For 50 years, Portland’s Lloyd Center mall was just like every other shopping center in the U.S.
It had huge, mainstream brand stores like Nordstrom and Macy’s, restaurants and even an ice skating rink where former Olympian Tonya Harding figure skated. Decades of teens considered it a fun and popular spot to hang out on the weekends.
“[The Lloyd Center] was a big gathering place for the city of Portland,” says Ida B. Wells teacher and baseball coach Jeremy Shetler. “It was really the center of the city that wasn’t downtown… it was like a place, a destination, that people could go to.”
Yet, not even 15 years after the Lloyd Center had been open, the Washington Square mall opened in early 1974.
Suddenly, the Lloyd Center wasn’t where people wanted to be anymore. Although its main attraction was still the ice skating rink, the shopping center’s old-timey, more traditional charm simply couldn’t measure up to the massive franchises and chains that populated the Washington Square mall. The new mall was sleek, modern and had incredibly easy access.
Seemingly overnight, the Lloyd Center lost the crowds and funds that it had previously collected, and one by one, its name brand stores closed, with Macy’s being the last one to shut down in 2021. The shopping center was deemed a ‘zombie mall’, meaning it wasn’t a completely dead mall, just mostly devoid of customers.
Citizens started to recognize that the shopping center wasn’t contributing much to Portland anymore, so many people have suggested ideas for ways to re-purpose the mall, such as a new auditorium.
The most recent consideration is if the Lloyd Center could be rebuilt as a new baseball stadium for Portland’s first major league team. This plan is called the Portland Diamond Project, and the Lloyd Center is one of two main candidates for the location of the stadium.
The other popular location option is a large stretch of empty land called Zidell Yards on the waterfront near the Willamette River. Since there are no other buildings currently in the space that would need to be either torn down or renovated, however Zidell Yards is widely regarded as the better choice for the stadium. When compared to the Lloyd Center, Zidell Yards is a much more expansive area and construction would be much easier there.
Portland is well known for its amazing soccer and basketball teams like the Trailblazers and the Thorns, but to fully compete with the sports level of other cities, a major league baseball team seems necessary. Not only would this boost the city’s economy, but it would also grow the fan base and create more jobs.
“Anytime you can add more jobs or entertainment, it brings up the value of the city,” says Shetler. “So I think Portland’s trying to… change its view from how people looked at it during the pandemic. A lot of cities with professional sports sometimes have… an area that wasn’t a big part of downtown, but now has been turned into a destination where people want to go to watch sports… So in terms of the Lloyd Center area, it would be great to rejuvenate that [region] and bring more people.”
Another prevalent concern for many Portland baseball fans is the neighborhood surrounding the Lloyd Center. Unfortunately, in the last few years it’s been considered not as safe as it once was, with crime rates leading the shopping mall to elevate their security measures.
There is also a large homeless population in the same downtown area and creating a major league baseball stadium there could have both good and bad outcomes. Gentrification, which is the act of changing a neighborhood to become wealthier and more ‘respectable’, could make the scenery more beautiful or eye-catching to tourists. However, this could also result in the displacement of many lower income residents.
Even though the Lloyd Center’s general activity and economy has greatly decreased over the past few years, many people don’t realize that there is still a large number of blossoming businesses who now call the shopping center home.
Dozens of stores like comic shops, vintage clothing boutiques and even a pinball museum have taken root, bringing life back into the mall. We don’t know what the outcome for these niche businesses would be if the Lloyd Center was renovated into a baseball stadium, but they have definitely given the mall a new purpose and value.
Wherever the baseball stadium is eventually built, either in the near future or years from now, the Lloyd Center has been a landmark of our city for decades and represents a fundamental turning point of Portland’s pop culture. Its newfound businesses have brought back the same charm it had 50 years ago when it was still an icon of the city’s history.
