The eastern wing of McFarland Mall, Alabama’s second oldest enclosed mall, is all but abandoned. The food court sits in darkness: tables empty and gates closed. Signs from major department stores remain, but upon closer inspection, all doors are locked and all products removed.

A lack of large department stores inside McFarland Mall has put its east wing in jeopardy. According to mall tenants, the wing is set to be torn down.

With the announced closure of Dillard’s in 2008 and the bankruptcy of Goody’s Family Clothing in 2009, the mall has seen a loss of profits and shoppers. Currently, the only major department store that is fully operating is TJ Maxx. The Tuscaloosa County License Commissioner’s Office is the lone operating store in the eastern branch.

Not long after Goody’s Family Clothing closed its doors, Tuscaloosa developer Stan Pate bought the mall from the McFarland family, thus ending their association with the mall bearing their name.

“It is my opinion that there are multiple opportunities for the mall,” Pate said. “And of those, the best that could happen for long term market in the community, given the prominence of the mall’s location, is a comprehensive new project.

“While the optimum would be to demolish it all and start this comprehensive new project, I’d say that it’s more realistic that we will partially demolish and partially remodel the mall.”

McFarland Mall opened in February 1969 at the corner of McFarland Boulevard and Skyland Boulevard, near Interstate 20/59. It was a landmark development of the times and one of the city’s highest traffic areas.

Now, business owners who have not been forced to close their stores sit together in the mall’s lobby, acting more as tour guides directing the mall’s visitors to the Tuscaloosa County License Commissioner’s Office, than business owners.

McFarland Mall’s retailers are not the only ones making changes. It was recently announced that the Sakura Festival’s Matsuri in the Mall, an event hosted by UA’s Capstone International program that features Japanese cultural exhibits and performances, was moving to University Mall. In the event’s 25-year existence, it has spent at least the past 10 years inside McFarland Mall.

Pate said the mall is the best real estate opportunity in the community and that there is a need to maximize the opportunity.

“There are many nationally recognized retailers missing from the community,” Pate said. “Students are used to convenient shopping at well-known retailers and are very familiar with who’s not here. Now that the economy is getting better, Tuscaloosa has a lot of things going for it, including a healthy growing population.”

Although he did not name any specific companies who have shown interest in moving in to occupy spots once the mall has been renovated, Pate said he has a whole list of such companies and is in various areas of discussion with each.

“The fact that its location is right off of the interstate makes it really the front door to the community for visitors and those who live here,” Pate said. “This would be a key role in the revitalization of McFarland Boulevard. I think that it would be the natural anchor between 15th Street retailers and the interstate.”