The Mall - A Thing Of The Past?

That fabric roof and white tile floor was the attempt twenty or so years ago by the open air 163rd St. Shopping Center to modernize into The Mall At 163rd Street. The newer bigger nearby Aventura Mall still lured away the major tenants, the big department stores, and a motley array of small mom and pop shops weren't doing all that well, no matter how nice the place looked. A spacious food court catered to the kids from the high school and middle school located just a block away, but the hords of teenagers didn't encourage older patrons. Essentially Aventura Mall did to this mall what this mall had done to the nearby downtown shopping district thirty years previous. In the past couple of years one end of this mall was demolished and replaced by a big modern Wallmart Superstore. Whether that's good or bad for the smaller tenants only time will tell. The place sure seems deserted. The nearby K-Mart and Target are also feeling the competition though. In the meantime the area's downtowns are experiencing a revival, with art galleries, cafes and trendy shops moving in.