With some traditional retailers looking for the exit doors at shopping malls across the country or vanishing completely, malls can be forced to evolve or die.
Change has become the norm at Chapel Hills Mall, on Colorado Springs’ north side. One of its anchor stores, Kmart, closed in 2009, making way for an AMC movie theater complex that is still there. The Sears was demolished to make way for a 300-unit apartment complex.
Other stores have come and gone since the mall opened in 1982. But now, buoyed by an indoor pickleball facility and glow-in-the-dark minigolf, while still anchored by the likes of Dick’s Sporting Goods and Macy’s, the mall offers experiences in addition to merchandise…