Anyone In the Market for a Used Shopping Center?

One of Oak Cliff’s most familiar sights, the Harris-Oak Cliff Shopping Center, celebrates its 20th anniversary this spring with what appears to be virtual abandonment by its tenants. The tenants are wondering why it had to happen.

The center, at Kiest and I-35, was opened in 1955 by Arthur Kramer Jr., and became Oak Cliff’s second major shopping area. Although it never replaced Wynnewood as Oak Cliff’s premier shopping center, Harris-Oak Cliff did a respectable business. The center was anchored by A. Harris (later Sanger-Har-ris), and once included such stores as Tom Thumb, Wal-greens and Furr’s Cafeteria. In recent years, stores have been leaving, and by the time Sanger’s closes its 100,000-square-foot store in May or June, most of the center’s tenants will have fled. Many, like Sanger’s, are moving south to the new Red Bird Mall, at I-35 and Camp Wisdom Road.

Why Kramer has let the Harris-Oak Cliff Shopping Center fall apart is an interesting, and yet unanswered, question. Tenants agree that the neighborhood could easily support the center, which is in an excellent traffic location. But Kramer has steadfastly refused to promote the center, tenants say, much less maintain it or modernize it. When tenants suggested Kramer cover the open mall, he responded by asking them to pay for it, they said.

When asked about the center, Kramer replies that only a few stores are vacant, but a casual walkthrough reveals more than a few stores are vacant and several others house non-merchandising tenants, such as the State Welfare Department.

One has to wonderwhether Kramer’s objectiveis simply to stand by andlet the tenants leave. Thecenter reportedly will bedebt free this fall, so maybeKramer has other plans.Whatever they might be,he isn’t telling.