Carousel Mall
| Location | San Bernardino,California, USA |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 34.10477°N 117.29629°W |
| Address | 295 Carousel Mall |
| Opening date | October 11, 1972 |
| Owner | M & D Properties |
| No. of stores and services | 17 |
| No. of floors | 2 |
History: Originally opened on October 11, 1972 as Central City Mall, with two stories, 52 stores, and 3 major anchor stores, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, and The Harris Company, which has been at its location since 1927 before the mall existed. The idea of the mall was for an urban renewal project for the downtown district of San Bernardino. Central City Mall was to be the first big step in revitalizing the city. It was built adjacent to 3rd Street which was the retail district at that time in San Bernardino. Two years after it opened, the city made a plan that called for a long list of ideas and projects that never happened, including an aerial monorail tramway, a new commerce building, a fourth anchor store for the mall, and a Central City park.
During the late 1970s, the mall already started to encounter problems. One of the mall's largest challenges were the local gangs that used the mall as a gathering place. It was also due to lack of organization from the mall changing hands with different management companies as well as city leaders who had a financial interest in the success of the mall. These problems continued into and in the late 1980s, and the developers made a new revitalization plan to renovate the mall to attract more people.
As Carousel Mall: 1991 to present[edit]
In 1991, they renamed it Carousel Mall and added a large carousel, colorful interior decoration, and brighter façades to attract families and younger shoppers. Despite the renovation, the mall started losing business throughout the rest of the 1990s.
The downtown area returned to a declining trend as people decided to shop at Inland Center, which acquired Gottschalks after it moved from the Carousel Mall to Inland Center after merging with The Harris Company (and Gottschalks was already present as an anchor at Inland Center). Inland Center, compared to Carousel Mall, succeeded in keeping stores open and filling its vacancies due to its closer proximity to the I-215/I-10 interchange and retention of anchor businesses.
In 2001, Montgomery Ward went out of business and closed, leaving only JC Penney for another year before it was the final anchor to close its doors later in 2003. In response to the anchor closures, the mall's owners at the time allowed a mixed-use concept to fill vacated retail outlets at its 3rd Street entrance and its western court/lobby with county offices. The County of San Bernardino remains the largest tenant of the mall to this day.
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