OGDEN — The Ogden City Mall is like a ghost town without the tumbleweeds.
Dust collects in long-abandoned empty stores — almost every one of them has been vacated in the past few years. The three that do remain will be gone by the end of December.
The mall is all but dead, and the rest of downtown Ogden isn't far behind.
For that reason, Mayor Matthew Godfrey is hoping that from this two-acre business black hole he can launch a new, economically sound consumer paradise for the entire downtown.
The city bought the mall in October with the hope that city officials could bring in developers to breathe new life into the dying area. City officials still don't know whether they'll level the old mall before building a new one.
Ideally, the new mall will be a mix of offices, shops, theaters and apartments, said Stuart Reid, Ogden City director of business development. Similar plans will be used in other projects downtown.
The mall's remaining tenants were given until Dec. 14 to move out. Once they're gone, the sale on the mall will be complete.
The Ogden City Mall has been on the decline since Newgate Mall south of downtown Ogden was built in 1995 and Nordstrom pulled out of the Ogden Mall in 1996.
Shoppers at the Newgate Mall recently had no trouble coming up with reasons why they stopped shopping at the Ogden City Mall.
"Shopping there wasn't worth it," said Ogden resident Russell Morrison. He said the Ogden City Mall's parking garage had security problems — Morrison said his car was broken into two times while parked there — and the mall's atmosphere and appearance were uninviting.
Ogden resident Robyn Jorgensen agreed. She said she was always afraid she was going to be assaulted while going to her car. She said that was enough to get her to move to Newgate.
"It's safer, cleaner, and I think it's in a better location. I mean, who wants to go downtown?" she said.
Reid said security problems at the mall were more of an urban legend than actual threat, a perception he hopes will change. He said the mall is representative of a failing downtown. As a result, he thinks the redevelopment of the mall will usher in the redevelopment of the downtown area.
"It will lead the downtown renaissance," he said.
Safety was more of a concern at the Ogden City Mall itself and not necessarily downtown in general. But the downtown area isn't seen as being especially inviting, Reid said.
When the city approved the mall's construction in the late '80s it was with the hope that it would rejuvenate an already failing downtown.
"The mall is the barometer for our downtown," Godfrey said. He hopes if people see it born again, it will begin to change the perception of downtown Ogden.
But it's not just a new mall he's relying on to change that perception. Within the next two years, 140 acres of the downtown area — almost the entire downtown — will be under some kind of redevelopment project. That's compared to 20 acres of redevelopment done on downtown Ogden in the past 20 years.
But for some downtown shops, business hasn't been too bad.
"I've been doing very well," said Jennifer Ronayne, who runs Art Glass Originals, a specialty stained window and glass shop across the street from Ogden City Mall.
She attributes her success to the fact that her store is a specialty shop, a destination store. She said her business was never affected by the success or failure of the mall. Only those who are in the market for stained glass windows come in, she said.
In fact, most shops around the mall are specialty stores. On Ronayne's street there is an antiques store, a photo studio and a countertop retailer.
But specialty shop or not, Ronayne said she would still like to see more foot traffic. She said no one comes downtown on foot. She hopes that a revitalized downtown will change that.
For some Ogden residents, undertaking the entire redevelopment of downtown Ogden all at once seems like a risky move for the city's administration.
Lifelong Ogden resident Frank Sanders said when the city built the first mall in the 1980s, he knew it would eventually fail. He said he doesn't think this would be any different.
But the mayor predicts success.
"It's about saving downtown Ogden," Godfrey said. There is a small window of opportunity now because of the Olympics, he said. "We've got to get it done."
Reid said the failure downtown is cyclical. Businesses don't want to locate downtown because there are few amenities for their employees. Entertainment services don't want to locate downtown because there aren't enough people living in the area. Residents don't want to live downtown because there aren't a lot of jobs and few things to do.
Reid said for that reason the city has to do all the redevelopment at once.
"It's very aggressive," Godfrey said. "But it's doable."
E-MAIL: rrogers@desnews.com