Forest Fair ViIlage

This place is awesome. There’s an arcade, a thrift store, a kids play-​house, and a Japanese take-​out place. That is ALL there is. This place is the size and scale of an international airport, it’s HUGE. And there is nothing. Mop buckets (to catch drips from the leaky roof) outnumber human souls in these vacant halls. Speaking of souls, I have watched Dawn of the Dead waaay too many times. At least in that movie, the stores were stocked and seemed to have been recently occupied. Not so here. Empty, chained up, forgotten. But oddly, «mall music» is still pumped through the speaker system.
Oh, and check out the parking garage! Past the many, many, many acres of vacant parking lots, ironically there’s a parking garage. A very creepy, unlit parking garage. Even their security vehicle is there, abandoned in dust, with flattening tires.
If you’re into urban ruins/​decay, or have a healthy disdain for the consumerist mentality, take some time to walk around this cathedral to American Consumerism and see how spectacularly it can fail.

Bass Pro shop is the only real reason to go shopping here. There are literally only a few other stores left in this mall. All of the underground parking structures are closed off with rusty chains, the pillars are festooned with strips of peeling paint. Most of the floors haven’t been cleaned in months, many of the light fixtures have dead bulbs, and an uneasy post apocalyptic feeling fills the entire space. Occasional mall walkers still come here, moving quietly past caged store entrances that are covered in black plastic. On some benches, people silently sit and stare at the absence of activity. When I was there yesterday, there was only one restaurant left open in the food court, and half of the letters were out in their electric sign. I love creepy, dilapidated structures; to feel the echoes of a former vibrant occupancy gather in the corners and be covered in layers of dust. This place feels like the death of hope. It’s a lovely place to be bitten by a zombie, or chat with long dead relatives. It is a monument to eternal sleep made of mortar, it is a whisper of life’s blood turned cold and brooding. There used to be a footlocker there, but it’s gone.

People
May say what they want about this place but I find it absolutely beautiful. When I first visited, it was because my husband enjoyed Bass Pro. I do not, so I explored the reminisce of the mall. I find myself yearning to return there. Mysteriously, I am drawn to this mall. I loved it. If I had a lot of wealth, I’d buy her and restore her beauty.

I know it’s mostly empty, but this place is still pretty cool. Bass Pro Shops is reason enough to stop in, but there are still some hidden gems inside, too. For example, a $ 30 Saturday afternoon date:
— Lunch at the Japanese place, the only surviving food court tenant, $ 12
— Movie and snacks at Cincinnati Screens (formerly Danbarry), $ 10
— An hour or so of fun at Arcade Legacy, $ 5
— Round off the afternoon with coffee at the cute little place down the hall, $ 3
This place still has so much potential. I grew up coming to this mall and I’m hoping for a miracle to rescue it, but until then there’s still plenty to do here!

If you’re longing for 90s nostalgia — minus, you know, an actual thriving mall — this is a great place. The Cincinnati Mall has a gross, sad, dead capitalism stench to it. My wife and I looked at each other and said «it smells exactly like 1995.» Seriously.
This mall is extremely unsettling. There’s not much here but the arcade, Kohl’s, Gold Star, a movie theater, and some play place for children that had a thick layer of dust covering everything. Somehow, there were quite a few kids playing there, and their creepy laughter echoed through the mall.
It’d probably be best to just shut the place down and use it exclusively for filming zombie/​post-​apocalyptic movies.

Oh… I remember the glory years. We used to wait in line to go to Gators and Bourbon St. Bass Pro shops is on their way out, not sure what’s going on with Baby’s r Us but the end is near. Location location location. You build it they won’t come. Too many people in Forest Park below the poverty level to support this place to keep the lights on.

Two words: Ghost Town.
This used to be an a-​okay place to shop. Alot has closed.
At least parking is very easy to find.

The zombie apocalypse begins here.

Here’s a formula for a good time: get the Dawn of the Dead soundtrack by Goblin and load it on your MP3 player. Go to Cincinnati Mills between 7 – 8 a. m (before they even turn on all the mall lights). Hit play and immerse yourself In a post apocalyptic nightmare world (and get some great exercise to boot)!
Desolate, dreary and befouled… this sprawling example of capitalism gone awry is a testament to the decline of the American shopping mall.
Don’t try and film though, nazi security guards are bored stiff and will chase you down on their segways! Taking pictures brings down the property values you know!
3 gracious stars for the year round zombie fun run and the only gem of the estate: Arcade Legacy

YIKES! This place is a deserted scary nightmare with creepy circus music echoing in the abandoned halls.
In all seriousness though, I was scared for my safety here. There were a ton of sketchy characters hanging out in both the mall and the ginormous parking garage. If Justin hadn’t been with me I wouldn’t even have gotten out of the car.
There is barely any lighting in the mall or for parking, and the lighting that there is looks straight out of texas chainsaw massacre. Please do not come here for any reason. And really there is no reason to. There is a Danbarry, but the other 2 or 3 stores in this beast can be accessed through outside entrances. This place needs to be condemned.

OMGosh! If you ever saw «dawn of the Dead» and when they went to the mall and it was empty, thats how this place looked. I went here about a month ago to see a movie. I am not from the area and was puzzled to see the entire mall deserted. Some stores appeared to be stocked, but closed/​deserted and others were just empty. The eatery was just as dead, I think maybe one or two places were serving. The only other thing that I saw that was open was a recreational area for little bitty kids to play in…
…when my movie started, it was popping and scratchy like an old-​fashioned movie, but cleared up to show a decent screen. (And) going into the theater was so dead I don’t think anyone would have cared/​noticed if I’d paid or not! After I paid for the ticket (which was on like raffle ticket paper), there was no one present to direct me to my actual theater.
One star for pity :-(

The only reason I ever go here is if I need to pick something up quickly at Kohls. The place is dead. However, I often times see older couples getting their exercise so I guess it fits as a great walking track.
No need to even try to go there.

Oh wow, this is a really sad place. This mall used to be jumping back in the day, but it is sadly no more. I remember when I was younger, back in 2004, 2005, and 2006 when my family and I used to shop there, I was in elementary school at the time. We mostly went to shop at the bigg’s grocery store, and they had plenty of food and everything! That place was huge, like 68 aisles total! But this store had so much more than food; they had clothes, a makeup aisle, books, video games, dvd’s, music, school supplies, a deli with great food, and so much more! That place was like a Walmart or Meijer supercenter, only ever bigger! Loved going there as a child!
One time for my birthday, we went to the Namco Wonderpark. They had a rollercoaster, like whoa the thing was awesome! Wonderpark was a Chuck-​E Cheese-​type place, they had tokens and tickets you could use to win prizes! *Sigh* good ol’ memories… anyway, Cincinnati Mills apparently reopened with the Cincinnati Mills name on August 19, 2004 after the mall underwent an extensive renovation from it’s former ‘Mall at Forest Fair’ self, which had originally opened back in like 1989. This was the second attempt to revitalize the place. Mills had about 200 stores back in ’04. The Media Play store closed in 2005 and has been vacant ever since, and that in itself just lets you know what was going on there. Since that closing, the mall has been on a steady decline.
My family and I moved to Alabama in late 2006 and lived there til late 2009, and little did I know what was going on at the Mills while I was down south. Catastrophe struck in 2008 when the Wonderpark closed because of a sex scandal. The huge bigg’s store closed down in summer 2008 because of declining sales. That news deeply saddened me, especially since it took me 3 ½ years after the store closed to find that out. I got this info from research on the internet. Wow, I really miss that bigg’s store, it was the best. My mom said that returning to Cincy would be too way different and that has been true ever since we came back in winter 2009. It’s sad what has happened to what was once my favorite mall.
More blows for the mall: these are the stores that closed down between 2008 up til late 2011, Saks Off 5^th, Steve and Barry’s, Aeropostale, Johnny Rockets, Verizon Wireless, Showcase Cinemas, Guitar Center, Guess, Metropolis Nightclub and Debs. The Debs, Metropolis, and Verizon stores are the most recent to close, all in 2011.
Recently, I was up at Cincinnati Mills, now called Cincinnati Mall, just last month in November, I’m a sophomore in high school now, and it’s the worst I’ve ever seen it. You could walk in there for hours and not run into anybody. It’s sad. I was teary– eyed most of the time as I reminisced over all those good times of shopping there at the bigg’s. The bigg’s wing was closed off completely, but it has been reopened and you can walk down there and look inside that huge room that was once the bigg’s. Anyway, it felt so creepy walking down all of those empty corridors, the only sound coming from your footsteps and the shuddering of the blacked– out glass panes that were once stores. Oh yeah, and the odd sound of the generic music that sounds so weird over the quietness of the giant place.
However, not everything is gone. The original stores that opened back in 1999 and 2000, Burlington Coat Factory, Kohls, Bass Pro Shops, and Baby’s R Us are still in business and seem to be hanging on. Claires, Foot Locker, Purfumania, Payless Shoe Source, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Denno’s International Gifts, and OK Travel are also in business still. The food court only has two restaurants, Oyishi Japan and Gold Star Chili. The Bungy Zone bungy jumping is still there, but nobody really uses it anymore. Other stores that have closed down are Forever 21, Bath & Body Works Outlet, Auntie Ann’s Pretzels, Tommy Hilfiger, Game Stop, and The Ohio National Guard. Believe me, there are many more businesses that have left that place than listed here.
In all, I have to say my last visit to Cincy Mills was the most devastating of all. It’s so sad that the mall will never be the way it used to be ever again. The owners are talking about turning the defunct bigg’s store into three ice rinks for figure skating and hockey. What is that? I can’t believe that news, but it appears to be true. Other proposed renovations include a Candlewood Suites hotel, a new nightclub, a production studio, and a history museum. Ugh, I mean I obviously like history, but in a mall? It just doesn’t mix.
I’m truly sad because of all of this, and I will never view my hometown of Cincinnati the same ever again. R.I.P. Cincinnati Mills… :(

What’s to say that hasn’t been said by the other reviewers so far. This place is a big freakin mall that’s mostly empty. It’s definitely not run down or dirty or falling apart, just really (really) empty. It’s surprising how clean and well kept the place is actually. I went down to visit the Bass Pro Shop, which is a really awesome and nice place by the way, but decided to do a little urban exploring through the rest of the mall. Walking around this place is a surreal experience and kinda sad. I might stop by again sometime just to talk through the place and take some pictures.
3 stars only because it’s a unique desolate place to explore. Don’t go there for your holiday shopping! :)

If there’s a reason why greater Cincinnati does not need any more malls, this is it. This mall (now with the oh so unique, creative name of «Cincinnati Mall») has likely been mostly vacant more than it has been mostly leased.
Flash back to 1988, as Forest Fair Mall, when the single-​story upper wing opened, with the second bigg’s hypermarket opened, which introduced the concept of a supermarket and general merchandise discount store put together to the northern and western parts of greater Cincinnati.
But the meat of the mall opened about a year later, as the largest shopping mall in the region, if not beyond. It was more than a mall — it had five department stores: the high-​end Parisian, B. Altman, Bonwit Teller, Sakowitz, as well as the regional Dayton-​based Elder-​Beerman, a vast center court, Time Out on the Court, a BIG family entertainment center with a carousel, miniature golf, many video games and arcades, and an amazing ball maze machine that was a living work of art. There were two food courts, a few restaurants, and the Super Saver Cinemas, which had the flashing neon lights behind glass block (epilepsy, anyone?)
Being located in the middle-​class areas of Forest Park and Fairfield, there weren’t many upper-​class shoppers in the vicinity, so many of the anchors and shops pulled out within a couple years, and the mall gained a reputation as a hangout for teens and gangs. Also, worth note, it is right between two other malls along I-​275 — Northgate, to the west, and Tri-​County, to the east — which had just undergone a massive renovation by adding a second level. Essentially, not only was this a bad place for your typical mall retailers, but also for unique, upscale ones.
Developers set out to revamp the mall into «the Malls at Forest Fair» with some new renovations around 1993: the Bonwit Teller was turned into America Live!, an entertainement complex featuring night clubs, sports bar, and a restaurant — which itself didn’t last too long. Kohl’s moved into the B. Altman space the next year, but Parisian pulled out not that much after.
Then came the next resurgence, focusing on new anchor stores: Bass Pro Shops in the former Parisian, Burlington Coat Factory in the former nightclub space, Media Play, Saks off 5^th, Steve & Barry’s, and even a 10-​screen first-​run, stadium style Showcase Cinemas in addition to the Super Saver second-​run cinema.
The mall then had its biggest remake yet, a thorough renovation throughout, when bought by the Mills, and converted to Cincinnati Mills — new life, mostly leased, and a positive attituude for a few more years, starting in 2004. But again, slowly, the Mills fell behind, tenants left, and when the 2008 recession hit, this place pretty much became a Dead Mall. Most of the specialty shops are gone now, Showcase was shuttered, and bigg’s, after 20 years, decided not to renew its lease. Its location seemed less visible compared to supercenters like Meijer and Walmart, both across from the mall.
Now known as simply Cincinnati Mall, this place still has several draws to it — Kohl’s, Bass Pro, Burlington, Babies R Us, Danbarry cinemas, Red Lobster, Chipotle, and some other spots — why it’s a 2 star rating for me. But if I were a new developer, I’d explore redevelopment of much of the property, like office and residential uses. There’s not much an appetite for new retail in the region: Northgate has two vacant department store spots — and Tri-​County, still viable, has its share of vacancies as well.

Sigh. Dare I even write a review about this place…? Yes. I think I shall. But I’ll be fair and start from the beginning. I mean a place has to be pretty terribly horribleriffic for me to give it one meager star. Perhaps if I just went to this place recently I wouldn’t be so harsh, but I remember the good ol days.
Forest Fair Mall opened in Cincinnati when I was in Jr. High School and it’s only a shell of what it once was. Ah… I remember the moving pool ball sculpture near the fountains. We’d sit mesmerized for a short time, and then venture off to the awesome food court to make a life decision over which place to eat that night. I mean there were dozens upon dozens of choices back then. If I missed out on some A&W Root beer hot dogs because I decided to go to Sabarro’s for a slice of pizza instead, it’d be a good week before I could rectify that mistake! Once our stomachs were full we’d go to the arcade to seek out some cute boys that kicked butt in Mortal Kombat. I mean how much cooler could you get? If you could do a Fatality with Reptile or Shiva that I’d never seen before, my heart would be a flutter…
Once we had our fill of video games and the boys, we’d head over to the elevator where the «record your own karaōke song» booth was located. We’d create a new masterpiece, and then head up to the amazing indoor putt putt course!!! This wasn’t your cheap run of the mill course either. it was hard and the plastic decorations gave you no mercy! Your ball hit the hard tire on the race car? Oh. it was coming back to you, and you had to start all over again.
By the time I was a senior in high school, putt putt had closed, and the rest of the arcade was wrapping up right behind it. But at one time, you could literally go here for the whole weekend and be entertained. There was shopping, rides, cheap movies, large restaurants, America Live, then Bourbon Street & many, many other things. Now it’s just a sad existence for a structure. it echoes of the past life that was once there and it makes me sad to walk through those big empty corridors now. It switched over to Cincinnati Mills, and I thought fleetingly that they would bring it back to what it once was. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors of what they are going to do with it. But have been let down for the past 10 years now.
So when you knew what it once was and compare it to now. I have to give it only one star. When you compare it to other «malls» basically put, you can’t.there is no comparison.

The Greater Cincinnati Komen Foundation is located inside this almost-​empty mall. I had to go there to pick up my Race For The Cure packet. Good thing the Komen people specifically stated which entrance to go in, otherwise it would’ve been a creepy experience wandering through darkened, lonely corridors. Adding to the weirdness is the generic retail music still being piped in, which seems overly loud without anyone there to hear it. I didn’t actually go into any real stores, so I can’t say anything about the quality of selection and merchandise. I briefly thought about walking around the mall, but it was too unsettling go around by myself. I took a picture of an entire section roped off, with a sign simply stating «This Area is Closed.» Freaky.
The only reason I didn’t give this place 1 star is that there’s just something incredibly fascinating about seeing the insides of an empty shell of a mall.

Bass Pro Shop, Danbarry Theater and Kohl’s are still here but just about everything else is gone. Half of the mega-​sized mall is shut down and only a dozen or so stores (think Foot Locker, Radio Shack – stores that are pretty much in every mall) are scattered throughout the rest of the place. Of the ten or so food court shops, only Gold Star and a Chinese place remain.
I was surprised by how well-​kept the interior was; the bathrooms were clean and stocked. But I could not shake the post-​apocalyptic vibe this place has. You could literally run laps in this place without running into a customer (or an open storefront).
I think my boyfriend summed up the utility of Cincinnati Mills Mall the best: «If there’s ever is a major disaster, this would be the perfect place to evacuate people.»

What is it about this section of real estate? It’s like a retail black hole. We drove past here (now called just «Cincinnati Mall» since the Simon Property Group sold it) on our way to Jungle Jim’s, and my boyfriend got all excited about the Bass Pro Shop, while I was looking forward to visiting Steve & Barry’s.
When we returned, I noticed that Steve & Barry’s parking lot was empty, as were many of the other anchor stores’. Granted, we got there at 12:15 on a Sunday, but most of this mall seemed abandoned from the outside. The entrance to the «Fashion District» (where Saks Off 5^th was located) was closed off, so we had to drive over to the entrance near Media Play (which also stood empty). If you take a look at Jordan’s photo of the sign with all the anchors listed on it, Guitar Center, Steve & Barry’s, Johnny Rocket’s and Off 5^th have been removed from the roster.
Our suspicions were confirmed once we got inside. The entire mall was positively post-​apocalyptic — boarded up, painted over and closed down, save a Dollar Store, a Lane Bryant, a Guess outlet (which will be closing January 23^rd) and a blacklight putt-​putt course. All the kiosks, including the information desk, were cleaned out and abandoned. The entire upper level, except for a Bön Worth, was a ghost town. There weren’t even any Segway-​riding security guards. The thing that was so odd is that this mall isn’t out-​of-​date or too small. It’s very clean and modern and was clearly built to house a large amount of tenants.
As we were leaving, I wondered aloud if this wasn’t where the ill-​fated Forest Fair Mall had been (I do all of my shopping in Indianapolis and have only been to Cincy a handful of times, mostly when I was a kid), but I thought it had been turned into a place called Cincinnati Mills. I did some research when I got home and found that they were one and the same.
While Kohl’s, Burlington Coat Factory and the Bass Pro Shop seem to be thriving, the rest of the Cincinnati Mall has either fallen victim to the burst of the conspicious consumption bubble or is being haunted by the ghosts of its predecessors. I did, however, find a gorgeous sweater at Guess for a deeply discounted price.

Cincinnati Mills is pretty much on life support now, following the aforementioned closing of Bigg’s. While the Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World has continued to be very successful, the actual indoor shopping mall part is failing miserably. I was in there today and you could almost hear a pin drop it was so empty and thus quiet. In fact, I bet if you take all of the Cincinnati Mills shoppers (not counting from external stores like Bass Pro or anyone at the two cinemas) and put them in the food court seating, you’d still have about 50-​percent of the food court seating available. It’s sad.
If you go online to the Cincinnati Mills website and look at the list of the businesses, it’s a bit misleading as they haven’t removed the names of stores that are gone. Bath and Body Works Outlet, for example, should now be listed as «Bath and Body Works Out– …of business.» It is almost depressing walking through the mall and seeing almost one out of every three or four stores closed. Even the food court had some vacancies.
Some of the bigger stores that are still in business include Kohl’s, Saks Off 5^th, Burlington Coat Factory, and Steve & Barry’s. None of those are enough to bring people all the way out to the Fairfield/​Forest Park area, and familiar names like Game Stop and Finish Line can be found elsewhere. Throw in tacky stores like Everything Airbrush Plus, and that doesn’t help matters either. Maybe the most defining thing is the sixth photograph I have posted of the big blue sign that’s only half full of businesses.
If you walk into Cincinnati Mills and are aware of the situation, you want to try to like the mall, but it’s tough (especially with internal mall security riding on Segways). The mall is very nice, very spacious, and very clean (although with so few people shopping there it probably doesn’t even need to be cleaned more than once a week), but there’s no denying dozens of vacancies and several stores advertising sales off their entire merchandise. I feel almost obligated to give it a two-​star rating, but without Bass Pro Shops, Cincinnati Mills would be lucky to muster more than a one-​star rating.