South Square finds Target

The end of the South Square mall's 27-year life cycle in 2002 was unromantic and industrial, bringing death in the form of debris strewn about the 50-acre plot--now mostly mud and ditches--that once anchored a commercial district in south Durham.

But South Square will be reborn in the fall, this time as an outdoor collection of "big box" stores including Super Target and Sam's Club instead of the old, indoor mall.

There are already signs of life in the mud--cranes, bulldozers, piles of gravel and lengths of aluminum and PVC piping. Construction is underway, with Target set to be completed in March and Sam's Club and the rest of the mall opening sometime in fall 2004.

"It'll be a huge improvement over a mall that was largely vacant," said Henry Faison, chair and founder of Faison and Associates, a Charlotte-based real estate firm that owns the South Square property. "We think it's a good future."

"Some tenants needed much more modern amenities and aesthetics than South Square offered," he said. "The developer of Southpoint showed tenants that they had a plan.... They got maybe a step ahead of the owners of South Square mall.... The old mall wasn't going to work in today's marketplace."

Although some other city leaders do not blame South Square's closing solely on the opening of Southpoint, most acknowledge that the competition it fostered played some role in the closing of the older mall.

"South Square had its share of problems before Southpoint came along," said John Best, a Durham city council member who voted for the Southpoint rezoning plan. "But [Southpoint] was probably the final nail in the coffin for South Square mall."

While Best and other city officials anticipated the effect Southpoint would have on smaller malls, they also knew the value of the South Square property, an easily accessible location just off highway 15-501, surrounded by retail and shopping centers on all sides.

"Such a valuable piece of land wouldn't be empty for long," Best said. "Now, we have Southpoint, obviously a mega-mall bringing in a substantial amount of property and sales tax revenues, and we have a Target and Sam's [Club] and a few other retail stores coming in place of the old South Square.... I'm glad we have Southpoint here and also very glad the owners of South Square turned their piece of property around to make an asset for Durham."

Although many tenants left for Southpoint, smaller, independent retailers in the area, who had relied on the South Square location for a steady stream of customers, have suffered in the wake of the mall's closing.

"It's absolutely affected us," said Daryl Jenkins, co-owner of Dashboard Stereo, a car-stereo installation business just outside the former mall's perimeter. "Business has been down the last few years. It's difficult to attribute how much that is to the mall, and how much that is to the economy. But it's a lot harder without the mall as a point of reference. I'm counting on [the new South Square development]; I hope it helps. Right now, you can see how many spaces around here are for lease."

Some independent retailers are still able benefit from a loyal customer base despite the mall's closing. Levi Green of Levi's Tailor Shop, which relocated to just outside the mall perimeter from its former location inside the mall, said he has customers who have been coming to him for 30 years.

"It's been okay, but nowhere near as good as it was when we were in the mall," Green said. "I hope Target and Sam's [Club] add traffic. Without the mall, now people don't have reason to come out here anymore. I hated to see the mall close. I really liked it. It was good for me when I was there."