Century Plaza Sold For $3 Million

BIRMINGHAM, AL - A once-prominent shopping mall that has been empty since 2009 has a new owner, as Century Plaza has been purchased for a mere $3 million. Pelham-based Lumpkin Development purchased the mall and announced it has big plans for the property. The 65-acre property was previously owned by Howard Hughes Corp.

Century Plaza opened in 1975 on Crestwood Boulevard in an area that became a shopping hotbed in the Magic City, with nearby Eastwood Mall and the Village East shopping center. The mall included anchor stores such as Sears, Rich's, Loveman's and JC Penny, and later Pizitz, McRae's and Macy's. Century Plaza closed on May 31, 2009. At the time of its closing, fewer than 40 stores remained open in the mall. Eastwood Mall had already been demolished at that point, and Village East was no longer the busy retail destination it had once been. The area has since started a gradual resurgence, with the Fesrival shopping center getting a face lift in recent years, and the Eastwood Mall property becoming a Walmart Supercenter.

Since its closing, rumors of what would become of Century Plaza were floated about almost annually, with plans of a church, private school, a Costco, apartments and even a federal prison. However, none of those rumors came to be, and the property has remained empty for almost a decade.

Eddie Lumpkin said despite the mall being empty for the last nine years, it is still in decent shape structurally, and plans are already in motion to open a Mini Storage facility where the former Sears store was, with the remainder of the property available for lease, at rates as low as $5 per square foot.

Photo by Michael Seale