Where the Carpet Still Hangs On
If you walk past the front of South Mall, what stands out is what used to be there, not what is there now.
The old Bon-Ton is being taken down to make room for a new Giant grocery store that should open in 2025.
Stores have come and gone over the years. Jamesway left in 1995. Stein Mart closed in 2020.
Spirit Halloween set up in areas that once had full-time stores.
Petco and Staples have been there since the 1990s, and Supersets Gym is now in a spot that once held a furniture store.
The mall takes up less space than before, but you can still see signs of the old building, like leftover tiles, drop ceilings, and the noise when a metal gate comes down.
Foundations and First Expansions (1971–1991)
What opened in 1971 as Hess’s South, a small offshoot on Lehigh Street, was a plain department store with parking.
By 1975, Hess’s added a small enclosed mall to its north, bringing in Weis Markets and several smaller shops.
For a time, it kept operating without much fanfare. In 1979, Crown American bought Hess’s and the mall.
That sale set off several years of building projects.
By 1986, fresh concrete footers were poured to mark where the mall would expand.
Crown American doubled the size of South Mall, adding new stores on the other side of Hess’s.
That same year, Jamesway marked its 100th store at this location, holding an event with skydivers in the parking lot.
Five years after that, Phar-Mor moved into the newest wing and began selling discount goods and medicine.
Around the same period, Rea & Derick closed in 1991, leaving few reasons to go through the original mall section.
The old part of the building was mostly unused after that, but the newer sections continued getting traffic.
The carpet was replaced. Stores shifted around, or new ones came in.
The mall kept adding sections, while an older hallway was blocked off behind all the new growth.
Turnover and Adaptation (1992–2002)
By the mid-1990s, the mall was facing more turnover. Jamesway closed in late 1995 after bankruptcy, leaving a large vacant area in the expanded wing.
South Mall filled the space fairly quickly.
Stein Mart opened there a year later, making it their first Pennsylvania location and providing the mall with another anchor store.
The rest of the old Jamesway area saw a mix of tenants before Ross took part of it by 2012.
In between, places like Gold’s Gym and Home & Gifts used the space.
On the north side, which had been closed off when Rea & Derick left, new life returned in 1996.
Staples and Petco opened that year, bringing activity back to that end of the building.
Weis Markets left in 1999 after being there since the 1970s due to low sales.
That location was later divided for Mattress Firm, Blick Art Materials, and a state wine and spirits shop.
By the early 2000s, most of the mall was still leased, but the lineup of stores was different from earlier years.
The mix had changed, but people still came to shop for what they needed.
Black Rose, PREIT, and a Recast Identity (2003–2014)
In the early 2000s, the mall saw more changes. Phar-Mor closed in 2002, and Steve & Barry’s moved into that space the next year.
They sold college-branded clothing and other low-cost items, which helped bring people back to that end of the mall for a time.
That didn’t last. Steve & Barry’s shut down by 2008.
In 2003, Crown American merged with PREIT in a $1.2 billion deal that included all of Crown American’s malls, including South Mall.
PREIT held onto it for a while, but later included it in a group of properties it considered underperforming.
There was no official sign, but people noticed the slowdown.
In 2009, Black Rose Antiques opened in the old Steve & Barry’s space. It wasn’t a regular store.
More than 100 dealers rented booths inside what used to be a big-box unit.
The shelves and clothing racks were replaced by aisles filled with individual displays.
That shift brought in people looking for used and vintage items, things like train sets, rotary phones, and framed magazines.
The mall still had chains like Ross and Staples, but more foot traffic was now heading toward Black Rose.
Some shoppers said it felt more like a flea market than a mall.
Trying New Concepts (2015–2020)
In 2014, PREIT sold the mall for $23.6 million. The new owner, Nicholas Park Mall LLC, began testing different uses for the space.
In 2016, Yocco’s Hot Dogs opened near the entrance. It was a local business in a mall that had mostly national stores.
The smell from the food spread into the main hallway.
Black Rose left in 2017 and moved to Phillipsburg Mall. Limerick Furniture moved into most of the old space.
A gym called Full Circle Training took the rest and opened in early 2018.
Both were gone not long after. Limerick closed in 2019. Bon-Ton closed in 2018.
It was the last department store in the mall. The building stayed mostly empty except for short-term uses.
Spirit Halloween rented it sometimes. The mall started hosting events like food truck nights, flea markets, and live music.
Cave Brewing Co. opened for a while and held acoustic shows. South Mall Mercantile opened vendor booths.
Both were closed by 2020. New stores kept coming in, but most didn’t last.
The mall was clean, but the tenants kept changing.
The Pandemic Years and Vacancy (2020–2023)
At the start of 2020, Stein Mart was the only anchor store still open at South Mall.
When the chain closed that year, the mall lost its biggest tenant again.
It wasn’t replaced by another major store. Spirit Halloween used the space in 2022, but only in the fall.
The rest of the year, it stayed dark. In early 2021, Salisbury Youth Association moved into the old Foot Locker space.
Amazon Lockers were also added nearby, filling part of a wall. These updates were small but practical.
Claire’s closed in May 2021. A franchised T-Mobile store near the entrance closed not long after.
The main T-Mobile store across the hall, which used to be a Sprint, stayed open.
Uniquely Lo. Co. opened during this period, joining a short list of small businesses trying new things.
Weekend events and flea markets continued, but with fewer stores open full-time, the mall was often quiet.
Shoppers passed storefronts covered in black vinyl or old posters. The building still looked like a mall, but most of it was just waiting.
Reconstruction and Repositioning (2024–2025)
Major construction started at South Mall in early 2025, which was a change from years of smaller updates and switching tenants.
Crews took down the Bon-Ton building at the start of 2025.
By the middle of the year, there were fresh concrete walls and steel beams where Bon-Ton had stood.
Giant is building a grocery store there that will take up about 68,000 square feet.
The plan for Giant was made public in late 2023, and the store is supposed to open by the end of 2025.
This project is different from previous updates, which were just surface changes or short-term tenants.
Construction workers are putting up a completely new anchor store, starting from an empty lot.
The work changes how people walk and drive around the mall.
The parking lot has stayed open, but there is fencing and construction equipment around the site.
Burlington signed a lease in November 2024 for almost 20,000 square feet in the space that used to house Spirit Halloween.
The space will be divided up for more than one business, with plans to open late summer 2025.
This is the first time in years that the mall looks new. New building materials now fill the spot where the old stores were.
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