Monday 3 August 2015

Mall profile - Oak Park Mall Austin Minnesota


 Hals ,Brauns and Seiferts in the 80s
Austin Minnesotas Oak Park Mall Opened summer of 1975. it's orginal anchors were Younkers of Des Moines Ia And JCPenney. Other notable tenants were a White Drug Mart , Hy-Vee and a Highland Cooper Twin Cinema. The mall was developed by General Growth Properties (GGP) of Des Moines Ia. In 1983 Shopko was added to the east end of the mall. The mall progressed onwards sucessfully into the 1990s but by the late 90s it began to slip. JCPenney pulled out in the early 2000s , as did most of the chain stores. By 2014 when the mall closed it was a mixture of mom n pop stores and overpriced antique places. Hy-Vee who had left the mall in 1985 announced they had purchased the vacant mall. They planned to build a new store where the mall stood. It was demolished spring of 2015 the new Hy-Vee opened on the site in 2017. Younkers Shopko and the Cinemagic 7 are the only sections of Oak Park remaining. I visited the mall twice these are pictures from my second visit. The black and white pictures are from 1975 when the mall opened. I have the first visit photos buried on my computer I'll add them eventually.

The original Logo

Center Court 80s or 90s

Ribbon cutting 1975

Wallins west

St Paul Clothiers

Boxruds

Jay-Vee

Jewelry Hut

So - Fro Fabrics

Johnson Floral

Karmelkorn

Lundbergs

The Char House restaurant

Eat at Joes

Waldenbooks

Regis

Van Duyns

Shopko wing entrance

Cinemagic 7 nee Highland
Cooper Twin Cinema

Retro Musicland
Vision works Formerly
 Vision World

Younkers wing

Fanny Farmer

Sears Hometown Nee
White Drug Mart

County seat?

Former Family Dollar

Younkers mall entrance



Younkers wing

Regis interior


Former Hy-Vee

Former Hy-Vee

Former Hy-Vee



Shopko

Newer mall logo

Shopko mall entrance

Shopko wing
twords center court



Regis

Shopko wing

Seiferts

Jay-Vee Later Brauns

Center Court




Front entrance wing

Former J.C. Penney
mall entrance

Younkers wing

Center court stage

End Of Retail OF Yesteryear

I am making this post to announce the end of this blog. I am Moving on to a new project entitled The Department Store Archives. That project...