Wendy Jaklitsch's Commentary

On the fifth anniversary of my first dead mall photo excursion to Hunt Valley Mall, I trekked westward to see what became of Eldersburg's Carrolltown Center. Most of the area's dead and dying malls were demalled in the past 5 or 6 years, while Carrolltown seemed perpetually stuck in a time warp. As a Baltimore transplant, I don't know a great deal about the history of the mall; it stands at 333,450 square feet, and it appears to have been built in the '70s, along with the surrounding neighborhood of middle-class homes. Carroll County is mostly rural or exurban, and most of its retail is 15 miles away in Westminster; as a result, Carrolltown commanded a captive audience into the 90s. As more Baltimore commuters fled into Carroll County from the declining suburbs to the east, their money and purchasing power followed, but Carrolltown rested on its laurels instead of expanding or otherwise improving. It honestly amazes me that the mall has gone on this long without a renovation and aggressive leasing strategy or a demalling. Considering the rapid population growth and economic stability of the area, as well as the consequent arrival of big-box stores, this mall could have had a chance as a strong local/regional contender if the owners didn't neglect it. Even the precipitous decline of the Liberty Road corridor in Randallstown could have been used to Carrolltown's advantage, as it is only a few miles west on the same road and in an area that is considered much safer. Instead, Carrolltown has gone from the only game in town to a blighted liability in less than 10 years.

On this latest trip, I struck dead mall gold. Carrolltown is in the process of meeting its maker. Much of the corridor between the forlorn, messy Kmart and the dated-looking Peebles (which is the only one I've seen in Maryland, and which approximates a smaller, rundown Kohl's in merchandising strategy) is now sealed off. I asked a Kmart employee about the closure.

Me: Excuse me, but I haven't been here in a few years, and I was wondering what happened to the rest of the mall.
Elderly Kmart Clerk: They're tearin' it down...buildin' something new.
Me: Do you know what they're putting in?
Elderly Kmart Clerk: No idea.

Carrolltown was apparently purchased for redevelopment purposes ( http://www.inacom-sby.net/BlackOakUsa/ShowProperty.aspx?PropertyId=15), but the details on what will be done with it are vague. My guess is that it's the latest victim of the big-box "lifestyle center" demalling craze. A Wal-Mart went up about a mile to the west, at the busy intersection of Route 32 and Liberty Road, about 7 or 8 years ago; it has since been joined by a Kohl's and a Home Depot. The SuperFresh at Carrolltown closed along with most of the Baltimore area's smaller SuperFresh stores as the chain concentrated on its "super centers"; the area is now served by Food Lion, Martin's, and Safeway. It was replaced by a Big Lots, and I'm pretty sure the Dollar General was part of it too. More than anything else, the loss of SuperFresh seemed to mark the end of Carrolltown as we know it.

I feel bad for this poor little mall. Even though it's been on its deathbed for years, with a table-tennis center, gaming meetup room, and locally run antique and collector stands taking up much of its real estate, it was clean and friendly. The brightly lit, stark white hallways of decades past and the dated, quasi-Western-themed entrance were somewhat endearing, and the Kmart and the smaller chain stores always seemed to do okay. Not anymore. The Kmart was a disorganized ghost town with entire sections that were twisting in the wind. One of the paint section's two chip displays had only a handful of colors; the other was empty. The other mall stores are gone; pretty much all that's left are the anchors, the Big Lots, the Dollar General, and the movie theatre. Strangely, the usual "never say die" culprits (Radio Shack, GNC) are gone, but the table tennis center remains.

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