Harundale Mall - Decline

Decline

Hutzler's Department Store closed a nearby location in Southdale Shopping Center and replaced the mall's Hochschild Kohn's Department Store in early January 1985. Other newer additions to Harundale Mall included Erol's TV and Video Club, Foot Locker, Rite Aid, Record Town and Kay Bee Toys. Throughout the 1980s, most of the older enclosed malls in northern Anne Arundel County similar to Harundale Mall experienced a state of decline. This included nearby Jumpers Hole Mall, the Severna Park Mall, and the Glen Burnie Mall. In 1987, Harundale Mall's slide was quickened with the opening of the Marley Station Mall less than two miles away. Several of Harundale Mall's few remaining higher-end stores left the aging mall for this newer mall. The Rouse Company (who owned the mall) didn't do very much to improve or upgrade the mall to compete with newer shopping choices in the area. Hutzler's, also in trouble as a chain, closed in Harundale Mall in 1988. The mall management talked with JC Penney to replace Hutzler's. However, JC Penney eventually chose Marley Station instead and opened a location there in 1994. The closed Hutzler's was instead replaced by a Value City Discount Store in 1989. A more rapid decline started in the early 1990s. This was fueled by changing demographics in the area (and in the entire city of Baltimore), lower-income stores' coming to the mall, and a rise in crime. In 1998 the mall was quietly closed. Many of the stores had already left by this time. The only sizable business still open was the Value City. Most of the mall, was then demolished. The only original building left today is the former Hochschild Kohn's, now Burlington Coat Factory. Value City closed in 2007. The signature "rock" in the middle of the mall was removed for later use (see Harundale Plaza).