Abandoned America: Ohio's Randall Park Mall

Today we visit the abandoned Randall Park Mall in North Randall, Ohio, which was the largest mall in the U.S. until Mall of America was built in Minnesota.

A massive monument to shopping that encompassed nearly 2.2 million square feet of space and reportedly cost $175 million to build, Randall Park Mall was deemed such a colossal miscalculation that it closed after only 33 years in operation and was demolished before it would reach 40 years old.

Randall Park Mall opened in 1976. It was located just outside Cleveland in the town of North Randall, and was intended to lure patrons away from downtown shopping areas.

Built just off the interstate with over 200 stores and 9,000 parking spaces, its motto was “Much More Than Everything”, and initially it seemed like a promise they could deliver.

Designed by noted mall architect Frank DeBartolo, the interior was a maze of confusing ramps and skylights, punctuated by stylish rest areas where people could take a break before resuming their shopping sprees.

Even in the early years, though, Randall Park Mall gained a reputation for crime and had stiff competition from the nearby Beachwood Place mall that was built a year after Randall Park opened and managed to attract more of the area’s affluent shoppers.

Part of the problem was that the huge parking lot was hard to police and easy to steal cars from, with the interstate nearby serving as a convenient escape route. Charles Johnson was said to have invented The Club, a popular anti-theft device for cars, after his father-in-law’s car was stolen from Randall Park’s parking lot.

For the most part the mall’s problems were no greater than those in comparable shopping areas. Unruly teenagers, for example, periodically posed a problem, but this was a similar issue in many other shopping areas at the time.

Public perception was poor, and rumors of a race riot still linger even though they appear unsubstantiated by any news stories.

As the years went by it became harder to find tenants, and hard to mask empty empty storefronts as they left.

Malls in general have a hard time adapting; as tenants leave vacant shops scare off more shoppers, and any crimes can make shoppers feel the area is unsafe. In addition, Randall Park was hard to reach by public transportation and the surrounding area looked blighted.

As online shopping cut deeply into the profits of malls across America, Randall Park Mall’s bad reputation solidified. There was a shooting in the Magic Johnson Cinema shortly after it opened, and several other ugly incidents, including one where a security guard murdered a suspected shoplifter.

With anchor stores folding, the decision was made to close the mall in March of 2009 and vacate the few struggling stores remaining inside, many of which were owned by small business people doing their best to keep the mall afloat.

The power was shut off in May, and save for the dusty sunbeams streaking through the skylights on sunny afternoons, the mall went dark.

The property was purchased by Industrial Realty Group for $375,000. Though they were unsure at first what the parcel of land would become, they sensed opportunity in the location.

I was one of the only photographers given official access to document the site as they were preparing for demolition.

Randall Park Mall once had an average of 5,000 people in it between employees and shoppers on any given day. When I was there it was eerily empty, save for a groundhog I saw coming down one of the hallways toward me at one point.

Christmas decorations were still scattered throughout the mall, including a bear pointing a baton upwards at nothing in particular, now sitting in the muddy tracks of a backhoe.

One of my favorite finds was the General Cinemas theater, closed since 1993. Its lobby had been used for a men’s clothing store’s storage and the theaters themselves were untouched.

Haunting remnants of the bright store facades remained, contrasting sharply with the silence and desolation.

An arsonist burned the Magic Johnson Cinema and the rest of the mall was torn down shortly after.

Many other malls across the country are suffering a similar fate, but Randall Park Mall is perhaps the most significant.

In a somewhat ironic twist, the property was turned into a 2.3 million-square-foot Amazon Fulfillment Center that opened in late 2018 – perhaps hastening the demise of other malls in the process.