GM: Towne Mall to ‘operate as normal,’ contradicting rumors

“Towne Mall is continuing to operate as normal for the ongoing future,” he wrote. “When any significant announcements are to be made, we will let you know.”

The two tenants said they have heard the rumors, sometimes for years, but it didn’t have much significance on their decision to not renew their lease with the company.

Van Patterson, regional manager with Kentucky Korner, said the store is closing its doors after 15 years in operation at the mall.

The rumors had “little to do” with whether the store stayed open or not, Patterson said, “but it didn’t help the decision.” What most affected the decision was the pandemic, he said.

Patterson said the company has closed 10 stores since COVID, saying “the writing was on the wall.”

“It was always going to be the last one open because it was always the most successful,” he said. “After COVID, we actually signed another lease to try and see if it would go back, and business was good, it just wasn’t great.”

Brandon Young, owner of Xtreme Arcade and Xtreme Cornhole, also decided not to renew his lease with the mall but for a different reason, to expand.

“Our ultimate goal has been to open a bigger fun center for a while now,” he said. “We started out in the mall and have had some success.”

Sometime in January, Young said he hopes to celebrate the opening of the fun center in the former Save A Lot storefront in the Helmwood Plaza.

“We’ve been keeping our eyes open for the right location,” he said, adding it will help his company be more competitive. “This Save A Lot building seemed like a good fit for what we want to do. Our opportunities for growth in the mall have kind of run out.”

The new Xtreme Arcade fun center will offer a larger gaming area with more and updated games, 18 holes of indoor mini golf, the Xtreme Cornhole course, ax throwing and a snack bar.

“It will be a nice place for families and people of all ages to come,” Young said. “It will be a place with multiple attractions that E’town just doesn’t really have.”

The lease with the mall expires at the end of January, Young said.

“The only thing that we’ve been told by the mall was that it changed ownership,” he said.

Even with that, Young said he is working with the company to lease a smaller space in the mall for an arcade to serve mall traffic.

“We haven’t finalized anything,” he said. “As far as the rumor, all we know is it’s a rumor.”

The social media claims have included the mall’s closure and that it will be razed to make way for apartments.

Further fueling the rumor mill is Amazon Alexa’s response about hours of operation for the mall.

“The Towne Mall in Elizabethtown is permanently closed,” it says.

Public records show no sale of property and the parent company Macerich still lists the property as one of its holdings on its website and is listed at the Hardin County Property Valuation office as the owner.

The latest lease on file is with anchor JC Penney which runs until 2025.

With the property zoned commercial, a zone change and building permits would be required for any construction. Elizabethtown Public Relations Officer Amy Inman had no knowledge of any such filings.