“Wrecking Corp Wins Contract for Demolition of Coliseum Mall in Hampton Roads, Virginia”
{article from March}
Two photos are in the article, one of the Barnes & Noble and Steve & Barrys and an aerial shot:
October 25, 2007
October 21, 2007
All That is Left of Coliseum Mall (September, 2007)
I took this picture in the new JC Penney parking lot.
Everything was sold and moved out in early August, and the new JC Penney down from it was opened in late August. This one will be torn down. After this is torn down, the only building standing from the old Coliseum Mall days will be the Macys.
September 28, 2007
First Visit to New JC Penney in Hampton
I went to the new J.C. Penney in Hampton this morning — the only reason why I went was because they have a mini Sephora. I don’t really have a good review of the store since this is all I went to today. So I’ll just have to talk about the Sephora.
This mini version actually does carry a lot of things. Of course, not every name brand sephora.com offers (for example, no NARS), but a good choice. These are the brands I saw:
Lorac
Smashbox
Philosophy
Bare Esentuals (The lady there put it on my face and it was all flakey and pasty looking)
Urban Decay
Stila
Too Faced
Benefit
Burjouis
Bliss
It’s really nice, considering that Hampton Roads hasn’t had a Sephora since the one at MacArthur center closed just a year after opening.
August 27, 2007
Longest Blockquotes Ever
I had these two mall related dreams Sunday morning:
I had both Coliseum and Newmarket Fair dreams. In the Coliseum Mall dream, I think I had missed the demolition ceremony for the mall, and I had also missed a television special about the demolition. I got so upset by this I started crying, and somehow my cries appeased someone, and they had found me footage of the TV special, but the footage I was able to see looked as though it was shot though binoculars, all I could see was a distance shot of the mall area. The mall was gone, but the J.C. Penney and the Hechts (yeah, when I was writing this dream down, I didn’t write Macys, whoops) was still up, but the new J.C. Penney was built and open — it seemed teeny tiny compared to the old J.C. Penney. And the footage looked very old, as though it was shot on the mall’s opening day, not 30 something years later when the mall was dead.
——-The Newmarket Fair dream I had took place after the mall stopped being a mall. Everything had been painted white (I guess as a primer coat), and even the insides of stores had been gutted and replaced with white dry wall. I was walking around, pretty much lost since everything was white. Then I realized that I had become trapped in the mall — and that Snape guy from the Harry Potter books and movies was keeping me captive. Every entrance in and out of a store had been drywalled over as I was walking through the mall, and I was trapped in the stores. I thought I was trapped there forever, until I saw a small opening between the dry wall, and the floor on the second level of the mall right above Sears. I could look through this space, and I could see a red light coming from the old Sears sign, and the floor to the first level. The space between the dry wall and the floor was large enough for me (shuh, yeah I know that must of been a BIG opening) to squeeze and fall through onto the first floor. I was scared, but I knew that it was my only way out. So I squeeze though the opening, and fell onto the first floor of the mall in front of Sears. There on the first floor was this annoying as —- student at my school who is never prepared for his classes, and is always clueless about everything. I assume we both ran out of the mall.
August 14, 2007
Coliseum Mall Opening Week Microfilms from The Daily Press
When I went to the Newport News library to do research on Newmarket North/Newmarket Fair, I also did a small bit of research on Coliseum Mall the week it opened in October of 1973. I could only print a few things because my dad was getting ready to pick me up from the library, and I was mainly there to get Newmarket North stuff for a paper I was writing back in March. So I only have a few things:
From only looking at a few photos, I think that Waldenbooks moved during its tenure at the mall. The directory that was in that 1973 paper had Waldenbooks near where Korvettes/Wards/Burlington was. I remember Waldenbooks from when I was growing up until they closed in 2002 or 2003 near Rices-Nachmans/Hess/Proffits/Dillards. It was almost next to the short lived Disney store and almost across from the Coffee Beanery.“Mall Lerner’s Modern” more press releases passing for news articles like we saw in the Newmarket entry, also includes a bad photo of Coliseum’s Lerner location. I went in here when it was New York & Co. in 2002 with my half sister and the store was still pretty much stuck in the late 1970’s.
A HUGE ad for the grand opening of the recently closed and moved JC Penney. That drawing of the building is pretty accurate.
Yeah, I shoulda fixed this crookedness in iPhoto when I uploaded this months ago. This is from February of 1981, and reprinted in The Daily Press in April of 2005 when the redevelopment plans for Coliseum Mall was revealed.
August 5, 2007
Opening heralds rebirth of retail {Daily Press}
I have the actual newspaper article from this too, I need to scan it when I go to school Tuesday.
{Here is a link to a video from the newspaper}dailypress.com/business/dp-97327sy0aug04,0,4337770.story
dailypress.com
Opening heralds rebirth of retail
Shoppers flock to J.C. Penney for the store’s grand opening. It is the first Peninsula Town Center shop to open.
BY CYNTHIA H. CHO
247-4744
August 4, 2007
HAMPTON
At the grand opening of the J.C. Penney store in Hampton on Friday, Barbara Lash talked about the role the department store has played in her life.
She was just 18 when Coliseum Mall opened in 1973. Then a student at Thomas Nelson Community College, Lash helped stock the J.C. Penney store leading up to the opening on Halloween. J.C. Penney was one of the mall’s three anchor stores, along with Korvette and Rices-Nachmans.
She went away to James Madison University in 1975, but she would work at J.C. Penney when she was home on the Peninsula during school breaks.
In 1984, she met the man she would wed seven years later. At the time, she was working in the jewelry department and John Lash was working as a stockboy. (They are still married; John now works for the commissioner of the revenue in Newport News.)
“It’s exciting that we’re going to have something new and different in Hampton,” said Barbara Lash, who lives in Newport News and teaches first grade at Samuel P. Langley Elementary School in Hampton.
She still works at J.C. Penney part-time, a few times a week, in the jewelry department; on Friday, she had a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift. Come October, she will have been on J.C. Penney’s payroll on and off for 34 years.
When Coliseum Mall opened on Halloween in 1973, it was “the place to be,” Lash, 52, said. It was, at the time of its opening, the largest mall on the Peninsula. Most of the stores at the mall closed this past January and demolition began in February to make way for construction of the Peninsula Town Center, which is expected to be complete in the spring of 2009.
The J.C. Penney store is the first Peninsula Town Center store to open.
Its soft opening was Sunday, July 29, but its grand opening was Friday morning.
Among the people who spoke before the 7:45 a.m. ribbon cutting were Raymond Tripp, who was the general manager of Coliseum Mall and will be the general manager of Peninsula Town Center, and Ross A. Kearney II, mayor of Hampton.
“Hello dedicated shoppers, how are you?” Kearney said to the 70 or so shoppers waiting in line around 7:45 a.m. “We are in a revitalization, a rebirth” in our community, he said, referring to the Peninsula Town Center.
Inside the store, which opened at 8 a.m., there were serious shoppers who carried armfuls of clothing; curious browsers who grabbed goodie bags and filled out forms for the store’s grand-opening sweepstakes; and women testing mascaras, eyeliners and lipgloss at the Sephora beauty boutique. (Sephora, which is owned by the luxury products group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, operates approximately 515 stores in 14 countries.)
And this being a tax-free weekend in Virginia - there is no sales tax on certain school supplies, clothing and footwear - there were many parents shopping with or for their children.
Rhonda Wagner, a 36-year-old high school teacher from Newport News, had brought all three of her kids: 9-year-old Paige, 4-year-old Parker and 2-year-old Payton.
Paige, who will be a fourth-grader in the fall, said she wanted new clothes because she was growing out of some of hers.
The selection at J.C. Penney, she said, was “cool” and “neat.”
By 8:30 a.m., Diego Romo, 10, was holding two pairs of blue jeans. His stepdad, Elton Nurmi, a 28-year-old landscaper from Newport News, had in his hands two pairs of slacks, khaki and navy, in his arms for Diego.
But few seemed as excited as 3-year-old Jordan Hall.
She and her mom, Ashley Hall, 24, were shopping for new clothes for Jordan’s start at preschool in the fall.
“I want that shirt!” Jordan said loudly and ecstatically from her stroller, pointing to a lavender shirt with pink glitter - pink and purple are her favorite colors.
When asked why she likes shopping, she smiled, shrugged and simply said, “Because.”
Copyright © 2007, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
July 7, 2007
Hampton J.C. Penney to close for relocation
The J.C. Penney store in Hampton is scheduled to be closed from July 21 to Aug. 3 as it changes location. The department store, part of the now-closed Coliseum Mall, will remain on the same plot of land but move closer to the intersection of Coliseum Drive and Cunningham Drive. The move is part of the development of that property into the Peninsula Town Center. The department store’s grand opening is planned for Aug. 3 at the new location.
June 17, 2007
Holophane Case Histories Page
This photo is super sad.
I remember running across this page in 2005, but not thinking much of it, but now since the mall is gone we can appreciate it more. And this proves my memory that those ugly blue things were not added around the entrances until the late 90’s or early 2000’s.
—-
I tried contacting the Halophane company to see if they had anymore photos, but I’m sure its a futile attempt.
June 4, 2007
Coliseum Mall Flyover Demolition Coverage
(yeah, I didn’t find out about this until Saturday evening, sorry 
)
{Daily Press}
Watch the Coliseum flyover come down
BY MIKE HOLTZCLAW
(757) 928-6479
May 31, 2007, 11:38 AM EDT
HAMPTON — The City of Hampton is inviting residents to come and watch Monday as the Coliseum Mall’s trademark flyover is brought down.
The elevated ramp — which provided a quick hop from Mercury Boulevard into the parking lot of the now-demolished mall — will be taken down starting at 10 a.m. Monday. The city is offering residents a chance to “take one last walk” across the flyover.
Will Bassett, marketing manager for Hampton’s department of economic development, said the flyover will not be imploded or crushed. Rather, he said, it will be taken down piece by piece over the course of about 60 days. Monday’s “groundshaking ceremony” will mark the beginning of that process, starting with a section of guardrail that will be pushed off the flyover.
People wanting to attend the ceremony can park between Outback Steakhouse and Bennigan’s.
—-
{wvec.com}
Final walk on flyover at Coliseum Mall
12:02 PM EDT on Monday, June 4, 2007
There was one last walkover on the flyover on Mercury Blvd. to Coliseum Mall Monday morning.
{City of Hampton}
At the 10 a.m. “groundshaking ceremony,” the first section of guardrail was cut and toss to the ground below.
The flyover, completed in 1973, will be taken down piece by piece over the next two months.
The demolition is part of the conversion of Coliseum Mall into Peninsula Town Center, a 75-acre mixed-use development with shopping, dining and entertainment venues.
“The demolition of the flyover is a major representation of the transformation happening in the Coliseum Central district,” said Mayor Ross A. Kearney.
Officials say the flyover’s removal will increase visibility and access to the Peninsula Town Center and other surrounding sites while providing improved pedestrian connections at the intersection.
{Daily Press}
Flyover demolition begins
After 34 years, the Coliseum Flyover in Hampton is coming down
HAMPTON — How many politicians does it take to push over a guardrail?
Six.
Hampton Mayor Ross Kearney led the group as they pushed over a section of the guard rail on the Coliseum Flyover in Hampton Monday morning. It marked the beginning of the end of the well-known ramp that has funneled cars off Mercury Boulevard and into the Coliseum Mall since 1973.
The demolition is part of the redevelopment of the Coliseum Mall into the new Peninsula Town Center, scheduled to open in 2009.
It’s expected to take about two months for the flyover to be completely removed. Kearney said a nine-lane roadway will open in its place in June of next year.
About 35-40 people attended the ceremony.
Photos from dailypress.com’s photograhper Joe Fudge:
June 2, 2007
“They Aren’t Walking Out With Much”
This afternoon, my dad took me out so I could play with my camera I got off of eBay. Ok, I have to get this out in the open before I stew all over it….I screwed up the film. I took too many pictures or something, and the film like…pulled out of the canister. When I opened up the camera, I exposed the film, it was all wound to the film winder? instead of the canister where its supposed to be when you’re done with a roll of film. My dad put got in a closet this this red light he had sitting around the house to try to fix the roll, but we know its ruined.
Ok, with that fuming over, we can continue on with our entry.
So, I finally got to see the shambles of Coliseum Mall (more photos from someone else). There’s seriously nothing left except for Burlington (which is moving into a new building located where their old building was down the street), Macys, and Penneys which is having a getting rid of everything sale because of the new store being built. The signs scattered all around the mall area indicated that J.C. Penney is located at …. Coliseum Square shopping center. J.C. Penney had the ominous yellow and black sign on the building that indicates that a store is either closing, or having a huge clearing out sale:
More pictures:
JC Penneys and Macys are my favorite buildings in Hampton.
