As it turns out, the retail industry's zeal to promote the lifestyle center as the "new & improved" thing, while dismissing the enclosed mall as an "old & rotten" dinosaur, proved a bit premature. In a May 5, 2011 write-up on the NATIONAL REAL ESTATE INVESTOR website,

http://nreionline.com/development/return-mall 

it was revealed that, during The Great Recession, the American shopping mall fared much better than would ever have been imagined just a few years ago. In fact, sales per square foot figures for the fully-enclosed, Grade A, destination-type mall surpassed those of the much ballyhooed lifestyle center!

The facts stated in this article could remind one of other premature obituaries of yore, such as Mark Twain's famous "The report of my death was an exaggeration" quotation. Obviously, those many dire predictions for the eminent demise of the mall as we know it were not much more than wishful thinking on the part of various lifestyle center developers.

Of course, not every single mall out there is on solid ground. Many of the lesser "Grade C" and "D" ones will eventually go under, if they haven't already. But, the high-end destination-type mall is here to stay.