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Shoe store closes at Oak Hollow Mall

Tuesday, January 19, 2010
(Updated 8:12 am)

HIGH POINT A fitness footwear retail store at Oak Hollow Mall has closed.

Mall officials confirmed Monday that The Finish Line had closed its operations at the mall. The store, located on the second level between Lee Spa and Nails and PK Alternations, sold athletic footwear brands such as Nike, North Face and Adidas.

The store occupied a 3,600-square-foot-space and was one of the malls original tenants when it opened in 1995.

General manager of the mall, Vickee Armstrong, and officials at its parent company, Chattanooga, Tenn.-based CBL & Associates Properties Inc., could not be reached due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Monday. The public relations office for The Finish Line also could not be reached.

Managers at PK Alterations said the store closed shortly after the Jan. 1 holiday. It marks the first closing for the mall this year after a long list of tenants closed in 2009. New York & Co. Inc., located on the first level of the mall, also began a going-out-of-business sale at the end of last month.

The mall saw a positive change in December when Sears Holding Corp. opened a Sears Product Services Marketing Center in the mall in the former Steve and Barry's location. It brings several hundred people to work at the mall each day.

Comments

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truth

January 19, 2010 - 8:32 am EST

Only a matter of time. Big name tenants are being replaced by stores nobody recognizes.

This is playing out much like the Carolina Circle Mall debacle. Much like that case, Dillards has been transformed into a "clearance only" store.

This isn't merely the economy since Oak Hollow's demise began before the economy went South. I'm not sure if it is lack of proximity to an major Interstate or what the problem is. I personally like the mall and hate to see it go down.

kevans21

January 19, 2010 - 9:41 am EST

I grew up in High Point and remember when the Westchester Mall was the only option in the city. High Point didn't support the Westchester Mall years ago. I'm not really sure why developers thought a larger mall would be supported. I just hope it doesn't become another big eyesore in High Point similar to all the empty downtown buildings and the half-empty strip malls.

mowogo

January 19, 2010 - 8:41 am EST

I've been in the area for over 7 years, and Oak Hollow has really done nothing to distinguish itself from the other retail complexes of the area. I will give management credit for what they did in getting Steve and Barry's in the mall, but that did not work out. I considered the mall dead when one time I visited, and the food court was half closed, including the Chick-fil-a.

I think the mall portion should close, and management redevelop the property as a lifestyle center. The area can support shopping, but because corporate management was focusing on Alamance Crossing and Hanes Mall, Oak Hollow suffered. The main reason I think a lifestyle center could work is actually because of Alamance Crossing. The mall in Burlington was dying before construction even started on AC, and yet AC is bustling, and easily superior to Four Seasons

kurgun

January 19, 2010 - 8:54 am EST

Seems like the owners of the mall should consider lowering their rent for the businesses that are there. There were a number of businesses that closed there in 09 and what do they think will happen in 10? That some places will deal with the high rent and bring the mall back? That mall is in a dumb location, it's far away from main street, people don't want to drive all the way out there, all the lights you have to wait for I believe is what makes people not shop there.

weatherwithyou33

January 19, 2010 - 11:34 am EST

This is the thought process in the Triad that kills me. Driving 10 mins is just too far to shop in my own city so I'll drive 30 mins to shop in a different city because it's a different city. I love how driving 5 miles is "all the way out there". Where do you shop?

The problem with this mall is that the stores, when they had stores, didn't carry quality merchandise. The depertment stores only carried the bottom level of merchandise. Shoppers need selection in merchandise and this mall didn't provide that.

truth

January 19, 2010 - 1:26 pm EST

Good point. If you visited the Belks or Dillards at Oak Hollow, it didn't compare with the amount and quality of merchandise found at Four Seasons, or Friendly Center. It was like Belks-lite.

nippded twistle

January 19, 2010 - 9:03 am EST

Mega, mega church complex! Just like the old High Point Mall.

pattuttle

January 19, 2010 - 9:21 am EST

I say make it a furniture outlet mall. Take all the furniture businesses in High Point and Thomasville and give them a location that houses FURNITURE. It is so hard to find a furniture store that doesn't look dirty. Furniture Land South is an exception along with a few others, but why not do something like this in the "furniture capital of the world."

nippded twistle

January 19, 2010 - 10:18 am EST

the furniture capital of the world is China...where you been?

timflowers

January 19, 2010 - 10:05 am EST

As the former owner of stores in 3 different malls, I can say from first hand experience that people don't support malls anymore. They go there to walk or to socialize, but their dollars go to Wal-Mart and Target.

Making matters worse is the management of malls. Mall owners are resistant to change or improve anything, as if they are in denial that anything is wrong even as store after store closes. Most won't consider lowering the rent, insisting their mall is the place to be even when occupancy drops to 75% or less.

pissWord5

January 20, 2010 - 5:36 pm EST

Basicly, enclosed shopping malls are out of favor now. The future is BACK to an open sky "Main Street"sort of plan with stores surrounding a parking area and sidewalks with benches, planters etc plus a few parking spaces in front of the stores. For a model of this concept see the NEW part of Friendly Center north of Sears in Gso.
In High Point nowadays the twin Walmart's are the defacto 'Malls' for most of the city, one on North Main and one on South Main, where everybody meets everybody!

Maybe Oak Hollow should be redeveloped into a mixed-use Athletic complex featuring a lighted synthetic turf soccer & football field in the center. This is badly needed as the city's existing soccer/football facilities are under extra pressure from an expanding user population on one hand but increasingly bad weather (months of rain regularly close existing fields) on the other.
A public sports complex with synthetic turf, night lighting (and possibly a roller/ice skating rink), would be rented continously by various groups & leagues throughout most of the year attracting customers to portions of the complex still set aside for retail outlets & restaurants!

randolph

January 21, 2010 - 12:10 am EST

Since the day Oak Hollow Mall opened in 1995, the mall has been on a decline. The mall has never had 100% occupancy and the bottom line is that the people of High Point never supported it. While the outparcel stores and restaurants (e.g. Barnes & Noble, Target, Pier One, etc.) seem to fare well, the mall itself was doomed from the day it opened. It is a shame that a community with a population of 100,000 chose not to support the mall as -- the effect of Oak Hollow Mall -- brought in major retail stores to High Point (e.g. Gap, Disney, Lane Bryant, Express, Express Men, etc.) and sadly, these stores have left -- most likely due to poor sales and underperformance.

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