Amazon is reportedly taking over the site of a once-thriving mall in Akron, Ohio, that was shut down and abandoned after a decade-long decline.
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Inside the eerie abandoned mall where Amazon will reportedly build a giant new facility (AMZN)
Seph Lawless - Dead Mall
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Amazon is planning to build a 695,383-square-foot facility at the site of the former Rolling Acres Mall, according to blueprints of the project obtained by the Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com .
Poignant images of the mall's decay over the years have come to symbolize the era of retail disruption known as the retail apocalypse . The mall was largely demolished by the city of Akron in 2016.
Here are some of images of the mall that were taken before its destruction. The photos were taken by photographers Seph Lawless and Nicholas Eckhart.
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Rolling Acres Mall opened in 1975 to great fanfare as the premier shopping destination for the surrounding community.
At its height, the mall boasted more than 140 stores including Macys, JCPenney, Target, and Sears.
Four decades later, the mall fell victim to years of falling customer traffic.
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Seph Lawless
As the mall lost customers, several department stores abandoned their leases, and smaller tenants followed suit.
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Seph Lawless
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Rolling Acres never recovered ...
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Seph Lawless
... and it lost its last store tenant in 2013.
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Seph Lawless
As business slowed, the building became a target for criminal activity.
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Seph Lawless
A homeless man was sentenced to a year in prison for living inside a vacant store in 2007.
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Seph Lawless
Another man was electrocuted trying to steal copper wire from the mall in 2011.
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Seph Lawless
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Source: Cleveland.com
That same year, the body of an apparent murder victim was found behind the shopping center.
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Seph Lawless
Source: Cleveland.com
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Even vacant, the mall remained a safety concern.
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Seph Lawless
The mayor of Akron instructed residents in 2016 to "stay clear of the area."
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Seph Lawless
The outside of the mall decayed along with the inside. Weeds sprouted up between cracks in the parking lot.
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Nicholas Eckhart
This building originally opened in 1978 as an ONeils department store.
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Seph Lawless
In 2006 it became a Macys, which shut down just two years later.
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Nicholas Eckhart
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This cinema was added to the mall around 1977.
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Nicholas Eckhart
Storage of America at one point took over this space, which was formerly occupied by Target.
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Nicholas Eckhart
This truck unloading center also belonged to Target.
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Nicholas Eckhart
This was originally the now-defunct Montgomery Ward department store before it closed in 1986. The store became Dillards in 1992. In 1997, it became a Clearance Center.
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Nicholas Eckhart
The city began the process of demolishing the rotting shopping center in 2016.
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Seph Lawless
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Years after it was abandoned, the Rolling Acres site could now become home to a brand-new Amazon facility.
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Nicholas Eckhart
The warehouse could bring hundreds of jobs to the area.
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Seph Lawless
It could also serve to symbolize a new era of retail dominated by Amazon and other e-commerce giants after the retail apocalypse wiped out hundreds of shopping malls.
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Nicholas Eckhart
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