PINE BLUFF, Ark. — Pines Mall closed its doors for good Sunday after struggling for years.
Owner Judy Vu said she’s foreclosing and giving it back to the bank.
“We’ve been in the mall, I would think now, going on our fourth year,” Richard Anderson with Anderson’s Taekwondo said.
This is the last year Anderson’s Taekwondo will be in the Pines Mall.
Students and staff dragged their equipment through the now-vacant building on the mall’s last day of operation.
“The pandemic hit and then this hit, so we’ve been asked to go to another location. So we’re looking at another location now at the Jefferson Center,” Anderson said.
“It hurt our heart pretty good because we really liked this spot,” Anderson said.
Many stores were already closed because of COVID-19, and Vu said more problems continued.
“The mall didn’t have enough funding years ago,” Vu said.
She said delivering the news to tenants was far from easy.
“I don’t want to lose the mall and many people want to stay, but I can’t,” Vu said.
The owner of GK Restaurant and Pub said he’s hoping he’ll be able to feed the community again one day.
Vu said there are simply no funds to keep going.
“Right now, no money to pay the electric,” Vu said.
Vu said the owners are also facing a lawsuit against the movie theater, Saracen Cinema 8.
By Sunday afternoon, the few remaining tenants had already moved out.