Mall 205: Portland, Oregon on DeadMalls.com

MALL 205: PORTLAND, OR

A.J.'s Commentary

Posted December 3, 2005 (user submitted October 28, 2005)

Mall 205 is probably one of the more happier stories you will read on deadmalls.com. Today it is a redeveloped mall on Portland's outer east side which has fought hard and won its challenge to stay in business . Although the mall faced numerous hard times throughout its existence, its owners have put much effort and money into keeping the shopping center viable. Currently, it is classified as a communtiy shopping center.

The late 1970's and early '80's saw the completion of Interstate 205 through Multnomah County. With the new freeway coming, developers saw opurtunities to lure commuters in to shopping centers and began eyeing properties along nearby 82nd Avenue and the freeway. Before the advent of Clackamas Town Center, Mall 205 was quite likely the largest freeway-spurred development.

The original configuration and decor was quite typical of late 1970's-early 1980's design. The mall was completely enclosed, with the only outparcel being a Montgomery Wards auto center. it was rectangular in shape, with the mall's main walkway veering off to the west on the north end. I remember that the old mall was quite dark inside, lit only by the occasional fluorescent light. I think this was done to make the shops look brighter, giving shoppers more incentive to go inside.

The anchors that I can recall were Montgomery Wards and an Emporium (a now-defunct local department store chain). Another anchor spot was home to several different large stores: two large grocery stores, then a Payless Drug Store (now known as Rite-Aid). Minor stores that I remember included Musicland (predecessor to Sam Goody in Oregon), the only A&W Rootbeer restruant in a Portland mall, and a Kaybee Toys. The mall also hosted a movie theater, which was not accessible through the interior of the mall.

The mall did well through the mid '80's, despite the anchor shuffle at the north end. The owners then decided to freshen up the mall with a facelift in the early 1990's. This helped keep customers and tennants happy. Unfortuneately, Mall 205 was competing against Clackamas Town Center further south, where many of the same minor stores at Mall 205 could be found, along with many other stores. Some of the minor stores closed, leaving some empty storefronts.

When the 2000's hit, along with a recession, Mall 205 fell into dire straights. Payless Drugs had merged with Rite Aid, then pulled out of the mall. Payless had a lot of stores in the smaller Oregon malls, but Rite Aid decided to close most of these in favor of building new stand-alone stores. Montgomery Wards declared bankruptcy and closed its doors forever. Following this, Emporium went out of business, leaving the mall with no anchors at all. A few minor stores soldiered on, but until a recently completed renovation, Mall 205 was essentially a dead mall.

Luckily the owners cared about the sucess of the property, and acted fast to return the mall to vitality. With the "Big Box" craze in full swing, Mall 205 attracted typical "Category Killers" to fill renovated space in a new configuration. Unlike the conversion of nearby Eastport Plaza, most of the enclosed mall survives today, and all the new anchors have entrances into this space. Target took over the old Montgomery Wards, Home Depot almost nearly took over the central portion of the old mall, based around the old Emporium store. A 24 Hour Fitness and Bed, Bath, and Beyond have also moved in.

The new configuration with somewhat less mall space has breathed new energy into the almost-dead mall. It's not a parking lot-based typical Big Box redevelopment, instead it retains some of its previous charm. Mall 205 is a survivor, showing that with committed mall owners and the desire to keep an area economicly viable, any dead mall can be saved!

Steven Roberts's Commentary

Posted November 20, 2006 (user submitted)

I remember in the late 70's/early 80's there were waterslides inside the mall (Washington Square was another mall with the same thing).

There was a tower in the center of the mall with a stairway leading up to a lifeguard who pointed you to which tube you were supposed to go down. The tubes emptied into a pool in the center of the mall. The hydrotubes were sued out of business by a parent (I use that term in only the strictest biological sense) who's son decided to block a tube halfway down by exerting force on the sides of the tube with his hands and feet to come to a full stop, which resulted in the inevitable pile up of kids and multiple injuries.

I always thought of the hydrotubes as a unique feature, and I think it definately deserves a mention on your site.

Shandelle Schirmer’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2020

This mall is super dead now. Beyond inner mall entrances for Target and Bed Bath and Beyond, there's basically nothing in the enclosed portion. A small magic movie theater, a nail salon and a DMV location. The back end of a 24 Hour Fitness gym. I didn't see a Home Depot entrance to/from the mall. There's virtually nothing left and I'm real surprised they bother keeping the enclosed portion open. There's a Cricket Wireless and then some shuttered businesses. I noted very little else as of October 2019.

Marshall Livingston’s Commentary:

User submitted in 2019

🐵Box - before mall 205 open - the first store was Payless that was build on the old asylum land - when the mall was build - the west end was US General - it later become 🐵Box ... I know - use to ride my bike on the grounds... Most don't know that Kelly Butte to the south was a bomb shelter... That before the freeway there was two small body's of water - the the police had a shooting range behind what is now the ⛪ at Powell Blvd. @ 205 and that what is now the freeway at Division - a land fill at the old lake...

S.W. Harvey’s Commentary:

User submitted Jan 2008

Mall 205 actually opened in the early 1970s. The original anchor stores were White Front and Montgomery Ward. Some of the long-time tenants inside the mall in that era were Hickory Farms, Chess King, The Jean Machine, and GNC. The mall also sported a food court featuring regional food from all over the USA.

White Front had a huge arcade inside with dozens of pinball machines and attracted a lot of kids, but the rest of the store was pretty much ignored by shoppers, and eventually it closed in the mid 1970s.

The space where White Front stood was unpopulated for a very long time after that, and was eventually turned into a Bazaar-like flea market of sorts called "Ali Baba's Marketplace" for two or three years. I remember dozens of vendors of dubious virtue selling thousands of bootleg 8-track tapes, used records, posters, cheapie car stereos and other stuff at that place. One of the audio vendors eventually grew large enough to leave Ali Baba's and take over a vacant storefront elsewhere in the mall, and named themselves Stereo Super Stores.

Eventually Mall 205's management was able to find a couple of anchor tenants for that end of the mall, and Ali Baba's was demolished and the space was renovated to house a large drug store (whose name escapes me at the moment), an Emporium store, and Crystal Ship Records. Crystal Ship went belly up in the early 1980s, and Stereo Super Stores moved into its place from its previous space in the center of the mall. Also around that time, much of the food court was demolished and replaced with a video arcade.

Mall 205 kind of muddled along for the next few years until the parent company of Emporium developed financial problems and went bankrupt, closing the Emporium. About this same time Stereo Super Stores also went bankrupt and was bought out by Tom Petersen's, a local competitor, who promptly closed the mall 205 location. That left the drug store as a very weak anchor for that end of the mall. Montgomery Ward closed a few years later, which left Mall 205 with no anchors, and competetion just down the road from the huge Clackamas Town Center. I remember walking through Mall 205 shortly after the Wards closure and it looked like a ghost town....there was almost no people there, either buying or selling. It looked like the end of the line for Mall 205, but fortunately it didn't happen. Somehow the owners managed to completely renovate the mall and attract some big-name, first rate tenants. Home Depot now stands where White Front/Ali Baba's/Emporium/Stereo Super
Stores once were. Where the food court and video arcade once stood now has a very modern looking 24 Hour fitness center. Bed, Bath, and Beyond now occupies the center of the mall, and Target now sits where Wards once stood for all those years. Additionally a large number of restauarant chains have opened in the vicinity of the mall.

The only two things that haven't changed from the old days are the locations of the Armed Forces Recruiting Center and the mall's management offices.
In most respects, the mall looks healthier and more upscale now than it ever was before.

A.J.'s Commentary

Steven Roberts's Commentary

Shandelle Schirmer’s Commentary:

Ben Carothers’ Commentary:

Marshall Livingston’s Commentary:

S.W. Harvey’s Commentary: