What's going on at East Park Plaza these days? I haven't found an excuse to go there in years. I know the theater is still up and running. Is anything else still open in those hallways?
East Park used to be such a nice little mall: a good selection of stores, a theater, an arcade, a vibrant food court. I'll probably tell my kids stories about East Park the way my mom tells stories about Ward's and Miller & Paine. Back in my day...
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I live in the area so I go to the Russ’s Market all the time and have frequented Kent’s Mens Shoes a few times. The East Park Mall itself is virtually empty and has been since I moved here 4 years ago. With Gateway across the street and shopping malls going out of style, I don’t see its vacancy rate improving.
That said, the new Mongolian Grille has been very packed since it opened and the theater still is quite busy on nights and weekends. So there is still quite a bit of traffic in this area and it’s within walking distance of many homes and apartment dwellers.
It’s come a long way since it had “66 stores at 66th and O.” I think much of the problem has to do with mall ownership. They owner (still as far as I know, but certainly for the bulk of the 90’s) is an old guy that lives in New York, and he think he’s out of touch and oblivious to what the rents should be there. People started moving out in droves maybe in the late 90’s as leases expired. The guy wanted rents comparable to Gateway, without anywhere near the traffic. The Buckle, Kep Hardings, Habitat, and others made the jump to Gateway. Lee Books consolidated their stores. Hallmark went away. RC Burgess closed. The theater did a nice job of renovating, then the owner decided to get rid of all the little shops and bring in 3 large stores. We can see how that work.
SteinMart’s closing never helped, obviously. The ownership is a pain to work with (I once worked for an original East Park tenant that stayed until very recently). I don’t see it ever improving with this ownership, and now that it’s been divided into 3 big bays, I don’t know if it will ever go back to the way it was, or even close. A bulldozer could be the best idea.
We visited the Mongolian Grille.. and I have to say, we really really like it. My parents said they actually like it better than HuHot, and with it being much cheaper than HuHot, I think that is why it’s been packed. They do need to do some work on a couple things. Their process of seating people is cumbersome and time consuming. Some of their waiters aren’t up to par either. We’ve gone twice now, and the waiter we had was horrible. Our first waiter rocked though. But… the food is very tasty!
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