{"id":293549,"date":"2025-10-11T02:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T02:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293549\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T02:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T02:45:15","slug":"walmart-hopes-to-demolish-the-dawn-of-the-dead-mall-within-the-next-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/293549\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart Hopes to Demolish the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Mall Within the Next Two Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine this. The mall from the original horror classic Dawn of the Dead<\/strong>, George A. Romero\u2019s<\/strong> masterful takedown of ravenous American consumerism, is being destroyed decades later by Walmart. It\u2019s a storyline you might find in a Romero movie, but unfortunately this isn\u2019t a movie. And the Monroeville Mall<\/strong> in Monroeville, PA isn\u2019t likely to return from the dead.<\/p>\n

Almost 50 years ago, late horror master George A. Romero forever immortalized Pennsylvania\u2019s Monroeville Mall as a piece of horror history, filming his classic masterpiece Dawn of the Dead inside the real-life mall. Crazy enough, the mall has remained operational after all these decades. But as we learned earlier this year, it\u2019s got a new owner: Walmart.<\/p>\n

As part of the $34 million deal, it was reported at the time, Walmart and Cypress Equities were to work together to \u201cre-imagine Monroeville Mall into a new retail and commercial destination,\u201d but we didn\u2019t really know what that meant at the time. Now it seems that the plan is to completely demolish the existing mall and start fresh with a new concept at its former location.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Magazine<\/a> reports this week, \u201cSouth Saturn Ridge LLC, the name under which Walmart purchased the mall earlier this year for $34 million, is seeking $7.5 million from the state\u2019s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to demolish the mall. It would make way for \u201cMonroeville Mall Gateway\u201d \u2014 a plan to create a \u2018modern, mixed-use destination that strengthens the regional economy,\u2019 according to the Pittsburgh Business Times<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to one owner of a restaurant inside the mall, he\u2019s been told he\u2019ll need to vacate by April 2027<\/strong>, with the iconic Monroeville Mall slated to be \u201cdemolished to create an open-air shopping center with a Walmart, a Sam\u2019s Club, a skating rink, shops and restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, the Monroeville Mall first opened its doors in 1969, with George A. Romero and his cast and crew taking over the mall less than 10 years later to bring\u00a0Dawn of the Dead\u00a0to life. The mall was also featured in Kevin Smith\u2019s comedy\u00a0Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which used the location as a means to pay tribute to Romero\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

The Monroeville Mall has been a popular tourist location for horror fans to visit over the years, with Romero fans gathering together at the location for the annual\u00a0Living Dead Weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mall is also currently home to a bronze bust of George A. Romero<\/a>, commemorating the location\u2019s cinematic legacy, as well as retail store The Living Dead Museum & Gift Shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018Dawn of the Dead\u2019 (1978)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Imagine this. The mall from the original horror classic Dawn of the Dead, George A. Romero\u2019s masterful takedown…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":293550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[65589,171,1322,30394,53,9825,67,132,68,11588],"class_list":{"0":"post-293549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-dawn-of-the-dead","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-george-a-romero","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-walmart"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115353244500280833","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}