Century III's Likely Last Holiday Season: No Santa, Few Stores

PITTSBURGH, PA - This time of year, most mall parking spaces are at a premium. Shoppers experience long cashier lines in crowded stores. Children wait impatiently for their visit with Santa as holiday music plays over the sound system.

Not at Century III in the Pittsburgh suburb of West Mifflin.

Acres of parking are available once you navigate around many of the mall’s closed arterial roads. There’s virtually no time spent in line at its few remaining stores. No kids are waiting for Santa because Santa decided to skip this depressing scene. Instead of hearing “Joy to the World” or “Carol of the Bells” over the speakers, there is only silence.

Welcome to what almost certainly is the last holiday season for Century III, which opened in 1979 and arguably was western Pennsylvania’s busiest mall during its 1980s heyday. Its decline was gradual, but the loss in recent years of anchors such as Macy’s and Sears had a snowball effect and prompted many other businesses to exit.

The mall was scheduled several times this year for sheriff’s sales that were canceled at the last minute for reasons that aren’t clear. Mall owner Moonbeam Capital Investments of Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy in September and clearly doesn't have the money it would require to make Century III viable again.

The three-level mall has 1.2 million square feet of retail space, but only 14 storefronts are occupied. Anchors JCPenney and Dick’s Sporting Goods remain for the moment, but the other businesses there aren’t likely to inspire a massive influx of shoppers. They include a uniform store, a smoke shop, comic book store and nail salon.

Chris Donaldson owns Air Too Fly, a custom airbrush art store in the mall. Asked if it’s creepy working in a space so vast and empty, he nodded and said, “Yeah, especially at night.”

That’s easy to understand, as footsteps echo eerily on the floor tiling. Large portions of the mall are roped off and plastic tarps cover some sections that have fallen into disrepair. Tables and chairs remain in what once was the food court, but no eateries are open.

JCPenney had some shoppers, but the store wasn’t packed as one would expect during the holidays.

A JCPenney cashier who later declined to give her name to an eavesdropping reporter was overhead telling a customer that the store likely will close sometime in the new year. She also said that Penney employees expect that the mall’s eventual purchaser will demolish it.

Donaldson said he hopes that somehow the mall will survive. As he owns one of the few custom airbrush art shops in town, people come there seeking his work. Unlike the dozens of other businesses that have fled the mall, he doesn’t want to leave.

“I’m staying until they tell me to get out,” he said.

Expect that to be sooner rather than later. The people who used to patronize it might remember its better days fondly, but Century III no longer is a shopping mall.

It’s a retail mausoleum.

Photos: Eric Heyl/Patch staff.

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