Irongate — Local services in Hibbing

I used to reside in Hibbing in the 90s and this mall was wonderful, and every weekend we’d go, upkeep was nice and it was FULL, had a theater, arcade, Peanut Shack, everything. I moved away. I returned in the 2010s and half the places were missing. It looked sad and run down and it made me depressed to see. This mall lost all its Anchors and without Anchors, which are large stores like Sears, K-Mart, JC Penny, Walmart, Target Etc. the small stores can’t thrive and they leave. Now, this mall has next to nothing, the places it does have are non retail businesses rather than shops. Jo-Ann Fabrics stuck it out. People like that place it provides materials to the community that has a lot of knitters, clothes makers and sewers. The town needs to fix this! Hibbing is a smaller place and people would love to have a good mall of different stores available again. They have department stores not located at Irongate, but nothing special in town anymore. The landlord needs to reduce rent for a town of this size, and renovate or sell it to someone who cares! If I were rich I’d buy this mall and save it. This is a “ Dead Mall” the kind you might see on one of Dan Bells videos. That is sad and never should have been allowed to happen, shame on the owner for not luring in some new Anchors and not fixing the parking lot. Someone is going to file a lawsuit eventually for...

The mall used to be full of stores. Now there’s a church, Joann Fabrics, the VA, and that’s basically it. The roof is clearly leaking (buckets on the floor to catch it), parking lot is in horrible disrepair (giant potholes, service road closed because it is undriveable), bathrooms are never clean. Sad to see how bad this place has declined, but it’s been going downhill for years. No wonder it keeps losing businesses. They can’t afford to pay the ridiculous rent in a building that’s falling apart and isn’t maintained at all. Too bad they can’t get any businesses like TJ Maxx, Old Navy, a food court or restaurants, an arcade, maybe a shoe store. But the mall is in shambles so I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind would open...

This has become a sad excuse for a mall. Enter the parking lot at the risk of vehicle damage. It is a crying shame that for as much as the landlord over charges the tenants for space, that the parking is dangerously subpar and the building maintenence is so lacking that the tenants are forced to set up rain barrels to catch water from the leaking roof. Such a shame. I remember when this was an awesome mall to shop, eat and hang out with friends and family. Those days are long gone. It is like entering...