American malls have been riddled with challenges over the last decade — from the death of big box stores like Sears and JCPenney, to new and hyper-online shopping habits forged by the pandemic. Today, there are fewer than 1,000 malls remaining in the country, down from 1,200 in 2015. 

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for these havens of air conditioning and parking. Communities across the country are finding creative ways to take advantage of lower property rent and fill the mall’s vacancies. 

In North Carolina, as many chains have shuttered, the Asheville Mall has drawn in unique local businesses, such as the Mountain Peak Athletic Center. The boxing and wrestling gym, formerly a Charlotte Russe, is decked out with giant foam mats, green turf and a wrestling ring.

The center trains everyone from older adults to kids as young as 5 and hosts tournaments like “Brawl at the Mall,” where hundreds of spectators can grab a $5 beer from the fridge and hang out by the ring.

Owner John Jastrzebski said the former retail space is a perfect fit — and price — for his growing business.

“It was a long time that it was vacant. So, I'm assuming, since we were asking to rent it, they were willing to negotiate whatever they can get … ‘cause they were getting zero,” he said. 

Jastrzebski added that “it seems that the mall is willing to work with local businesses to bring something a little bit different than things you can get at Amazon.”

In Asheville, “something a little different” has included a tattoo parlor, a food bank and even a wedding venue, Happy & Hitched, where bride-to-be Autumn Davis will get hitched this summer. 

“They have taken a store and turned it into a beautiful event space,” Davis said. “It is gorgeous.”

The venue is stationed near the Dillard’s, right across from an indoor trampoline park. It has rows of white chairs set up inside and sheer fabric billowing from the ceiling. Ornate chandeliers wash the room in a pleasant hue.

“Yeah, it's fancy,” Davis said. “I mean, this is a full-blown wedding. We just happen to be in the center of a mall. …They're going to have their own entrance in the back. It's going to be lined in lights and lace and chauffeurs will be walking people in.”

The Asheville Mall also has its own artist collective. They call themselves the Mall Rats. 

“We're looking at the mall as a canvas and what can we put in it,” Erik Mace, a leader of the group, said.

The parking, plentiful air conditioning and ADA-compliant infrastructure are also important, Mace continued. It means people from all walks of life can be included.

This summer, the Mall Rats launched their first exhibit in the mall, in the hallway outside of the closed JCPenney. They hung a fish sculpture, an artistically bent gardening hoe and other whimsical creations.

“There's a lot of discussion about how malls in their original heyday were community centers,” Mace said. “I think it's just that perfect time to start to talk about, well, what else could a mall be?”

Portland, Oregon is trying to answer that question too. 

Locals sometimes call the Lloyd Center a “dead mall,” but it has an artists’ collective too, coincidentally also called the Mall Rats, led by Nathan Mckee. 

Portland’s Mall Rats includes “anything from people who screen print their own t-shirts to letterpress cards, to zines to ceramicists,” McKee said. 

He said the artists group wants to get people off social media to gather and create in person.

“You know when you’re online all the time, it can mess with your psyche — once you're focused only on likes and how many people, you know, tap the screen,” he said. 

And, plus, McKee continued, people have fond memories at the Lloyd Center. 

“Whether, you know, you were a mall rat or not, you have this wave of nostalgia of just the sound of it and the look of it and the escalators and elevators and ice rink.”

But sometimes nostalgia is not enough to keep a mall alive. In the U.S. between 10 to 20 malls shut down every year. And that’s why some communities are rethinking these spaces in a big way — to reimagine the property entirely. 

In Santa Ana, California, developers are turning sections of the mall into housing. In Quincy, Illinois, an old mall is home to a cancer and surgery center.

And in Sumter, South Carolina, Trevor Ivey now runs an elementary school, Liberty STEAM Charter, inside of an old Macy’s. 

“The biggest surprise for me is that never once would I have ever imagined that the mall would turn into a school,” Ivey said. “I'm born and raised in this community. The mall used to be the place to go.”

As a teenager, Ivey would often come to the mall for corn dogs and arcade games. Decades later, he’s making regular trips there for work — and instead of a fashion and entertainment destination, it’s a hot spot for kindergarteners figuring out what school is or 7-year-olds learning to read. 

While the mall is looking very different these days, Ivey said he’s glad to make use of the space. 

“I think at the heart of our project is this idea of community revitalization,” Ivey said. 

In the coming years, he said he plans to expand the school to include middle schoolers, and maybe even a high school.