Owings Mills Mall at 25: An Uncertain Future

Jeffrey Freedman grew up with the Owings Mills Mall and doesn’t want it to be replaced. The 26-year-old school teacher just wants it to get fixed up.

“I think everyone has a mall they’ve grown up with, that they feel particularly attached to,” Freedman said. “I think that’s what it is for me. You go with your family. It's a nice place to be.”

With the mall quietly creeping up on its 25^th anniversary on July 30, it has become a shell of its former self. Television news reports from 1986 said the mall boasted around 160 stores. Today, there are fewer than 60 shops listed on the mall’s website.

Although Freedman and others who frequently post on the wall of a Facebook group called Owings Mills Mall is DEAD wish to see the mall resurrected, few clues of any planned improvement have been offered by General Growth Properties Inc., the owners of the mall and several others in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

Clinton Cole, general manager of Owings Mills Mall and the Village of Cross Keys, an outdoor shopping center in north Baltimore, initially declined to speak with Patch for this series.

But in a prepared statement e-mailed to Patch this week by a public relations firm representing the mall, Cole, who is , said he was making plans to improve the mall.

“Two-thousand-11 marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of Owings Mills Mall,” the statement said. “The past has seen many changes to the area surrounding the center and the mall itself. Through it all, we have remained committed to the Owings Mills area.

“As we look towards the future, Owings Mills Mall is devoted to making the mall the best shopping experience available.”

Further complicating the mall’s future in Owings Mills is the announced ground breaking of Metro Centre -- which would sit nearly next-door to the mall, at the Owings Mills Metro Station -- on July 28, two days before the mall’s anniversary.

The first building being constructed will be a branch of the Baltimore County Public Library and will include space for the Community College of Baltimore County, but retailers and restaurants are ultimately expected to join the anchor building.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said through a county spokeswoman that the mall and Metro Centre could co-exist. He called the mall a priority both for Owings Mills and Baltimore County.

Kamenetz has also personally reached out to General Growth Properties to remind the company of the potential the mall has, Fronda J. Cohen said.

“(Kamenetz is) confident that the Owings Mills retail economic engine is about to launch in high speed,” Cohen said. “He’s optimistic things will be moving forward.”

This is part three in a series examining the Owings Mills Mall. took a look at the mall’s heralded beginning, while showed where the mall is today.