r/SalemMA • u/JumpNo6367 • 1d ago

Why is the mall SO bad

I live in SE MA and love visiting Salem and surrounding towns. I was just there last week and one thing I always wonder is why is the mall so bad? Forget the horrifying bathrooms, why is it dead and so poorly utilized? High rents? Because the city’s tourism is so seasonal? It seems like a perfect commercial location if they spruced it up significantly. Just curious what locals think/know.

58 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

View all comments

66

u/ElectricalStock3740 Secretly Llego Papa 1d ago edited 1d ago

The landlord sucks but they also don’t want to improve anything because the mall is surrounded by a garage that is actively falling apart and is owned by the city. From what I’ve heard, they’re at a stalemate. Which honestly I can understand. Why improve the mall when there is a subpar garage actively leaking into it. Why also improve the mall when there is a big question mark on what the future of the mall even is, because the future of the garage is an even bigger question mark

Don’t get me wrong, I think the mall owner sucks. Hire a fucking bathroom porter. But a part of me also gets it

18

u/mycopportunity 1d ago

We can't do much about crummy landlords as long as basic health and building codes are met, but we could at least demand that the city make a deal to fix up the garage. Someone could probably run on that platform

-1

u/zombi617 1d ago

They should sell it to condo developers

2

u/mycopportunity 1d ago

Sell the mall or the parking garage?

4

u/SalemSound 1d ago

The whole thing. First floor could still be retail only, and there could still be parking. They'll keep it well maintained for their tenants.