‘Hurts my heart’: Community reacts to Century III demolition
For Jim Jasinski, a lifelong West Mifflin resident, watching the first few chunks of Century III Mall fall to the ground was surreal.
The 70-year-old saw the mall go up in the 1970s — at the time, a flare of hope and marker of economic resurgence for a community reeling from the collapse of the steel industry. He recalled spending hundreds of hours there through the ’80s and ’90s, when the mall was teeming and seemed too big to fail.
And yet, two weeks ago, a fleet of machines began to dismantle the shopping center, which had been abandoned for more than five years and posed a safety threat to the surrounding community. Mr. Jasinski drove down to the mall last week to see it for himself.
“It kind of breaks my heart, but yet it’s progress,” Mr. Jasinski said. “Something has to be done.”
The demolition has been ongoing since Easter, when contractor Neiswonger began to take down the parking area. As of last week, officials estimated that 5% of the parking deck had been completed and would likely take several more months. The owner of the mall also completed an asbestos survey for the interior of the mall, and remediation is expected to begin in a few weeks.
“It’s something happening,” said West Mifflin Council member Dan Davis. “I’m happy about that.”
With the mall finally being erased from the borough landscape, community members and shoppers from all around shared their memories of the one-time retail giant.
Mardi Pitts, a Pittsburgh resident, used to take her kids to the mall quite often.
“I have so many memories of this mall ... seeing Santa, the Merry Go Round, KB Toys, Yankee Candle Store,” she said. “My kids and their friends had their first jobs at that mall.
“But it will never come back, so time to let go,” she added. “I hope something great for the community is done with the property.”
Melissa Cibrone-Thompson commented on a Facebook page called Century III Memories that her “favorite entrance” to the mall — the bridge that entered above the food court — would soon be torn down.
“I know we all wanted to see it come down, but now that it is, it hurts my heart to see,” Ms. Cibrone-Thompson said. “It never should have gotten this bad.”
The mall closed permanently in February 2019 after owner Moonbeam Capital failed to repair a broken fire suppression system. Since then, the 1.3-million-square-foot building has sat empty and deteriorated. Last year, a fire ripped through the mall, parts of the structure collapsed and a teenage boy fell through the roof, suffering serious injuries.
Moonbeam began to demolish the mall two months after Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. filed criminal nuisance charges against the company for failing to remediate a slew of safety hazards. The company never paid $150,000 in fines levied because of those dangers.
Some residents welcome the tear-down after a drumbeat of headaches.
“We suffered for years and years and years,” Mr. Jasinski said. “You have to bite your pride and say, ‘Hey, thishas gone on long enough.’” Others are more sentimental. Judy Winstead Foster, who has fond memories of going to the mall, posted on Facebook that when she passed by and saw the structure coming down, she “had a lump in my stomach and [a] tear in my eye.”
Now, many community members want to see the land sold and repurposed, and forget the eyesore that the mall had become.
We want “something that residents can actually be proud of,” Mr. Jasinski said. “Let’s move on. Let’s put it to better use.”