The Rise and Fall of America's Biggest Shopping Mall Randall Park Mall, Ohio

The Rise and Fall of America's Biggest Shopping Mall Randall Park Mall, Ohio On August 11, 1976, a real estate developer from Youngstown, Ohio, opened a shopping mall in a village with a population of under 1,000 people, located amid the suburban fields of Cleveland. That mall spanned 2.2 million square feet on two levels, larger than 35 football fields combined. It had more than 200 stores, 5 anchor department stores, parking for 8,000 cars, a 3-screen movie theater, and marble floors that made it look more like a castle than a shopping place. The construction cost was $175 million, equivalent to nearly $1 billion today. National newspapers called it the largest shopping mall in the world. First-year sales reached $140 million. Its slogan was “Much More Than Everything,” and the village was so proud that it put two shopping bags on its official seal. It lasted exactly 33 years. Then the power was cut, the escalators stopped, the fountains shut off. The final sale price was $6 million, equal to 15% of the construction cost. The entire story originated from one man, an abandoned horse racing track, and a vision that 15 years of litigation could not stop. His name was Edward J. DeBartolo Sr.