Big Plans for Huge Dead TN Mall That Was Once a Shopping Mecca

When I was a kid, we went to Louisville where I experienced what we know today as a traditional mall for the first time. Never having seen anything like it in my life, I was blown away...like the first time I went to Disney World.

Several years later, as a young adult attending Western Kentucky University, I wandered down Interstate 65 then onto Interstate 24 and wound up in Antioch, a Nashville suburb. That's where, once again, my eyes popped out of my head when I first laid eyes on one of the largest malls I'd ever seen.

Once a Major Shopping Hub, Hickory Hollow Mall Sadly Became a 'Dead Mall'

Originally called Hickory Hollow Mall, it was a shopping mecca in central Tennessee and featured two stories that could have each been their OWN stand-alone mall. I've never been a big mall denizen, but Hickory Hollow's anchor stores all had healthy big & tall men's clothing departments. That's always worth five stars from yours truly. It is an ENORMOUS property. It is also...dead.

While it was briefly resurrected as Global Mall at the Crossings, it just didn't take and has sat empty for many years. I was AT Hickory Hollow Mall several years ago just before it took its last breath, and it looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic thriller.

What's more, the area SURROUNDING Hickory Hollow Mall thrived with multiple shopping centers, clothing stores, electronics stores, restaurants, and a huge movie theater (which still sees high traffic).

Will Allocated Millions Transform This Once-Vibrant Property?

So what happens now? The city poured more than $40 million dollars into the property in 2021, but nothing has happened with it. Last summer, WSMV-Nashville reported on a plan to transform the space into a "giant community hub."

Here's blueprint for the proposed hub from the Nashville Metro Planning Commission:

More recently, we learned from WKRN-Nashville that original plans indicated a partnership with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, but that concept was scotched.

With Opry Mills and Cool Springs Galleria in Franklin enjoying rousing success as Music City's current shopping hot spots, I doubt we'll see that kind of enterprise return to the Hickory Hollow area of Antioch.

But as bureaucratic wheels continue to spin, one wonders if we'll EVER see that $40 million-plus work its magic.

DISCLAIMER: Townsquare Media strongly discourages exploration of abandoned properties without the express permission of the property owner.