I’m The Guy Who Broke Into The Promenade Mall

I did it so you don’t have to (plus you shouldn’t anyways)

10:49 AM CDT on May 21, 2025

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 Inside, signage remained up and glass doors remained open, beckoning ghost customers to shop for outdated goods.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.

We entered the mall through a storage room, and were greeted by the old OU Health children’s play area props.

After navigating several service hallways that lead to deadends, we climbed a staircase and found ourselves in the lower southwest wing of the mall. We saw a trampoline (maybe used to drop stuff from the balcony above for easier transport, or maybe just for jumping, who knows) and some old arcade-style children’s rides.

All these pictures were taken with an iPhone using night mode, which is pretty impressive, because most of the mall was pitch black.

Every surface in the mall was covered in fire extinguisher residue. Some degenerates got in shortly after the mall closed and emptied a bunch of fire extinguishers; we found at least 20 empty on the ground. The mall looks a lot more dusty in the pictures than it actually was, due to the residue.

We made our way to the main lobby of the mall, where my siblings and I used to take pictures with Santa and the Easter bunny. More residue covered the floor, and almost every planter that was left behind was turned over, dirt spilling onto the floor.

We didn’t go into this thinking we would find nearly as much as we did. We didn’t bring flashlights or real cameras. I initially took these photos to send to my brother, just to show him the state of our former stomping grounds. It was maybe a week later when I decided to throw them up on Reddit right before I went to sleep; I woke up to around 300 comments and 20+ DMs asking me how to get in.

A staple of my childhood and teen years, the deceivingly small Hot Topic store lay empty. Someone had covered a portion of the left side of the store with thumbtacks all sticking straight up: a weird, pointless booby trap. I couldn’t believe how small the store felt with nothing in it.

Fearing a strange animal-like noise we were hearing, we pivoted to the second floor. Romancing the Stone was my favorite as a kid; inexplicably, they sold hermit crabs. (My mom would never let me take one home.) The store was abandoned even before the mall closed the second floor.

We went back to the first floor after not hearing the strange noise for a while. It was obvious that this floor had seen more traffic post-abandonment; there was broken glass and water damage everywhere, and of course more fire extinguisher residue. The hallway was lightly lit by the Dillard’s Clearance Center behind me in the picture.

There were 4 or 5 stores left as-is, this Asian massage parlor being one. They had several rooms like this, and a room that basically looked like someone's bedroom.

The most interesting store was this gizmo shop that left literally their entire store behind, from VR simulation chairs to hundreds of phone cases and accessories. I remember this being one of the last stores standing when the mall was open.

The other side of the store, that holds all the phone accessories.

Wide shot of the accessory store, with one wall filled with merchandise still not being shown.

Stacks of high-dollar phone cases, most of them being Android or 2018-era iPhone.

Hollywood Theaters had, in my opinion, the coolest design of any modern theater in Tulsa by far. While exploring, I couldn’t help but put myself in the shoes of the owners as they were installing three separate concession stands, one on the second floor. I hope to have that kind of ambition (delusion?) with everything I take on in life.

One of 12 empty and dusty theater auditoriums. No different from the rest of the mall, covered in fire extinguisher powder.

Every theater left behind its projector. Resale market? Doubtful.

The Pickup has asked me to tell you who I am; I’m choosing to remain anonymous. I’m just a guy with a strong imagination and questionable decision making.

As a kid, I would often go to work with my dad in his janitorial business, cleaning different Tulsa buildings. I was in a lot of cool places after hours, with no one around. Sometimes I felt like I was alone on a foreign planet. That upbringing planted the seed for my interest in exploring abandoned structures. Once I graduated high school, I started searching for places to explore. I would find interesting spots on my own, then take my friends or my sisters to go check them out with me. It was always a fun way to kill time on a random weekday night.

My sister visited the Promenade with me, and was actually the one who found the way in. She and I have been on dozens of adventures together and she now takes her friends out to explore in the large city where she currently lives.

Standing water filled the emergency exit corridor of one of the theaters. It was so still and clear that you can barely even tell there’s water in the picture.

The second part of the storage room we entered had random staged items, like this mannequin trapped under a ladder, and many seasonal decorations.

After finding a lit staircase, we had to traverse several of these backroom-style service hallways before we found a door that led into the actual mall.

Anyone get their ears pierced here as a teenager?

Much like the mannequin/ladder scene, here is another set left behind by a previous explorer. I’m sparing you the sight of what was inside most of the toilets in the mall.

Piles of toys/action figures in the photography studio.

The breaker box in the back room of Hot Topic.

Here’s a disclaimer: This is obviously trespassing. What we did is a misdemeanor and could have landed us in jail or fined. Security has ramped up since our trip, and they will call the cops on you. If a journey like this piques your interest and you ever feel like giving urbex a shot, please remember to never steal, vandalize, or generally be a nuisance to the property. Look at the idiots who pulled every fire extinguisher in the mall; don’t be like them.

I think, although the pictures are in no way properly framed, lit, or even in focus half the time, they unintentionally captured a certain charm and, to anyone who frequented the mall in their lifetime, they almost tell a complete story, providing closure to the question “whatever happened to the Promenade Mall?”.

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