Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
ANNE LINDBERGAmid the battered reminders of its past, the doors close for the last time today at 27-year-old ParkSide mall.
PINELLAS PARK - The sun sets today on 27-year-old ParkSide mall, but the final locking of the doors will be a formality.
All but a couple of businesses were gone Monday. Debris littered abandoned storefronts. Footsteps echoed from the tile floor, and the occasional metallic clank of a hammer rang from behind the walls.
Here are some scenes from that walkthrough:
Frank Sinatra's That's Life - "Some people get their kicks stompin' on a dream" - provided poignant background music at Art and Frame Mkt., where owner Ken Brunelle, his wife and employees sifted through the remnants of their store.
A fan blew hot air over the workers. The air conditioning in the store broke awhile back, but mall owners saw no need to fix it, said Brunelle, whose face shined with perspiration. It wasn't so bad at first, but a week or so ago owners cut off the mall's cooling system.
Art and Frame has been a mall tenant since 1995, originally on the first floor near Montgomery Ward. Brunelle spent about $7,000 to move it to the second floor near the JCPenney Outlet after Montgomery Ward shut down.
The store will not reopen elsewhere. The Brunelles lacked the money to move the inventory.
An 80-percent-off sale also flopped. Foot traffic came to a virtual halt as mall owners put up a chain-link fence mostly covered in black plastic and moved in heavy construction equipment.
Brunelle donated the remaining inventory - worth about $55,000 - to Goodwill. The charity sent workers Monday to collect it.
"ParkSide ruined us," Brunelle said. "All our money's invested in this. . . . What are we going to do?"
By then, Sinatra had given way to Roberta Flack's Killing Me Softly With His Song.
The ice rink had melted. Blue, red, green, pink, yellow and orange balloons - relics of the farewell party - speckled the surface. The black paint from the name ParkSide was bleeding into the white paint. Grayish brown patches were visible through the rink's white bottom. The Zamboni was gone.
Upbeat signs, holdovers from John Hancock's ownership and a mall renovation, were still up:
Pinellas ParkSide
The excitement is building!
Change is good!
Another said:
Pinellas ParkSide
The excitement is building!
Wait 'til you see what's coming.
Someone had added in ink ". . .down!"
Escalators went up but not down. One ladies room had toilet tissue across the floor. In another, a sink appeared to be falling off the wall. At the former Cara's Pizza, holes in the wall and ceiling spoke of ovens that had been removed. Wires dangled from kiosks that had no pay phones. Shards of broken glass crunched under foot at times. The clerk at Amtrak was answering questions about schedules to Charleston. A worker removed the sign at GNC nutrition center.
Several businesses left notes advising customers where they were going, proving that one mall's misfortune is another's gain.
Amtrak will move north on U.S. 19 to Suite 101 at Pinellas Park Square, 5251 110th Ave. N. Mick for Hair is already there in Suite 210.
Optical Outlet has moved nearby to 4466 Park Blvd. between Firehouse Subs and Wendy's.
NY Flava is headed to Seminole Mall.
New Millenium will consolidate its inventory at its St. Petersburg location, 2273 34th St. S.
Jerry Barthlett's tax and accounting service will move to Dr. Bell's Office Plaza, 4326 Park Blvd.