Editor's note: If you’re wondering why the abandoned Promenade Mall recently became a recurring item in local media, it’s because of one person. Reddit user ypoomhcs captured our and much of the rest of Tulsa’s attention a few weeks ago when they posted a series of spooky pictures from inside the abandoned Promenade Mall to the r/tulsa subreddit.
For all the abandoned inventory, dirty floors and unplugged machinery, ypoomhcs’s photos showed a mall that was eerily, remarkably preserved. Inside, signage remained up and glass doors remained open, beckoning ghost customers to shop for outdated goods. Whoever owned the concession stand hadn’t even bothered trying to sell the popcorn machine.
You don’t have to walk far in Tulsa to find symptoms of late-stage capitalism, but this one was too big to ignore. And I’m not a business reporter, but the mall’s owner, Kohan Retail Investment Group, is a known quantity in the r/deadmalls subreddit and appears to have an allergy to paying its taxes. Why, I can’t say for certain, but it certainly seems like an aggressive, hostile venture capital play to profit somehow. Appreciation of the land value, maybe? All the while, the mall sits empty in the middle of a town suffering a housing shortage.
And so rather than let the story get too depressing, we contacted ypoomhcs to ask them why they did it. After some discussion, we thought we’d turn the blog over to them. They’ve graciously shared more photos from their excursion with us, and we agreed to grant them anonymity, because entering the property is misdemeanor trespassing. We don’t recommend that anybody else do this. —Matt Carney
The Promenade Mall was a staple of my and my brother’s childhood and teenage years. I bought Dragon Ball GT DVDs here. Hollywood Theaters never cared if we met the age limit for rated R movies; I saw the Tenacious D movie as an 11 year old here. We always left feeling fulfilled.
Even though the mall had become a shell of itself by the mid 2010s, we would still make time to stop in anytime we were around. I came to the mall on its final day of being open, and took a short video of our walkthrough. The stores had only been given a 3 day notice that the mall was shutting down; every store was a frantic mess, with everything on sale. That was September 17, 2023.
Recently, my nostalgia got the better of me. I was driving by the property every day, and my sister, who loves to go exploring with me, was in town. We decided to see if there was a non-destructive way into the building, and we were shocked by how easy it was to enter. We expected more of a challenge.
All these pictures were taken with an iPhone using night mode, which is pretty impressive, because most of the mall was pitch black.