Akron’s Rolling Acres Mall is the latest Ohio mall to shut its doors after years of trying to stay afloat.

Once home to over 140 retail stores, previously anchored by names such as May Company, Montgomery Ward, and Higbee’s (all which went through re-branding transitions), and, most recently, by Target, Sears, and JC Penny, the Rolling Acres mall officially made its final holiday sales and closed up shop on Dec. 31, 2013.

Though the mall has only been vacant for a little over a month, it’s already showing signs of deterioration.

Here are 24 photos of the mall’s interior and exterior, courtesy of Nicholas Eckhart and Justin Higgins, who have photographed dozens of decaying malls all across the country. The photos were taken between 2012 and 2013 as retailers began vacating the space.

See more of their work on their blog, DeadAndDyingRetail.com.

This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2014.

Alaina Nutile is the Web Editor who oversees all digital content and social media initiatives for Cleveland Scene Magazine and Detroit Metro Times. Before joining the staff in June 2013, she interned at Business Insider in New York City, and at La Hora in Quito, Ecuador. Alaina is a graduate of Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where she double majored in English and Spanish. Her interests include Japanese food, Breaking Bad, and career development advising.

15 replies on “24 Photos of Akron’s Abandoned Rolling Acres Mall”

  1. The owners of ThistleDown – which includes Dan Gilbert – seem to believe that Akron is the golden path of untold riches for a racino. That is one nice chunk of property that now needs redevelopment.

  2. The actual mall has been closed for years, only the JC Penney outlet anchor store was in operation. The exterior of this store and the surrounding parking lot were the only part being maintained. That final store closed at the end of 2013, hence the extreme degredation to the interior and the rest of the exterior.

  3. The main mall had been closed and abandoned for several years. The deteroriation is not only since December.

  5. Oooohhh.
    That would be co to have a racing venue that u dont have to drive 45 minutes to get to. But im sure the people of Akron would find some reason to complain about it like everything else.

  6. I have an idea! If buildings stand empty for more than 3 years tear them down and make a green space at the expense of the owner. If the owner is not solvont anyone have another suggestion?

  7. We drove around it and the old Target looks line a storage place now Ive heard there are gonna be 2 auctions on it and if noone buys it will go to the city and they will provably tear it down

  8. ” tear them down and make a green space at the expense of the owner. If the owner is not solvont anyone have another suggestion?”

    Yes – round up the gangstas who are shooting up the ‘night club’ across the street and put sledge hammers in their hands and make them tear it down brick-by-brick. They’re far more responsible for the mall’s failing than the owners.

  9. Since Thistledown Racino won’t be moving south to the property near the airport, I wonder if the rolling acres site is big enough?

  11. I have quite a few memories of good times at this mall during its heyday. It was built in a poor, seedy area of Akron. Eventually everyone was afraid to shop there because of the local gangs. It has NOTHING to do with declining retail sales, just poor planning on part of the developer. I remember sitting in a marketing class at Akron U in the early 80’s and the professor predicting it would fail.

    The main part of the mall has been closed for 5 or more years. The JC Penney outlet was the only store open. The writer needed to actually research for this article.

  12. The story is very inaccurate the mall was closed in 2006 the last management company was Schostack brothers .the owners of part of it live in California and of another part of it live in New York …the only businesses there are scam artists non-of them can be contacted and none of them pay their taxes .the only one was JC pennies, and Pinnacle Recycling,that took any responsibility at all.
    Parking lot was very dangerous and had very large and deep holes in it there is a lot of Open Dumping in there… the entire area is very corrupt ..the mall was actually closed because organized gangs went out there to steal property and merchandise from the stores I would know this because I lived inside that mall for over a year. I finally had to leave because I was robbed by three Akron police officers behind it .
    I know this because while I was living there I went through all the records from the business office and the police department that are still out there at the mall …these records are lying all over the floor of the mall .

  14. Milton Lewis Smith Jr used to work at Rolling Acres Target in Akron, Ohio 2003. Now I’m on Social Security and I’m a millionaire. 4153956907 T-Mobile.

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