Nearly 50 years in the past, the late horror grasp George A. Romero ceaselessly immortalized Pennsylvania’s Monroeville Mall as a chunk of horror historical past, filming his basic masterpiece Daybreak of the Useless contained in the real-life mall. Loopy sufficient, the mall has remained operational in spite of everything these many years. Even crazier, we’ve discovered that Walmart simply bought the property.
Pittsburgh’s Motion Information 4 stories at present, on George A. Romero’s birthday of all days, that Walmart has been confirmed as the client and can handle the location with Cypress Equities.
Walmart advised the information station in an official assertion, “Walmart did buy the Monroeville Mall and could be very keen on being a part of any future redevelopment of this web site. Walmart is working with Cypress on mall operations and potential redevelopment of the location.”
As a part of the $34 million deal, Walmart and Cypress will work collectively to “re-imagine Monroeville Mall into a brand new retail and business vacation spot,” with particular plans beneath wraps right now. The “main redevelopment,” nonetheless, targets all kinds of makes use of together with “retail and leisure, eating places, residential, hospitality, workplace and public areas.”
“We’ll discuss to the local people. We’ll do focus teams, research. We’ll do our higher-level demographic/psychographic evaluation to determine who resides there, after which we will match that with a retail database to say the place are the voids,” mentioned Cypress CEO Chris Maguire.
Situated in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, the Monroeville Mall first opened its doorways in 1969, with George A. Romero and his solid and crew taking up the mall lower than 10 years later to carry Daybreak of the Useless to life. The mall was additionally featured in Kevin Smith’s comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which used the placement as a method to pay tribute to Romero’s legacy.
The Monroeville Mall has been a well-liked vacationer location for horror followers to go to through the years, with Romero followers gathering collectively on the location for the annual Dwelling Useless Weekend.
This 12 months’s occasion takes place June 6 – June 8, 2025.
‘Daybreak of the Useless’ (1978)
