I'm not sure if any of you are interested in dead malls like I am, but I've been following the demise of Century III Mall in West Mifflin, PA- a gargantuan three story mall that was the third largest enclosed shopping center in the US when built in the late '70s. Cortana and Century III have two things in common: they're both dead malls and they're owned by the same company called Moonbeam Capitol Investments, LLC out of Las Vegas.

Moonbeam, as I'm sure you are aware when Cortana was purchased in 2013, buys struggling malls in hopes to flip them to where they are profitable once again. If you look at their property listing, you'll see that they aren't very successful in flipping malls. Most of their malls have fewer tenants than Cortana does. LINK

Now back to Century III mall in PA. Moonbeam is in big trouble with the City of West Mifflin. The city has confiscated and closed the privately owned road that surrounds the mall as they have been unable to maintain it. Mall visitors say it's more comfortable driving on the moon, and that the craters are smaller in space. In addition to closing the road, they have also tried to sell the property at a sheriff's sale, but each time the sale is scheduled, it gets postponed. Shoppers are reporting the mall is falling apart: water pours through the roof, elevators and escalators don't work, and ceilings are falling down.

Moonbeam, remember they own Cortana, is in the process of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This post on a Century III fan page pretty much explains how Moonbeam is out of money. LINK In my opinion, Moonbeam is up to no good. I have a feeling they're buying these cheap dead malls and using them to somehow launder money. A former manager of Moonbeam's West Oaks Mall in Ocoee, FL have reported this to be a credible rumor. You can tell they haven't done anything to try to save Cortana. Nobody has moved in since they bought the mall, but they're sure moving out. Something is definitely fishy with their business.

I was at Cortana today. It was eerie. It was nicely decorated for a dead mall, and there was Christmas music playing in the background, yet there were no shoppers as there are no stores. I went earlier in the year, but this time it was different. I went wanting to walk around and see how much had changed. This time I didn't stay longer than 5 minutes. Much to my surprise, they still employ security, and I even saw a Cortana Mall security car rolling around.

Does Dillard's own the store they occupy? If they don't, I think they'd be better off finding another location in the area. There are plenty of shopping centers in better parts of town that have huge spaces available.

I drove around the Cortana property and it looked like they were doing minor brickwork at what I believe was the former Mervyn's store. Heck, I even saw a girl taking senior pictures outside of the soon to be shuttered Virginia College. That will be another blow to the mall when it closes too.

TL;DR: I have a feeling Cortana may not be around much longer as the company that owns the property is pretty much out of money.

This post was edited on 12/9/18 at 8:11 pm