We usually get my son’s kicks from Chanticleer Shoes located in Frederick Towne Mall. They are really good about sizing the shoes and have a great selection. My wife stopped by today and passed a bunch of empty store fronts and a dude lying on a bench snoring loudly. She said it was kind of creepy.
I suppose that revitalization plan for the mall can’t come soon enough.
~Guy~
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We were in Chanticleer a couple weeks ago. The folks there told us the mall will be demolished soon (I think she said May?), and they stopped leasing out stores 2 years ago.
Only Home Depot, Boscov’s and Bon Ton will remain after the demo. My guess is they’ll remain open, like part of Frederick County Square did (where KMart is) when they changed from a mall to a shopping center.
Looks like they need to update this site:
http://www.deadmalls.com/
It’s been eerily awful for EVER. I’ve lived here for 19 years and have always referred to it as “the pregnant teen mall”, as that’s all I saw the first (and basically last) time I ever shopped there. They can’t tear it down fast enough for me!
I’m starting to think Frederick Towne Mall could come roaring back if–and only if–the powers that be come up with a killer new concept. Everyone has soured on the old FTM because it is an outdated, unattractive 1970s fossil.
There are tons of shoppers in a one-mile radius of FTM. Not affluent shoppers, but the sheer numbers would easily compensate, and if you build something compelling, they will come. It’s not like Francis Scott Key Mall is a Mid-Atlantic trophy, after all.
Whoever reformulates the new FTM needs to be a first-rate visionary, merchandiser, architect and planner. But the bottom line is that when there’s a lot of money to be made, people can come up with winning concepts.
Surely, FTM and other businesses along the Golden Mile have been hurt to some degree by the growth of attractive, more upscale shopping in the Westview area. With a new shopping center adjacent to Westview Promenade set to open in a few months and yet more shopping to be constructed nearby, it seems that stiffer competition for consumer $’s is ahead for successor(s) to FTM.
I do agree, there’s probably more money to be made once the “ghost mall” is gone, but a compelling niche will indeed need to be identified to attract sufficient numbers of reasonably affluent shoppers.
The future for shopping seems to be in the open mall concept like the Westview Promenade, instead of the closed mall concept like FSK or FTM. However, some new malls are very successful when done right, like the Dulles Town Center. I’ve often wondered why the owners of either the FTM or the FSK don’t invest some money and remodel either of these to be more like Dulles. I’m guessing there are a lot of people like me who would love to see a sharper, more user-friendly mall in the Frederick area. As it is, incremental “tweaking” of the two malls won’t do much, and most people will continue to head for Westview and other open malls.
The beauty of the closed-mall concept makes sense in high-crime areas. Everything is contained under one roof, with mall security able to patrol inside.
It will be interesting to see how well an open-mall concept works on the crime-ridden Golden Mile.
I am Mike Jones, owner of Chanticleer Shoes. Thank you for your kind remarks about Chanticleer Shoes. For the record we are now located at Vista Shops on the Golden Mile, 1080 West Patrick Street, Unit 16, Frederick, MD 21703. 301 663 5646. Our customers told us to stay on the Golden Mile and stay away from the Rt 85 traffic. We are hanging in despite the economy.
In 7 years of living in Frederick we’ve never been in that store. We have been in Boscov’s several times, so it’s not that we weren’t at that mall. But there was something about it’s set-up, being split up rather than all in one store, that was very off-putting. I suppose that’s because they couldn’t be a multi-level store in that building. If they had moved into the space Boscov’s took, maybe it would have been different.
I have very strong memories for this mall. my first job was in this mall I have started workin here. I was pregnant with my first child and have worked throughout in this mall during my pregnancy. 10 cinemas were good theater here. We need to build it in two stories but not to demolished it.
I will be opening my business /booth there if it stays in good shape.