The mall officially closed last week after 27 years of operation, following the departure of most of its tenants to Durham's newest mall, The Streets at Southpoint, closer to Chapel Hill and Research Triangle Park.
Although city council members have not yet decided the fate of the South Square site, they are currently considering a plan for rezoning it.
"Nobody wanted to stay there," said Henry Faison, owner of the South Square property and founder of Faison and Associates, a Charlotte real estate firm. "If we are able to revitalize it, I think [it] will be a viable area." He added that South Square was a critically important area for the city.
Although many Durham residents have flocked to the glitzy new Southpoint mall, others regret the loss of South Square's convenience. Charles Stern, a Durham resident, said he and his wife prefer malls to shopping centers because of weather and comfort, and consider Southpoint too far away and too big. "I think [closing South Square] did the community a disservice to move an important center of the city away from where it was," he said.
Dick Hails, Durham's assistant planning director, said the South Square location is better suited to Durham and Chapel Hill residents because it is on the U.S. 15-501 corridor. "I think they're both two distinct commercial and economic development areas," he said. "Obviously, there's no longer an active mall, [but] there's been strong commercial demand in that area, and a number of businesses have come in in recent years."
Although the South Square commercial area retains appeal to Durham residents due to its location, the new mall, located in south Durham near Interstate 40, is more geographically central to the Triangle as a whole.
"I think we did affect [South Square's] business," said Jeff Johnson, marketing director for Southpoint. "I would say this part of Durham is definitely very popular just in the benefit of its location, being in the center of the Triangle."
Durham City Council member John Best voted for Southpoint's development in 1999. Although he remembered thinking of the effect the new mall might have on South Square, he said he tried to put such considerations aside in his decision-making process. "I voted for Southpoint mall because the potential for tax revenue [and] the land use in that area complemented the use of a large mall," he said.
Faison and his developers have already submitted some future plans for the South Square property to the City Council. "We have had a site plan submitted that does call for some... big box users," said Durham Planning Director Frank Duke.
No official decision has been made regarding who will occupy the site, but Best said that Target and Sam's Club have been reported as two potential clients. Complicating the rezoning is a planned corridor for the Triangle's future rail system, which is slated to go through the South Square property.
"The council is going to... consider moving that transit corridor to the edge of the property instead of going through a portion of it," Best said. The council will officially vote on the adjustment at a public hearing in the coming few weeks.
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