Despite numerous articles, stories, and blog posts by other ‘burgers, I just now, for the first time, realized that the Camp Hill Mall was gone.  Yes, I know, the whole Giant thing — but it didn’t occur to me that they flattened the mall for it.  With three other bigger, more modern malls taking its place, the loss of Camp Hill’s long-troubled mall isn’t a big deal.  But it’s worth noting that I never even noticed it was gone.  So now we’re left with Colonial Park, Harrisburg, and Capital City Malls.  All within ten minutes of each other (90 during rush hour, which, if you’re not from the area, runs from around noon to 6pm).  I guess we’ll have to make do.

I only noticed it because of my new job.  I’ve been pulled into a management position at a wireless company.  While I’m not mentioning names, suffice to say it feels like home.  We don’t have armored pickups yet, so our deposits are getting hand-delivered to our local branch bank.  It wasn’t until I tried to walk INTO the former mall that I realized it was gone.  Go figure.

Anyway, interesting thing, these malls are.  All our area malls are around 35-40 years old, which means that sometime around 1970, four independent developers thought we needed four independent malls.  Harrisburg East for the ghetto, Colonial Park for the ‘burbs, and two on the west shore.  Last year, Harrisburg East dropped the “East” and underwent a massive refurbishing, and is successfully driving themselves away from their ghetto image (although having DCP next door isn’t helping).  This year, Capital City has launched a not-as-major-but-still-noteworthy refresh, demolishing their theaters and relocating their food court.  Rumor has it there are some A-class retail chains (Hollister etc) going in.  Which leaves Colonial Park.

When a mall starts pulling in sub-C-level retail tenants, it’s a good sign that they’re either about to be sold or about to go under.  Last time I was in CP, there was an “Everything $1″ store, a non-franchise coffee/internet/computer cafe, and an “As Seen On TV” store.  Hollister it ain’t.  Combine that with the traffic nightmare that is Jonestown Road Between 9am and 6pm, the eastern commercial creep on 22, and the stagnant development in the mall’s area, and you’ve got trouble brewing.  Colonial Park also doesn’t have a strong enough company (Glimcher) to pull them out of any quagmire (giggity) they fall into.  And when major retailers who are posting strong growth everywhere else nationwide start pulling their stores from a mall, that’s a sign that the nails are a-comin’.

Maybe these guys would be interested?