Anchored by Goodys and JC Penny, Palatka Mall is the only enclosed mall in this Florida region. Besides the department store anchors, this mall houses national tenants Cato, Hibbett's Sports, Merle Norman and Friedman's Jewelers. The 196,000 square foot mall is also home to the offices of the Florida Department of Health, Education and Revenue and the United States Armed Forces Recruiting.
The Palatka Mall is located on the fast growing Highway 19 corridor. The physical address is 400 North SR 19, Palatka, Florida. Mall hours are listed as open from 8:00am to 9:00pm. Call specific stores and verify.
Information gleaned from online mall review sites and news articles suggest that the mall has a Dollar General, two jewelry stores, a movie cinema, and a few clothing stores besides the anchor stores of Goody's and a JC Penny's. One reviewer added that the biggest part of the mall is government offices including Tax Collector, Unemployment Office, Military Recruiters and a few others.
Appropriately called the Palatka Mall Theatre, the gainsvillemoms.com Website showed four movies listed at this mall and the times for these movies. Like the mall, the movie theatre doesn't have its own Website.
Waymarking.com, a scavenger hunt website that requires people to go out and visit sites before they report on them, has a possible explanation for why this mall diversified to include a large selection of government offices. It states that the Palatka Mall was intended to be the center of westward expansion for Putnam County. Since the mall was developed on the outskirts of town, the community moved west and away from the downtown business area. After awhile the mall couldn't attract regular clients for its stores and so become a quasi-government service center.
This explanation makes sense, especially when coupled with the Orlando Sentinel articles in 2008 and 2009 written about the state of indoor malls in the Orlando area specifically and in Florida in more general terms. The focus of these articles has been on indoor shopping centers loosing tenants and struggling financially because the economic curve seems to favor outdoor malls. Certainly my research indicates that the indoor malls that not only survive, but thrive - do so by providing extraordinary services and aesthetics. Outdoor malls appear on the surface to be having an easier time of it. Adding insult to injury is the fact that new development surrounds Palatka Mall, including Lowe's, Home Depot, and a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
An online reviewer commented on the Palatka Mall interior noting that it had been renovated several times over the last few years in an attempt to reflect a new, progressive nature. It currently has a central courtyard with a water fountain and planters as its centerpiece.
In all the reviews I read about Palatka Mall, the only mention of food being available was Twistee Treat.
