Was reading all the posts re: Mt. Berry Mall. This mall was doomed from the beginning. There are store fronts which have never had stores behind them. Riverbend wasnt the coolest mall ever, but basically it had what we wanted/needed and it was in a great location. Too bad they couldnt do away with K-Mart and put a mall there.

tedb3rd wrote: "I miss Circuit City."

Well I certainly do not miss them. I bought a PC from them and got scammed. The hardware inside is not what in on the label on the outside. They put the piece of junk together from returns I suppose. This was confirmed when I called Microsoft, required, to get a code to change out the motherboard. The serial on the tower case did not match Microsoft records or what was inside. Spoke with others that had something similar to happen. Circuit City did it to them selves.

The company that built Mount Berry was know for picking land further from town. Maybe it was a tax thing. Their Tupelo, Miss. mall was way north of Tupelo. It looks to be same design as Mount Berry.

I miss Circuit City. I won't miss K-Mart (when it goes completely belly-up). I won't miss GAP. If they want to save money, here's how it would make me happy: Get rid of GAP commercials--especially the Christmas ones (oh sorry, GAP has 'holiday season' commercials)... The only GAP commercial I would want to see would be one where each person on the commercial gets slapped for being so obnoxious. I still wouldn't shop there, but at least I would say, "Hey Gap, nice commecial."

BTW--The land that the mall is on was sold by Berry College a while back. It was used to pay for AC units in some of the dorms. That's why the mall is where it is.

anonymous - just where do you get your facts?

wackapedia? you stated "from martha stewart that rich democrat" please show us of any proof of this.i'm calling you out on this. it is time for you to either put up your proof, or shut up.or

it might be time for you to stop making things up. what is it going to be?are you a left winger,or a right winger or just a want-to be.

let me make this real simple for you. all i asked

was if any one else had noticed that k-mart

had became a downtown sears.and other poster's started explaining how this was happing.i do not know how you even came to bring "martha stewart"

into this conversation? just a wild guess on my

part but it must have came from your "fantasy land".I AM NOT DEM OR REP. I AM AN AMERICAN.

What REALLY happened was that K-Mart went BK, bankrupt, reorganized and SEARS HOLDING bought the K-Mart remains, name, etc.

anonymous wrote: "From Martha Stewart, that rich Democrat?"

'Rong. The GOP couldn't get OBL but hey they busted Martha Stewart.

CapitolG wrote "K-Mart owns Sears. Where did K-Mart get the money to buy Sears?"

Kmart sold all of their non-supercenter buildings and land to finance the buying of Sears back when real estate was worth something.

For some reason unknown to me, Sears is running the kmart stores and make policy for both kmart and Sears.

It is all some accounting mumbo jumbo that allowed kmart to buy sears even though kmart has declared bankruptcy several times in the past.

From Martha Stewart, that rich Democrat?

K-Mart owns Sears. Where did K-Mart get the money to buy Sears?

i'm going to say this right up front,it is just my own opinion.it really seems to me that because

of the taxes in rome and floyd county the way they are no company can surive it.

funnygirl wrote "anyone notice that k-mart has become a downtown

SEARS. if that is not a hint who is next to leave a dying mall, ireally do not know what sort of hint the mall might need. "

The rumor has it that Sears will be moving to the kmart building soon next year and vacating the mall.

That may or may not happen. The next step would be for Sears to just go away. I would rather shop at lowes or home depot for my appliances and hardware.

The same people who could not run a grocery store at kmart are running sears.

It is almost certain that kmart will be going under after sears decides to move to the kmart building.

If it is too far to go to Mt. Berry, which by the way is in the city limits, then why is it NOT too far to go to other places like Kennesaw, Chattanooga, Calhoun, Cartersville, even Gadsden. It's not a matter of convenience or distance, but a matter of what stores are where. Everything being equal, I would personally prefer to go to Mt. Berry due to it's convenience, but the only thing equal in this is that the economy currently sucks and unemployment is high. Get past that and Mt. Berry has little to offer those who have the means to shop. If it wants to survive, the management needs to appeal to national names and get them to stay through the hard times, if they can financially do it. It seems unlikely though that Rome will get the name brands people are looking for, I mean we as a city/county can't get something like Publix or Steak and shake in town, so how is the mall going to attract the needed names/businesses in to stay that will "save" it. Its just a bad time for NWGA economically and in turn the mall is going to suffer.

atlthrasher writes: "Anyhow, my favorite store at the mall is the Georgia Bulldog place in front of Express. That store has all the cool T shirts and caps. Gap don't carry none of the cool stuff like that."

As I said in my second post below, the mall disappoints those of us who go for highbrow stuff but seems more than adequate for those of us who do otherwise.

But back to taxes: I suspect but cannot prove that the high property taxes in Rome-Floyd are in large part a result of the ratio of actual property owners to tenants, a ratio which will only grow steeper as people lose their property to foreclosure. In the end you have much of the real estate in relatively few hands: those with large holdings getting some kind of tax break, but all of us in general paying the balance of taxes that would have been paid by the majority who don't own anything but their cars.

I found this out today that Gap is closing stores that do under $3 million/yr. Gap at Mt berry does about $2.5 Million/yr. It's profitable, but Gap wants to focus on higher profiting stores. Makes no sense as to why they would shut a store that profits anyway. Anyhow, my favorite store at the mall is the Georgia Bulldog place in front of Express. That store has all the cool T shirts and caps. Gap don't carry none of the cool stuff like that.

I thought Mt. Berry was in the city limits. Am I wrong?

I have always wanted to champion Mt. Berry Square Mall and see it as a great community resource. I live in the vicinity and it's great to have a mall so close with so many nice stores. I even had my tires changed out there today. That being said, I think the discussion about high property taxes is at the root of the problem. I know the Floyd County government doesn't make it easy on individuals to provide businesses and sevices at reasonable rates. We spent $135 less to have a birthday party in a nearby municipality because RFCPRA wanted a ridiculous amount of money compared to other goverenment run recreation agenices. I know the school system charges insane amounts of money to rent a space for out for classes or lessons compared to nearby systems. If the county is so unreasonable in its demands for compensation to individuals I can only imagine the $'s they see in their eyes when a publicly-traded corporation comes calling. I'm suprised that we even a presence of national brands left in Rome/Floyd County and I bet that it only gets worse.

Downtown being more convenient than Mt. Berry ? That's a laugh with the lack of convenient parking and traffic downtown, I would have to say the opposite is true. Mt. Berry usually has plenty of free parking and less traffic with some exceptions during the christmas holidays. There is way too much traffic downtown during the day especially around the two bridges and what parking decks there are downtown charge by the hour and in most cases nearly a mile from any stores or restaurants. Taxes within the city are considerably higher than those in the county. Unless you live on Broad Street and don't drive Mt. Berry is definately move convenient to most people. I never have understood why the tourism people in room focus on downtown and rarely ever mention anything outside of this small area. There is infinately more to Rome and Floyd county than downtown. The outsiders generally only see this, yet us lifelong residents generally never venture downtown.

i don't know about the rents on broad street,or

at the mall. but i do know that unemployement

is over 10 % in n.w.ga.and with the mall being

located out of town, it might also be to much

trouble for most folks to put up with the traffic

to drive all the way to mt.berry mall? and just a guess RealEstateMystic you could be right about

the high taxes here in floyd county.if the same item was just a little higher on broad street,

i would just pay the extra and not put up with the traffic to go to mt. berry mall. not worth

the hassle to me.

The reason I mentioned rents is because it's unreasonable rents that are behind the high turnover on Broad St as well. Not sure what the long term investment strategies are for the property owners if they keep running off tenants, unless it's just to see how much ROI they can make before palming off the properties to the next sucker. If that is the case, they will be holding on to these units for a long, long time. Hate to be paying the taxes on those holdings, unless...

Unless...it's the high taxes, unique to Floyd County, that are forcing property owners' hands. But that is another story.

i think RealEstateMystic,has hit the nail on the head.about the rent being unreasonable. as for the the local respect,it could be the location of the mall.it seem's to me most local people

do not care much for having to drive out to

armuchee, on highway 27. a lot of bad accident's

seem to happen on that road.and here in n.w.ga.

there's not a whole lot of money,or job's right now.so i must agree that the shop locally idea,

is out the window at mount berry mall

What I don't understand is, who's in charge at Berry Square? Malls around the country are hurting, but this one has had to fight for local respect for years. Are the rents unreasonable?

Another explanation is that the mall simply reflects the tastes of a majority of the local community -- the majority of whom have no money -- leading the few of us who actually like highbrow or (God forgive me) fashionable things to take our dollars to more distant zip codes.