Comments on: Frederick Towne Mall Plan

By: Frederick Fan

Frederick Fan — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:17:12 +0000

For me, it’s not about crime at all. It’s just that my trips to ANY mall in Frederick (or to Lakeforest or anywhere else) are few and far between these days. This just hit home recently when I made brief shopping forays to Penney’s at FSK Mall and Lakeforest. I realized it had been AGES since I’d been to a local mall. Not sure what that’s about, though it occurs to me that my absence from malls roughly coincides with Costco coming to Frederick and my doing more shopping on line.

By: Darrell Russ

Darrell Russ — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:53:50 +0000

It is too depressing for me to go to that mall anymore. I sure hope the redevelopment comes along soon, but I doubt it due to the economy!

By: Boz

Boz — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:06:17 +0000

I keep reading in the Frederick Post about all of the crime in that area as well. Some of it is right there in the mall parking lot, even in the day time. Honestly, it is a little intimidating. I’d like to shop there, but I think about the possibilities and I always wind up going somewhere else. In the past I really enjoyed that mall. It’s too bad really.

By: Kp

Kp — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:55:22 +0000

Poor mall is a ghost town

By: gypsy

gypsy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:05:39 +0000

We immediately ran to the new Regal at Westview and never looked back. We always found Hoyt’s to be filthy, run down, floors sticky, seats torn up and broken down. And I no longer go to any theater that isn’t stadium seating. We lived in Aiken SC for a while and drove all the way to Augusta to see movies in a stadium seat theater rather than Aiken’s 20 year old-style theater seating.

As for immigration and crime on the GM, I had a friend who could not wait to get out of her apartment behind the FTM. She never felt safe there. And when she was moving out she found that an Asian family of at least 8 people (adults and kids) had rented a 2 bedroom apartment next to her. They spoke no English and had no furniture so she gave them some of her old stuff.

We do use some of the stores on the GM but our biggest complaint with all of the strip malls is the fact that their parking lots are not linked, that you have to drive out of each one, down the street, and then into the next one. That’s completely absurd. I’m talking about the ones that have Joannes, Burlington, etc. all on the same side of the GM yet “fenced off” from one another.

By: uhuh

uhuh — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:07:20 +0000

It seems that way since the state police left their barracks there…

By: uhuh

uhuh — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:06:02 +0000

I think it’s far more convenient and comfortable to shop at an indoor mall…

By: uhuh

uhuh — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:05:18 +0000

I’d rather go to movies at FTM, and now the only option is Holiday on that side of town.

By: uhuh

uhuh — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:01:00 +0000

Um, no, it wasn’t really the economy, more of it was because the mall owners started refusing to renew store leases, because they want the mall empty and ruined to push through this plan of theirs. Many of the businesses you mention went out of business as companies years before the current recession, or even the mall’s plans to redevelop, most because of Walmart (Kaybee and Thom Mcann were killed by Walmart, to name two),and some of them just moved out. Arby’s moved because they built a new free standing building. Chanticleer moved out to a different shopping center because they couldn’t stand the suspense anymore of worrying when they would be asked to leave by the mall management. Many of the stores you mention left either because of rumors that the mall was being torn down, or because the management wouldn’t renew their lease, it had nothing to do with the economy (Claire’s, Kay, the music store,watch repair store, etc, they still exist). Some companies you mention such as Waxie Maxie’s and Eyerly’s were bought by other companies, and continued on in the mall for awhile under other names. Your list spans at least three generations of stores at the mall, Waxie Maxie’s was bought by Camelot, I think, and Eyerly’s was bought by JCP, Suncoast by FYE, so while it may seem like those stores were replaced, well, they were and they weren’t. Montgomery Wards closed their doors as a company in the 90′s or late 80′s, McCrory as a business closed in the 90′s, too, well before 2002.

By: uhuh

uhuh — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:40:05 +0000

I have to do most of my shopping in Frederick or Charlestown, as I live between the two, and do not have any decent shopping centers where I live. I hate the traffic mess on the fsk side of town, and prefer to shop at the Golden Mile, as I view that as easier and safer to get around. As a result of FTM owners ruining the mall, more of my shopping goes to Charlestown now, I certainly don’t want to trek further to shop in Urbana….