We continue our series on dead malls with the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills in Tarentum, Pennsylvania. The Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills, colloquially known as Pittsburgh Mills, opened in summer 2005 to great fanfare as the second-largest shopping complex in western Pennsylvania. It started out with three anchor stores JCPenney, Kauffmans (which eventually became Macy’s), and Sears Grand, a concept store that Sears set up to try to compete with Walmart. It had a bowling alley called Lucky Strike Lanes that did not last long. The Linens and Things closed in 2008 after the company went under. The Borders Books closed in 2011 when that company went under as well.
It now includes many outside-the-box-type tenants that you wouldn’t expect for a mall. It briefly had a ropes course in the food court, it has churches, technical schools, sports training clinics, etc.
The Sears Grand closed in 2015, the JCPenney, which closed in October 2020 and is documented in this video, and now leaves only Macy’s, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and Dick’s Sporting Goods as the remaining anchors. The mall also made national news when it sold at a foreclosure auction for just $100 in January 2017.
The Cinemark movie theater, which was quite nice, closed during the pandemic but is reopening from the Goodrich quality theaters brand. An incredible fact is that the massive food court which once had two full-service restaurants, a Starbucks, and 10 counter restaurants and pushcart vendors was completely vacant on this visit in October 2020.
This mall goes under the radar in the ‘dead malls’ enthusiast community but is certainly one worth checking out. Check out our video below and a few pictures from our October 2020 visit.
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Sears at Christmas in 2019
