Bonner Mall — Attraction in Ponderay

What's to like about the mall itself aside from the remaining anchor tenants that totally outshine the mall itself. They are all totally ADA COMPLIANT, not Dollar Tree or the cinema theater at the east end.

The place is poorly managed. Huge potential if done correctly, as malls everywhere face stiff marketplace competition.

I personally knew the original developer of this property, Les Rogers. He never had the community support he hoped for putting it in the middle of noere between Sandpoint and Kootenai in an open field. He tried to put Ponderay on map and did. Which city has the biggest future? Ponderay, but it will always be in Sandpoint's shadow due to its historical significance. Within a year I could turn this into the hub of Ponderay due strictly to its central location. They even have an up to date major Intersection with state of the art traffic control. Make use of it as a destination, not...

So I'm going to rate the Bonner Mall 5 stars for an unusual reason: ease of access. Good old Bonner Mall has been wheezing along for all of the 22 years I've lived in Bonners Ferry. They always seem to be at their last prayers, yet they keep on living. The complement of stores changes from decade to decade. They aren't like a regular shopping mall with dozens of useless "Mall Zone" stores. There's a Staples and a Penneys and a Petco and a movie theater and maybe a couple others. If you want something from one of the handful of stores that are there, it's a quick, convenient in-and-out. There's an ocean of parking and nobody is using it, as long as you avoid the Yokes at the end.

I wouldn't go to the Bonner Mall to aimlessly wander around window shopping. It's not that kind of mall. But then, I detest aimless window-shopping. I'm a search-and-destroy type shopper, and the Bonner Mall is right...

My friends and I joke that it can barely be called a mall; there's the DMV, movie theater, and vape shop. That's about it. the rest of the mall itself is vacant and locked up. Yokes, Staples, Petco, Harbor Freight, and a furniture store are in the same building, but you need to exit the building as they all have their own entrances. The movie theater also has a separate entrance. It's a great hangout spot if you're a group of teenagers in the middle of the day, but honestly if you want an actual mall then...